Nurburgring - Nordschleife - June 2000 (Part 4)

The web server holding my earliest postings into an uncaring universe quietly expired a while ago. Rather than replacing it, I'm posting the content so it will live on forever in the cloud, polluting my little corner of it. Enjoy.

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"The next turn goes right and up". "No, it goes left and up". With 170 turns, there was occasionally a point of disagreement.

The track always wins ...

Cris in the cockpit

So time for my graded lap. I'm ready, I did another lap in my head. Chris comes along as co-pilot. Of course I don't have much brakes, so I'll have to adapt. And I did. I just went a little slower and when I really, really needed the brakes, I would just start pumping in advance so they would be there when I really, really needed them. I did well, scored 45, smack in the middle of our group.




After my lap, there really were not any brakes left. And this is where "Team PCA" scored the biggest in style points. We did a complete brake fluid flush in the paddock with just a soda bottle, straws from the cafeteria and a pocket leatherman-tool. When we were done, the brakes were'nt great, but they weren't too bad. Chris put them to good use in his graded lap. Deciding on speed over style, he burned through a lap, putting the car sideways much of the time. At the end of the day, he must have impressed the judges anyway, since he ended up with a 32, 2nd best among all the non-instructor Americans, and fourth highest non-instructor score in the entire school. Scott Smith, another American Ring novice scored an amazing 26 points.

When the going gets tough, the tough start flushing

After the graded laps the school was declared over, except for the final banquet. The Ring was then opened to the general public. We, of course, had to join in the fun. We bought our 6 lap ticket and joined the queue through the access point and headed out into the melee. And a bizarre circus it was. In theory, slower cars are supposed to move right and turn on their right turn signal to let you know it okay to pass. In reality, sometimes.

On our first lap we got caught behind some slower traffic that wouldn't move over (Sound familiar?). After a few frustrated turns, Chris tells me we have some locals coming up fast driving BMW E36 M3's. "Lets let them by and see what happens". We pulled off line and let them thru. Did they wait? Heck no, they just dived on the inside and went around the other cars. "Woohoo! That's the ticket. Lets go!" We tucked in and had a blast, passing left and right and occasionally being passed by the real fast guys, the motorcyclists.

Sweet Carrera RS in paddock - the BMW Ring Taxi in rear

Several fun laps ensued until we passed a car balled up in the Fuchsrohre or "Foxhole" section - a very fast, flat-out, tricky downhill. The track was red-flagged and in we came. That leaves me one lap on my ticket. And a very good excuse to go back. After all, that un-used lap is worth $10. I wouldn't want to waste the money.

That would be foolish, don't you agree?

Cris and Chris - soaking up the European motorsport atmosphere at the 24 hours of Le Mans after the rigors of the Ring