VLN Race Report
Discussion
I haven't seen any on here before... so I'm going to start doing some. I'm not going to apologise for the over excitement in the report, it was my first race and I was buzzing like a 60's acid kid for at least a week after!
At the backend of last year me and three of my driving buddies had a really good idea. Lets go racing at the 'ring! I mean... How hard can it be?
So winter came and went and during this time we were having an E36 M3 3.0 race car built.
After what seems like an eternity April 2008 arrived and VLN3 presented the first opportunity for the “Lards of the Ring” to turn some wheels in anger at the Nurburgring….
Friday 25th April:
The rules only allow 3 drivers per 4 hour race so we had a schedule set up for all of the races but we wanted some help in the first race to get us into the groove and sort the car out etc… so we enlisted the help of regular VLN racer and all round driving deity ‘Arkle’, and together with myself and Ravon we made up the lucky three for this race.
The day starts ridiculously early with a trackday on the GP circuit, this is all very strange because it doesn’t have anything to do with the race as such and we found ourselves running around with road cars as well as a lot of race cars.
Since only Arkle had ever driven the short GP circuit we thought we’d better take the opportunity to learn the way around!! (There’s nothing like being well prepared!)
The circuit looks from the outside to be very ‘boring’ more so when you compare it to its older brother next door, but it doesn’t take long to get you hooked… the very technical twists and turns had me swearing in my helmet as I cocked it up and pushed wide at turn 3 and screaming with delight when I got it right and had the car hooked up to get the drive out of the exit down to turn 4.
My lap times weren’t spectacular, but they were at least heading in the right direction, I ended up down in the 1:46’s having started the morning on the wrong side of 2 minutes!
After lunch it off to the Nordschleife for some laps. This also provided us the invaluable opportunity to get some extra laps with the car before the official practice session. We also had to check that the changes we’d made to gain time on the GP circuit wouldn’t slow us down on the NS. Thankfully we looked ok.
Having Arkle with us for the weekend proved its worth instantly, although we weren’t allowed to do any timing in the car or from the side lines, I think the fact that the car was overtaking Gallardo Superleggera’s through Brunnchen was a sign that the car had what it takes to go quickly. And it’s amazing how much quicker you can go with someone sat in the passenger seat calling you names when you drive like a wimp
Just as we thought everything was going hunky dory… Disaster struck… a knocking noise was heard from the rear of the car as we drove under the gantry on to the Dottinger Hohe and we coasted back in to the car park…. With the knocking getting louder…and the sinking feeling in my heart getting lower! I couldn’t help think that the race was going to be over before it began.
The car was taken back to the pits and the team got to work dismantling the rear end to see if they could find the offending item… The drive shaft was swapped out but time had ticked on and it had eaten heavily into the official free practice session.
No matter we were here to drive and drive is what we did… We managed 2 laps before the knocking noise returned, but this time he’d brought his friend, the real loud banging sound. I honestly thought I was going to exit the carrousel minus the rear end of the car!!
So again the car was nursed back to the pits… let me tell you it’s a LOOOONG way back from there when you’re going slowly.
As the session ended the team took the car back to the workshop and we last saw it parked up with its arse in the air and the rear end all over the floor underneath it. The Diff was the suspect and the team got to work replacing it… considering it was now after 5pm on Friday the drivers left expecting the worse.
Morning came and the news that the car was in the Pit box was a huge relief, a replacement diff was borrowed from another team and the car was road tested after it was replaced at 3am! But… the knocking noise was still there… some very early morning phone calls were made and it turns out that the new rear Pagid pads were the cause of all the trouble!!
So….
Saturday 25th:
7:30am for the drivers briefing… Seeing all of the drivers gathered in one room, suddenly the sheer size of the event hit me like one of the many articulated transporters parked in the paddock. There were hundreds of drivers… Lots of factory drivers and lots of experienced VLN drivers and ‘us’ a team that came to the VLN because it sounds like a ‘bit of a laugh’. I was sat in a room surrounded by faces that I recognise from magazines and factory promotional videos! At that moment the voice in my head started shouting… “This isn’t fun any more… this is scary!” But it was too late to go home now, I’d stepped through the looking glass and I was truly was in wonderland…
From the briefing it’s a quick dash back to the cars, after queuing to get your wristband, the qualifying session starts at 8:30 and its only an hour and half long. 90 minutes to get 230+ cars qualified! I know the Germans have a reputation for efficiency but this has got to be pushing it even for them!
Chaos reigned for that full 90 minutes, or that’s how it appeared, cars came and went as drivers changed to ensure that they all did their required lap. We like most teams had picked our qualifying man and sent him out first. The plan was to go out set a time and get the others out for their single laps before sending out our fast man again to set a faster time if possible. We started with a 10:13…. It was looking too close for comfort so we had to send him out again, traffic was our enemy now, getting the car round quickly is easy enough when you’re on your own but everyone else is in the battle to qualify and track space was at a premium… Possession clearly isn’t 9/10ths of the law where qualifying is concerned and the road side was already littered with the “casualties of war”, what was the race going be like if this is how tough qualifying is!?
The session ended and we waited for all of the times to come through. We’d posted a 9:57.863. Good enough for 117th on the grid. Only 6 hundredths separated us from the car in front and the car behind… We had a fight on our hands!
There was another fight that we needed to win first, there was only 90 minutes to the start of the grid formation and the team had discovered a broken drop link and they also needed to change the brakes… Time ticked on and nerves started to fray… cars were starting to leave the pits and ours was still in the air minus its wheels… with time running out Ravon was strapped in as the wheels went on. With barely minutes to spare he was sent out to take our grid position
11:30 - Lets get ready to rumble!
Ravon looked comfortable now he was in the car and on the grid ready to take his first race start… His first VLN and his first motor race ever! This was to be the baptism of fire to end all others… no pressure then!?
We’d heard before the race that things start to get ‘racy’ way before the cars get anywhere near the GP circuit so the pressure was on half way down the Dottinger Hohe. A missed gear saw the grid start to pull away but a quick shuffle and downshift saw Ravon back on the move with the rest of the pack.
Meanwhile the lead cars were already well on their way to completing the GP lap and joining the NS. It was a tense few minutes as some of the team watched from the back of the circuit waiting for 531 to make it round to the chicane. Already there were casualties in the lead packs, a GT3 buried itself in the gravel on the exit of the chicane after locking its rears and spinning, and another GT3 was driven back into the pits with its bonnet up flat against the windscreen and the driving looking out of the side windows!!
We waited with our stomachs in our mouths as our grid came round the circuit and there it was car 531 still behind the car it started behind and more importantly still in front of the car that was behind it on the grid… we held our breath as the cars weaved three wide through the chicane, we made it through unscathed and we watched as the cars heading on to the NS and down towards Hatzenbach.
All we could do now was wait… the minutes for the first lap seemed to last hours… watching the timing screens, waiting, praying to see 531 pop up on the screen all eyes flicking between the timing screen and the pit wall… Can they see him? Has he conked out? Or worse crashed?
Huge sighs of relief from the whole team as Ravon crossed the line, we’d completed a lap without incident and it already looks like the field had begun to spread out.
As Ravon passed the pit lane showing him the “IN” board it was time for the 2nd driver to get ready…ME! The car was back and the pit team exploded into action. Dicing for space in front of the Pit box with the other teams in our area was the first obstacle, the mass of people working on half a dozen cars all in one small area. Ravon was out and I was in having my belts done up, the car was fuelled and I was given the two thumbs up to get out into the pit lane… “Just don’t stall it…just don’t stall it” was all that was going through my head…. Thankfully I held my nerve and I was off down the pit lane at 60kmh. I’d been told to hold the speed and people would move out of the way but I wasn’t so sure. It was like driving through the middle of a pedestrian zone with people jumping off the pit wall and running back and fro to the garages. I was sweating buckets and I hadn’t even gotten on to the track yet…
The Pit Lane felt like was a mile long but once at the end of the pit lane I was off… changing up through the box and heading down towards the hairpin, a mirror check and glance to the left had all of my fears realised, what seemed like half the grid had arrived at the corner at the same time as me… Oh well… I had the inside line and I had picked my line through the corner, doing my best to avoid everyone else I managed to get round without contact and I was off…. Climbing uphill slightly into the long left hander, hard on the power for the short straight before braking hard and tucking in for turn three, I managed to keep it tidy and was on the power through turn four and down towards the link road that forms the short GP track, round the right hander and the next left came almost immediately, then the first of the quick rights turning in early and setting myself up for the flat out right kink… I shocked myself but I managed to overtake a car in the braking for the chicane, it didn’t matter that it was a small hatchback I’d made my first VLN overtake and it felt GOOD. The left hand turn which joins the GP to the NS is a really tricky corner, off camber and really tight, the Armco and wall at T13 was closer than I’d like!
The rest of the lap went by in a blur, trying to remember everything that I had read and been told, where was safe for overtaking, where overtaking was a definite NO-NO. How and where to let faster cars by without compromising my own safety. I was so happy when I’d passed under the gantry… at last a chance to have a rest. Or so I thought. I’d never appreciated how uneven the Dottinger Hohe was! Sat at 6500rpm in 5th Jiggling all the way down towards the bridge. Deep breath, keep your foot planted look for the kerb and turn in. WOOAW… that was fantastic… I’d done something for the first time ever, a REAL flying lap.
Up through Tiergarten and through the wiggles on to the GP circuit looking out for my pit board… There it was I felt a sigh of relief, I don’t why, I just did. A quick flash of the lights to acknowledge the board and away again down the hill braking hard for the hairpin tucking in and round I go for another lap. It all went smoothly until I arrived on the bumper of a Civic Type R in the Hatzenbach. On any other day the idea of travelling as fast as we dare through the left-right-left-right left just inches away from his bumper, would have been madness, but this was the VLN… it doesn’t get madder than this!
Still hard on his tail as we head down towards Quiddlebacher Hohe and he indicates left, ok here we go I’m overtaking him on the right going over the bridge. Then it hit me… I’m on the wrong side of the road, I’d forgotten what I was told “Don’t ever approach Flugplatz on the right hand side of the road” WTF was I doing over here? With gritted teeth I moved the car left waiting for the inevitable crunch and the spin that would follow as I clipped the front of the Civic… but it didn’t come, thankfully I’d got far enough passed him and I was off up the hill. I felt like Han Solo flying the Millennium Falcon out of the exploding Death Star!!
The rest of stint went off without incident, the speed differential is astounding, I know that an E36 M3 isn’t the fastest car in the world but when you’re going flat out in 5th you don’t expect to get passed like you’re standing still, but you’re treated to an orchestral performance from the exhausts of the top cars as they pass you so fast their blurred race colours resemble the northern lights.
I spotted the IN board and I was on to my final lap… The plan was set and the rules were simple… nice and easy keep up the pace, don’t hit anyone and keep the machine between the green and it went well until I exited the Kliene Carrousel, there was a GT3 battle looming in my mirrors as I climbed the hill towards Galgenkof . No problem I thought, indicate right and take it nice and easy on the inside and they can go the long way round. So I indicate and then I move… then I hear it…. SCRRUUNNCCH!!
I look right and see the driver of one of the GT3’s looking back at me… UH-OH!!!
I jinked left and the pair of them vanished into the distance leaving me for dust.
The Dottinger Hohe provides no comfort when you’re sat there cursing yourself for breaking the car. I was literally travelling The Green Mile to an inevitable kicking from the other drivers.
Once into the pit lane you have to watch the speed limit, 60 feels painfully slow after the charge down the Dottinger Hohe, trying to avoid all of the pit crews jumping around in the pit lane and spotting our box I pulled the car and got out of the car as quick as I could. A quick run around the car and I was relieved to see that I’d come away without any marks or dents, which means that the GT3 either did some under floor scraping or it was the Armco from the other side of his car I’d heard! Eek!
A quick debrief with the team and Arkle to let them know all was ok with the car and he was off for the 3rd stint….
The buzz from the drive stayed with me for the next hour… I couldn’t sit down, I didn’t want to sit down. All I needed was a glow stick and whistle and I’ve have happily raved the afternoon away. I was buzzin!!
Trying to keep track of how we were doing was proving quite tricky as the positions only get updated every 10 minutes and we appeared to be running really badly until we crossed the line and we popped back up the running.
Arkle completed his first lap and we were looking good… a couple of minutes later and he was in the Pit lane!! My first reaction was that we were out of the race… but it was only a loose bonnet pin and that was fixed and we were back out again but we’d lost valuable time!
After 3 hours we managed to stay in the same position that we qualified in which as far as we were concerned that was fantastic… but we still had an hour to go!
The car came in for the last scheduled pit stop, the drivers were changed and Ravon was back in the seat. The car was fuelled and off he went… and less than three minutes later he was back! He’s managed to hit the master switch and kill the car, he’d had to loosen his belts to turn it back on and now needed help to get the belts sorted properly! Nightmare!
So after a second unscheduled stop we were back out on the track and racing… the list of cars that were still lapping was dropping with every lap… as the count down clock on the GP straight ticked down under 10 minutes the nerves returned to the pit box, not just our team but all of the others that were still running… the pit box was a mass of pacing mechanics… all eyes on the clock and the time keeper on the pit wall. Did we finish? Where did we finish? The lead cars crossed the line and what seemed like an eternity later there we were 531, still in one piece but filthy as hell!
All of the cars were lined up in Parc ferme and we’d come 118th. So we’d lost one place in the race, but we’d finished in one piece and we were ecstatic!
Looking at the results we finished 10th in class, and the 118th overall also put us ahead of two of the Aston Martins (it’s like Britcar all over again!) one of which was driven by some magazine journo or other!
There is still some work to be done to get some more time out of the car but for its first outing its been fantastic!
Many thnaks to Jochen at Frozenspeed for managing to spot us in the mass of white E36's out there!
At the backend of last year me and three of my driving buddies had a really good idea. Lets go racing at the 'ring! I mean... How hard can it be?
So winter came and went and during this time we were having an E36 M3 3.0 race car built.
After what seems like an eternity April 2008 arrived and VLN3 presented the first opportunity for the “Lards of the Ring” to turn some wheels in anger at the Nurburgring….
Friday 25th April:
The rules only allow 3 drivers per 4 hour race so we had a schedule set up for all of the races but we wanted some help in the first race to get us into the groove and sort the car out etc… so we enlisted the help of regular VLN racer and all round driving deity ‘Arkle’, and together with myself and Ravon we made up the lucky three for this race.
The day starts ridiculously early with a trackday on the GP circuit, this is all very strange because it doesn’t have anything to do with the race as such and we found ourselves running around with road cars as well as a lot of race cars.
Since only Arkle had ever driven the short GP circuit we thought we’d better take the opportunity to learn the way around!! (There’s nothing like being well prepared!)
The circuit looks from the outside to be very ‘boring’ more so when you compare it to its older brother next door, but it doesn’t take long to get you hooked… the very technical twists and turns had me swearing in my helmet as I cocked it up and pushed wide at turn 3 and screaming with delight when I got it right and had the car hooked up to get the drive out of the exit down to turn 4.
My lap times weren’t spectacular, but they were at least heading in the right direction, I ended up down in the 1:46’s having started the morning on the wrong side of 2 minutes!
After lunch it off to the Nordschleife for some laps. This also provided us the invaluable opportunity to get some extra laps with the car before the official practice session. We also had to check that the changes we’d made to gain time on the GP circuit wouldn’t slow us down on the NS. Thankfully we looked ok.
Having Arkle with us for the weekend proved its worth instantly, although we weren’t allowed to do any timing in the car or from the side lines, I think the fact that the car was overtaking Gallardo Superleggera’s through Brunnchen was a sign that the car had what it takes to go quickly. And it’s amazing how much quicker you can go with someone sat in the passenger seat calling you names when you drive like a wimp
Just as we thought everything was going hunky dory… Disaster struck… a knocking noise was heard from the rear of the car as we drove under the gantry on to the Dottinger Hohe and we coasted back in to the car park…. With the knocking getting louder…and the sinking feeling in my heart getting lower! I couldn’t help think that the race was going to be over before it began.
The car was taken back to the pits and the team got to work dismantling the rear end to see if they could find the offending item… The drive shaft was swapped out but time had ticked on and it had eaten heavily into the official free practice session.
No matter we were here to drive and drive is what we did… We managed 2 laps before the knocking noise returned, but this time he’d brought his friend, the real loud banging sound. I honestly thought I was going to exit the carrousel minus the rear end of the car!!
So again the car was nursed back to the pits… let me tell you it’s a LOOOONG way back from there when you’re going slowly.
As the session ended the team took the car back to the workshop and we last saw it parked up with its arse in the air and the rear end all over the floor underneath it. The Diff was the suspect and the team got to work replacing it… considering it was now after 5pm on Friday the drivers left expecting the worse.
Morning came and the news that the car was in the Pit box was a huge relief, a replacement diff was borrowed from another team and the car was road tested after it was replaced at 3am! But… the knocking noise was still there… some very early morning phone calls were made and it turns out that the new rear Pagid pads were the cause of all the trouble!!
So….
Saturday 25th:
7:30am for the drivers briefing… Seeing all of the drivers gathered in one room, suddenly the sheer size of the event hit me like one of the many articulated transporters parked in the paddock. There were hundreds of drivers… Lots of factory drivers and lots of experienced VLN drivers and ‘us’ a team that came to the VLN because it sounds like a ‘bit of a laugh’. I was sat in a room surrounded by faces that I recognise from magazines and factory promotional videos! At that moment the voice in my head started shouting… “This isn’t fun any more… this is scary!” But it was too late to go home now, I’d stepped through the looking glass and I was truly was in wonderland…
From the briefing it’s a quick dash back to the cars, after queuing to get your wristband, the qualifying session starts at 8:30 and its only an hour and half long. 90 minutes to get 230+ cars qualified! I know the Germans have a reputation for efficiency but this has got to be pushing it even for them!
Chaos reigned for that full 90 minutes, or that’s how it appeared, cars came and went as drivers changed to ensure that they all did their required lap. We like most teams had picked our qualifying man and sent him out first. The plan was to go out set a time and get the others out for their single laps before sending out our fast man again to set a faster time if possible. We started with a 10:13…. It was looking too close for comfort so we had to send him out again, traffic was our enemy now, getting the car round quickly is easy enough when you’re on your own but everyone else is in the battle to qualify and track space was at a premium… Possession clearly isn’t 9/10ths of the law where qualifying is concerned and the road side was already littered with the “casualties of war”, what was the race going be like if this is how tough qualifying is!?
The session ended and we waited for all of the times to come through. We’d posted a 9:57.863. Good enough for 117th on the grid. Only 6 hundredths separated us from the car in front and the car behind… We had a fight on our hands!
There was another fight that we needed to win first, there was only 90 minutes to the start of the grid formation and the team had discovered a broken drop link and they also needed to change the brakes… Time ticked on and nerves started to fray… cars were starting to leave the pits and ours was still in the air minus its wheels… with time running out Ravon was strapped in as the wheels went on. With barely minutes to spare he was sent out to take our grid position
11:30 - Lets get ready to rumble!
Ravon looked comfortable now he was in the car and on the grid ready to take his first race start… His first VLN and his first motor race ever! This was to be the baptism of fire to end all others… no pressure then!?
We’d heard before the race that things start to get ‘racy’ way before the cars get anywhere near the GP circuit so the pressure was on half way down the Dottinger Hohe. A missed gear saw the grid start to pull away but a quick shuffle and downshift saw Ravon back on the move with the rest of the pack.
Meanwhile the lead cars were already well on their way to completing the GP lap and joining the NS. It was a tense few minutes as some of the team watched from the back of the circuit waiting for 531 to make it round to the chicane. Already there were casualties in the lead packs, a GT3 buried itself in the gravel on the exit of the chicane after locking its rears and spinning, and another GT3 was driven back into the pits with its bonnet up flat against the windscreen and the driving looking out of the side windows!!
We waited with our stomachs in our mouths as our grid came round the circuit and there it was car 531 still behind the car it started behind and more importantly still in front of the car that was behind it on the grid… we held our breath as the cars weaved three wide through the chicane, we made it through unscathed and we watched as the cars heading on to the NS and down towards Hatzenbach.
All we could do now was wait… the minutes for the first lap seemed to last hours… watching the timing screens, waiting, praying to see 531 pop up on the screen all eyes flicking between the timing screen and the pit wall… Can they see him? Has he conked out? Or worse crashed?
Huge sighs of relief from the whole team as Ravon crossed the line, we’d completed a lap without incident and it already looks like the field had begun to spread out.
As Ravon passed the pit lane showing him the “IN” board it was time for the 2nd driver to get ready…ME! The car was back and the pit team exploded into action. Dicing for space in front of the Pit box with the other teams in our area was the first obstacle, the mass of people working on half a dozen cars all in one small area. Ravon was out and I was in having my belts done up, the car was fuelled and I was given the two thumbs up to get out into the pit lane… “Just don’t stall it…just don’t stall it” was all that was going through my head…. Thankfully I held my nerve and I was off down the pit lane at 60kmh. I’d been told to hold the speed and people would move out of the way but I wasn’t so sure. It was like driving through the middle of a pedestrian zone with people jumping off the pit wall and running back and fro to the garages. I was sweating buckets and I hadn’t even gotten on to the track yet…
The Pit Lane felt like was a mile long but once at the end of the pit lane I was off… changing up through the box and heading down towards the hairpin, a mirror check and glance to the left had all of my fears realised, what seemed like half the grid had arrived at the corner at the same time as me… Oh well… I had the inside line and I had picked my line through the corner, doing my best to avoid everyone else I managed to get round without contact and I was off…. Climbing uphill slightly into the long left hander, hard on the power for the short straight before braking hard and tucking in for turn three, I managed to keep it tidy and was on the power through turn four and down towards the link road that forms the short GP track, round the right hander and the next left came almost immediately, then the first of the quick rights turning in early and setting myself up for the flat out right kink… I shocked myself but I managed to overtake a car in the braking for the chicane, it didn’t matter that it was a small hatchback I’d made my first VLN overtake and it felt GOOD. The left hand turn which joins the GP to the NS is a really tricky corner, off camber and really tight, the Armco and wall at T13 was closer than I’d like!
The rest of the lap went by in a blur, trying to remember everything that I had read and been told, where was safe for overtaking, where overtaking was a definite NO-NO. How and where to let faster cars by without compromising my own safety. I was so happy when I’d passed under the gantry… at last a chance to have a rest. Or so I thought. I’d never appreciated how uneven the Dottinger Hohe was! Sat at 6500rpm in 5th Jiggling all the way down towards the bridge. Deep breath, keep your foot planted look for the kerb and turn in. WOOAW… that was fantastic… I’d done something for the first time ever, a REAL flying lap.
Up through Tiergarten and through the wiggles on to the GP circuit looking out for my pit board… There it was I felt a sigh of relief, I don’t why, I just did. A quick flash of the lights to acknowledge the board and away again down the hill braking hard for the hairpin tucking in and round I go for another lap. It all went smoothly until I arrived on the bumper of a Civic Type R in the Hatzenbach. On any other day the idea of travelling as fast as we dare through the left-right-left-right left just inches away from his bumper, would have been madness, but this was the VLN… it doesn’t get madder than this!
Still hard on his tail as we head down towards Quiddlebacher Hohe and he indicates left, ok here we go I’m overtaking him on the right going over the bridge. Then it hit me… I’m on the wrong side of the road, I’d forgotten what I was told “Don’t ever approach Flugplatz on the right hand side of the road” WTF was I doing over here? With gritted teeth I moved the car left waiting for the inevitable crunch and the spin that would follow as I clipped the front of the Civic… but it didn’t come, thankfully I’d got far enough passed him and I was off up the hill. I felt like Han Solo flying the Millennium Falcon out of the exploding Death Star!!
The rest of stint went off without incident, the speed differential is astounding, I know that an E36 M3 isn’t the fastest car in the world but when you’re going flat out in 5th you don’t expect to get passed like you’re standing still, but you’re treated to an orchestral performance from the exhausts of the top cars as they pass you so fast their blurred race colours resemble the northern lights.
I spotted the IN board and I was on to my final lap… The plan was set and the rules were simple… nice and easy keep up the pace, don’t hit anyone and keep the machine between the green and it went well until I exited the Kliene Carrousel, there was a GT3 battle looming in my mirrors as I climbed the hill towards Galgenkof . No problem I thought, indicate right and take it nice and easy on the inside and they can go the long way round. So I indicate and then I move… then I hear it…. SCRRUUNNCCH!!
I look right and see the driver of one of the GT3’s looking back at me… UH-OH!!!
I jinked left and the pair of them vanished into the distance leaving me for dust.
The Dottinger Hohe provides no comfort when you’re sat there cursing yourself for breaking the car. I was literally travelling The Green Mile to an inevitable kicking from the other drivers.
Once into the pit lane you have to watch the speed limit, 60 feels painfully slow after the charge down the Dottinger Hohe, trying to avoid all of the pit crews jumping around in the pit lane and spotting our box I pulled the car and got out of the car as quick as I could. A quick run around the car and I was relieved to see that I’d come away without any marks or dents, which means that the GT3 either did some under floor scraping or it was the Armco from the other side of his car I’d heard! Eek!
A quick debrief with the team and Arkle to let them know all was ok with the car and he was off for the 3rd stint….
The buzz from the drive stayed with me for the next hour… I couldn’t sit down, I didn’t want to sit down. All I needed was a glow stick and whistle and I’ve have happily raved the afternoon away. I was buzzin!!
Trying to keep track of how we were doing was proving quite tricky as the positions only get updated every 10 minutes and we appeared to be running really badly until we crossed the line and we popped back up the running.
Arkle completed his first lap and we were looking good… a couple of minutes later and he was in the Pit lane!! My first reaction was that we were out of the race… but it was only a loose bonnet pin and that was fixed and we were back out again but we’d lost valuable time!
After 3 hours we managed to stay in the same position that we qualified in which as far as we were concerned that was fantastic… but we still had an hour to go!
The car came in for the last scheduled pit stop, the drivers were changed and Ravon was back in the seat. The car was fuelled and off he went… and less than three minutes later he was back! He’s managed to hit the master switch and kill the car, he’d had to loosen his belts to turn it back on and now needed help to get the belts sorted properly! Nightmare!
So after a second unscheduled stop we were back out on the track and racing… the list of cars that were still lapping was dropping with every lap… as the count down clock on the GP straight ticked down under 10 minutes the nerves returned to the pit box, not just our team but all of the others that were still running… the pit box was a mass of pacing mechanics… all eyes on the clock and the time keeper on the pit wall. Did we finish? Where did we finish? The lead cars crossed the line and what seemed like an eternity later there we were 531, still in one piece but filthy as hell!
All of the cars were lined up in Parc ferme and we’d come 118th. So we’d lost one place in the race, but we’d finished in one piece and we were ecstatic!
Looking at the results we finished 10th in class, and the 118th overall also put us ahead of two of the Aston Martins (it’s like Britcar all over again!) one of which was driven by some magazine journo or other!
There is still some work to be done to get some more time out of the car but for its first outing its been fantastic!
Many thnaks to Jochen at Frozenspeed for managing to spot us in the mass of white E36's out there!
Congrats - it's a good achievement just to get to the end of a VLN.
Just one thing...
Just one thing...
Nurburgsingh said:
there was a GT3 battle looming in my mirrors as I climbed the hill towards Galgenkof . No problem I thought, indicate right and take it nice and easy on the inside and they can go the long way round.
Don't move out of the way of faster cars - they will find their way around you. If you suddenly move into the space that they are expecting to use, it can end in tears. Best just to lift slightly to make their pass easier.n'singh
phew! - lived every minute of that report with you, thx so much for sharing it. No wonder it is called the green hell & on VLN racedays things are elevated an order of magnitude! A real achievement to get this far, I look forward to your next report.
ps. new rear brake pads causing all the noise! I wonder what that was all about?
pps. Jochen -- such an all round good guy
ppps. my first race in the Orange One is on May 31st -- a lot closer to home, lot less cars and only 1 minute/lap!!!
phew! - lived every minute of that report with you, thx so much for sharing it. No wonder it is called the green hell & on VLN racedays things are elevated an order of magnitude! A real achievement to get this far, I look forward to your next report.
ps. new rear brake pads causing all the noise! I wonder what that was all about?
pps. Jochen -- such an all round good guy
ppps. my first race in the Orange One is on May 31st -- a lot closer to home, lot less cars and only 1 minute/lap!!!
Guy - I think we did indeed meet in the pits, We're out again for the race after the 24Hr. June 21st I think it is...
Legal - The pad noise is something to do with springplates ?? you know me, I'm as technical as pond scum!
Where are you racing on the 31st? Brands?... I'll see if I can get some browny points in and make it to watch.
Legal - The pad noise is something to do with springplates ?? you know me, I'm as technical as pond scum!
Where are you racing on the 31st? Brands?... I'll see if I can get some browny points in and make it to watch.
My virgin race is at S'stone (National) am entered in the Porsche Open, so I expect to be at or near the back!! 1x20 minutes with me and 1x40 mins with a certain frogisland as 2nd driver. Been under the car all day fettling like mad - found some things that needed attention and have taken off about 2kg further in weight -- that should keep the lap times down!!!
nb also going to test at Silverstone on the 30th to give myself a better intro
nb also going to test at Silverstone on the 30th to give myself a better intro
Edited by legaleagleboy on Wednesday 14th May 22:56
Gassing Station | General Motorsport | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff