[Mark83]

Some more Nurburgring photographs to whet your appetite for the weekend...


Well, certainly a long weekend but thoroughly enjoyable and couldn't have had better weather. About 20 of us went to watch the event that lasted from Thursday to Sunday that was attended by about 200,000 other people, mainly drunk Germans staggering around with a beer in one hand and currywurst mit pommes in the other. There was a decent driver line up and some familiar names driving; Hans Joachim Stuck, Carlos Sainz, Andy Priaulx, Sabine Schmitz, Dickie Meaden from DR and John Barker from Evo magazine etc.

A brief overview of the weekend...

Thursday
Adenau street parade/party took up most of the afternoon followed by beer and food in the Comfy Corner.

Friday
Wandered around the GP paddock and got up close to the race cars, drivers and pit girls. Watched most of the classes qualify with a beer whilst walking (miles) around the Nordschleife, PF to Mini Karussel.

Saturday
Helicopter flight over the track. Took up residence at Hatzenbach equidistant from the bar, food van and toilet All race cars did a parade lap during which people were allowed on the track, I can't see this happening in the UK Race started at 4pm and the sound of horsepower was echoing around the Eifel region.

Sunday
Continued watching the race on the Nordschleife (walked from Brunchen-Steilstrecke/Karussell and back to Brunnchen) before heading to the Grand Prix circuit's pit straight grandstand to watch the end of the race.

Manthey Racing's two 911 997 GT3RSR's finished 1-2 and firmly stuck two fingers up to Audi. We found out last week that Audi, as they were sponsoring the event and supplying all the vehicles etc. didn't have to abide by the same regulations as everyone else.

Monday

Went for a walk on track but got shouted at by a marshal, realised about 30 minutes later why, it was open to the press. Popped into the Nordscheife car park after noticing some nice cars. Turns out Horst Von Sauma from Sport Auto were setting their lap time for the Focus RS. Also Evo magazine were doing a group test on the new 997 GT3, V10 R8, Aston Martin V12 Vantage and Corvette ZR1 so had a chat with Catchpole, Hayman, Morgan etc.

Some photographs:

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