All roads lead to Rome as they say and it wasn’t long before we once again found road signs pointing to the Nurburgring, so we figured while we were already here and since there was no signs of any rain or drizzle in this part of the mountains, then we should head to the Nordschlieffe and prepare ourselves for our lap.
It was really our intention to buy tickets for the following day due to the unpredictability of that days weather, but when we arrived at the circuit it seemed that everyone else had the same idea, the place was not busy at all and the track was dry, so, bugger it, we thought, we will do it today.
Tickets purchased, we headed for the café (ahem..) to wait for the Porsche owners club to finish on the track. Talk was of how we were going to approach our lap, cautious and touristy or just go for it. The sensible approach was to take it easy as we didn’t want any daft accidents ruining what was so far a superb trip. Reputation is one of the big factors that makes the ‘ring what it is and consequently a few nerves were starting to show but excitement was felt in equal measure.
Finally our time had arrived, the Porsches buggered off and the track was cleared of debris (erk..) and a steady queue started to form around the entrance gate. We hung back for a few minutes to let the fast riders and drivers on first. As we started to gear up we noticed an old couple in the queue in a Smart car, “We’ve got to at least beat that” said KG.
With the queue now cleared we trundled up to the start gate, waited for the marshall to signal and set off up the coned acceleration lane. “Take it steady” I was saying to myself but red mist was already starting to creep in, I gunned the bike and shot off toward the first corner, “This is awesome” I was shouting in my helmet, I overtook a GSXR750 but that didn’t last long, he soon took me back, oh well. Car upon car I overtook, the track was just corner after corner and hill after hill, it was fantastic, I got into a bit of a race with a Citroen ZX race car, I was leaving him for dead on the straights but he was closing on the corners, on one corner a Porsche came flying past and I shit myself but there was no way I was going to try and keep up. Around the next bend I caught up with the Smart car tootling along. 17 miles didn’t take long and I rounded the last bend onto the main finish straight, I gunned the bike, looked down at my speedo, 145mph, but when I looked back up I saw the cones for the deceleration lane fast approaching, I pulled off the track and parked up, took off my helmet and took a deep breath, then I noticed Zippy pulling in, a huge grin on his face, we compared stories, he too had hit 145mph and passed the Smart car. KG now pulled into the car park and said he had passed the Smart car. We waited another few minutes and then we were shocked to see the Smart car pulling off track. “Bloody hell where are Grifter and H-Boss” I said, and at that they both pulled into the car park “behind” the Smart car (tut tut the shame of it).
The track is fantastic but I think it would be truly scary on a busy day. We got back to our digs, cleaned up, and headed into town for a well earned steak at the fantastic Blau Ecke (blue corner), we chatted with a few other Brit bikers and swapped ‘ring tales.
A great end to a superb day.
Sorry about the lack of piccies for this section but cameras and such are banned on the circuit
Bungle
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