A couple of weeks ago my burning hot dream of
racing at the Nurburgring
was nothing but cold, dark embers. Then I got a phone call; there was a paying seat available, half of it paid already, but the driver couldn't make it. All I needed to do was scrabble together about a month's earnings and pay the other half. Then I'd be the third man in the
Jaco's Paddock
325i, racing the four-hour
VLN4 Simfy Trophy
Not for a second did I think it was possible, so I offered it to some friends who promptly told me to "man the **** up" and find a way. "That's racing! Just do it!" they said. So I did.
License, sponsorship, car; let's race!
Some grassroots sponsorship from friends and family saw me arrive at the VLN paddock that Friday brandishing freshly-printed stickers and a virgin 2013 National-A race license. Friday's free practice session isn't technically part of the race meeting, so I was roped into driving an E46 M3 to give team sponsors a 'ring taxi lap. It was felt by the team that I already knew which way the track went, so I didn't need the practice laps as much as the first two drivers.
Unfortunately this didn't end well. On lap four a material failure on a bolt from the swing-arm to the hub sent the M3, the passenger and I into the wall at mini-karussell. It's not my first crash on the 'ring, but I was certainly shook up by it. Luckily I'd fitted my GoPro to my helmet and the resulting crash didn't damage the side of the car that failed. Otherwise any other team manager would probably never have believed me. That would have been the end of my race weekend right there at many other teams, but Jaco's understanding and the video saved my skin.
Saturday was a new day, but I hadn't slept well thanks to the nerves. I finally got a good chat with my team mates too, Jin from Japan and Chris from the UK. Neither was new to racing, though Chris only had a dozen or so laps of the 'Ring under his belt. Jin, by comparison, was introduced to me as the lead driver with several VLN and even Nurburgring 24-hour races under his belt. And he had a painted chrome helmet worth more
Three drivers meant 80-minute stints
than my own car, so I readily deferred.
Well, if good was slow, then damn, Jin was good. Chris did much better, and I did something that wasn't too bad. The other two drivers then got out for another lap each, but not me as I missed the last lap by less than two minutes. Gutted, thanks Jin. "That's racing," smiles one of the mechanics. Humph. But there was a full 80-minute stint to look forward to in the race.
Around two and a half hours in, as I was pulling on my lid and fighting the HANS device (imagine a blind man fighting a facehugger from Alien, wearing gloves... now you're close) I noticed people running in. Red flags were out. We started to plan the restart, but there were spontaneous tears erupting in every direction. Wolf Silvester, a previous two-time VLN champion, had suffered a presumed heart-attack, before crashing and rolling into Schwalbenschwanz. He was dead, the race was over. My heart sank to the bottom of my racing boots. At least he died doing something he obviously loved, that's still my consoling thought. The overall result showed us as 5th out of 7 in our class (V4, 2.5-litre production
Race cut short by Silvester's crash
cars). Not that it seemed to matter much in the circumstances.
Plus I scored 3.57 VLN championship points without even driving the car. And I got a refund for the tyres and fuel I didn't burn, but it was still my most expensive lap of the Nurburgring to date. That's racing!
Special thanks to all my friends, family and even co-workers who helped me get to the grid. You know who you are!
PistonHeads would also like to take this opportunity to extend our sincerest condolences to the family and friends of Wolf Silvester. The past few weeks have been especially traumatic for motorsport generally and have served to remind us that racing remains dangerous, despite great advances in safety.