Interesting post on Pistonheads by John Felstead, who was there this weekend....
''TF days are now a complete waste of time and money.
I used to go to the 'ring regularly, often every two weeks, back in the early 00's after having spent years doing UK trackdays before heading out there. Back in the day you could do pretty much as many laps as you felt like, the closures were rare. Of course you would come accross the ocasional shunt, but on the whole the track wasnt closed as these were easily managed locally. Traffic levels were sensible, quick drivers knew they were quick and who they could run with at pace safely, the slow guys knew they were slow or inexperienced and drove acordingly, racking up the laps to learn before gaining pace, i felt you would have to be fairly unlucky to get involved in someone elses accident.
I've been twice this year, including this last weekend, and it's just a waste of time now, far too many idiots driving beyond their ability and because they know they may only get a run or two, are pushing things too hard without checking conditions first. I've heard far too many conversations in the car park relating to playstation games and clarksons video/time, the mentality at the place is totally different to when i first went there.
I try and make sure i'm pretty much first on track in the morning, and i'll do a lap at about 70% pace, it's just cruising for a lap to see what state the road is in, where the damp patches are, any repairs or remains of a cleanup operation etc. Once that is done i can then go at a faster pace, knowing where to be extra cautious and where i suspect i'll find things buried in the armco.
Sure enough the second lap there is an M3 burried in the barrier right where the big crash happened later in the day that this thread started with, that section of track was still wet from the night dew, yet the run up to it was bone dry so you could gain a fair bit of speed upto the point where it was sudenly wet, after a blind entry. I then get to eiscurve which is just after the big spectator area, bike is on it's side having gone off on the entry, lights still on but thankfully a marshal on the scene dealing with that one.
I come off track after that lap and do my usual cruise round the local roads to let everything cool down nicely. Get a call from a friend, track now closed, it was far too predictable. The whole weekend went like this, small time open, huge time closed sorting out the mess. I managed 5 laps in 3 days, 4 of those laps were doing an early sighting run then a quicker run straight after before the masses have woken up and saturated the place.
I shan't be bothering with TF days again, it's chaos, there is absolutely no fun driving quickly there when you are expecting to come accross carnage on every lap, knowing people are way over their heads and no one is putting any control on it.
Nurburgring GMBH need to do something about this, i think it's coming to a head now and they will have to act. Even ignoring the ring taxi crash event, it's needed some control bringing in for a while now.
With regards to insurance, i've always had proper cover there, it costs me extra and bumps up my excess for the trip duration, but i have always had piece of mind in that respect.''
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