3 Days at the Nurburgring.
Might sound a short time, but it was absolutely relaxed. The weather was great and the leaves were already changing their color.
The Nurburgring is very important for the region Rhineland-Palatine.
Of course the Track is managed like a bussines. Between the end of March and end of October the track is booked almost daily. The Thursday I was there, the track was hired by a Motorsport Club.
It also give photographers the possibility to make a business of photographing all cars.
At the Ring you can also do a taxi drive. Companies offer a full speed drive with an experienced driver in a fast car around the Track.
And almost every evening, the track is open for the famous Touristen Fahrten.
But then again, for the spectators there is still the possibility to watch the cars for free, during practice and big part of the track are also free of entrance for VLN races.
Saturday is raceday for the 4 hours of VLN8. A few photos taken in the pits and on the grid.
the video shows BMW driver Augusto Farfus preparing for the 4 hours. Without a Co-Driver, he was testing the BMW M6 GT3 for next years race: the 24h of the Nurburgring.
It took some bandaid and gaffer tape, but this Aston Martin made it to the Finish.
I think this was it for 2018. I dont know what will happen in 2019. We will see.
Just a small work break. The best way to use that is by visiting a race for the German VLN championship, held at the Nurburgring.
Thursday I arrived at the Motorsport Hotel. It is situated in the small vilage of Nurburg. And the Nurburgring runs aprox. 23km around it. Next to the Motorsport Hotel, is the BMW M test Centre.
At the other end of the street you can see one of the grandstands at the Ring.
At Thursday the Ring is during the day hired by automotive companies. At the end of the day, it is time for the Touristenfahrten. After the dials had shown a 35+ degrees celsius, there was no doubt, that it would start raining, sooner or later.
But the rain didnt last for long. So the paddock for the Touristenfahrten, was soon taken over by the enthousiasts that showed up with cars very well prepared for this purpose.
And than there was a small camera group for the German TV magazine Grip. I dont know what the show was about, but is sure put some focus on the Michelin Tires on the gorgeous Mercedes-AMG GT-S.
Friday the track was open for a general practice. The weather was really great. And the atmosphere was like always very relaxed in the paddock.
The Isert Motorsport team was testing their KTM X-Bow GT4 cars. They will start competing from next race on. This is a Youtube Video showing one of their pitstops.
Saturday: qualifying day and race. Look how glorious the sun woke us up. Exept for this butterfly that was still a bit sleepy, although spending the night on my ceiling.
The teammembers of the Ferrari 488 GT3 Wochenspiegel are rightfully assured they did everyting to prepare a winning car.
But other teams where just so self assured:
And then there is the formation of the start grid. With a total of almost 200 cars, its quit an organization. The grid is divided in 3 parts. This is a series of photos of the middle part. Almost at the end of the straight.
On Facebook I was live. Here is the result uploaded to Youtube as well. I am sorry for the bad noise and camera quality.
The race was not that spectacular, But in the end, the finish is there. Drivers are happy after 4 hours of frantic racing, to park their car in Park Ferme.
