Last weekend Linzi and I drove to the Ring. This was a bit different to all the other trips we’ve had there as this time we were going for a track day rather than just a public day.
A track day at the ‘ring is organised as any other track day is. You need to pay a substantial amount in advance to reserve your slot, there is a safety briefing, there are rules and (usually) only people with track day experience will attend.
A public day at the Ring is quite different – any one with €25 can buy a lap ticket and go round – that includes motorbikes, vans and even coaches. In previous weekends when we’ve been to the ring it has been closed for hours and hours because these people have had accidents and closed the track.
We were really looking forward to the day and were expecting to have some really nice laps with fewer people and less accidents.
Sunday 18th
We drove down on the Sunday. We left fairly early and made pretty good time arriving in Nurburg at about 4:30. When we got there we went straight to the public entrance of the Ring to see if it was open – we didn’t expect it to be but it was worth a check to see if we could get a few extra laps in.
The public entrance was closed but there were road cars going round, there was also a sign that read “Track day, €40 for 30 minutes, entrance on GP straight”. We thought that was worth a go so went round to the GP circuit.
There had been an event running inside the GP circuit and whilst it was on they were running a track day on the Nordschleife.
We decided to have a go and found the office. All we had to provide was some photo ID and our money and we were allowed to take part in this track day for 30 minutes. We did also have to sign a disclaimer that was all in German. I hope I didn’t agree to anything I didn’t mean to!
Whilst we waited for our slot on track we had a look about and saw around 22 identical white E92 M3s like ours all parked up waiting for the next lesson. It was quite a sight!
Once the “track day” started it was like no other track day I had been on. Quite apart from the fact that it only lasted 30 minutes there was no safety briefing, you didn’t need helmets and pretty much anyone seemed to turn up and go round.
We got 3 laps in so the €40 was pretty good value. We did plan just to do easy sighting laps but the car got a bit carried away and they ended up being fairly quick.
It was fantastic to be back on the Ring!
Sunday NIght
When we booked the track day we also booked 2 nights in a local hotel as part of the deal. It was really good value and we wanted to stay with the rest of people on the track day so we could chat in the bar at the end of day.
The hotel that we were all staying in was the Ringhause where we had stayed once before. We weren’t very impressed last time but we hoped it would be better this time.
It wasn’t.
It really isn’t a very bad hotel but not really what Linzi and I are after. It is supposed to cater for a bunch of lads who want to go to the ring and don’t really care about where they sleep. We prefer a bit of comfort at night.
The room was very basic and wasn’t a double despite us asking for one so we had separate beds.
We had a drink in the bar then met some friends who were also on the track day at the nearby Paddock for dinner.
We returned to the hotel and set our alarms for an early start.
Monday
Sign on started at 7:00 the next morning so we had breakfast at about 6:00 and got to the track a little earlier than 7:00. Whilst we were waiting for the registration queue to go down we got the car ready.
As this was a track day and not a public day the rules were a bit different. One change was that you were allowed securely mounted cameras in the car. This was great as we have wanted to get a video of us going round the ring for a long time.
We had hired a 3 camera system from my mate Dario at OnBoardVision.co.uk and I went about fitting it.
The safety briefing started at 8:00. Much of it was the same as every other safety briefing we had been to with a few exceptions. Obviously they did not have enough marshals to cover the whole 13 mile track but they did have around 40 to cover most of it. They also had “roving” marshals who were driving round to look for any problems. I think this system worked pretty well. All attendees were also given a card with emergency numbers on and high-vis jackets to wave as yellow flags if you came across an accident.
Someone from the Nurburgring was also at the briefing to add some comments. I think he did a very good job of making people understand that the ring is very different to any other track that people would have driven. I think this along with the track walk were both contributing factors to the low numbers of accidents that there were that day.
One person asked “are there any road works on the track at the moment” (as there are sometimes). The answer was “At the moment the track is clear. Maybe later in the day there will be some but not at the moment!”.
Just after the safety briefing we were split into 2 groups and did a track walk. We all drove round in our cars very slowly behind an instructor and stopped at 3 points on the circuit. I think this was very useful for Nurburgring Newbies. It wasn’t about how to go fastest round the track but I think was designed to give people some respect for the track. Several times we were told “this corner is very hard for light cars that tend to go through the barrier over there”. Most of the people there were in Caterhams so I heard lots of people muttering that they had brought the wrong car.
At the first place we stopped he said “this part of the track is actually very good as you can actually see what’s coming” which got a few chuckles from the people listening.
One thing I did learn during the track walk is that some of the corners have a white dot painted at the turn in point. They are hard to spot at speed but can help you out if you do see them.
After the track walk we did a sighting lap, again behind an instructor. The idea was to try and teach people the line but with over 100 corners I’m not sure how much people would have remembered!
At 10:00 the track finally opened for proper laps. The weather was fantastic (although in an ideal world would have been a bit cooler). In total we did 15 laps – 10 for me and 5 for Linzi. Linzi got a sub 10 minute lap and I just beat my previous best time with a 8:53 lap.
Compared to public days the track was virtually empty the whole time we were going round and the quality of the driving was very high. By this I mean that there were few accidents and generally people got out of your way quickly, not that everyone was putting in very fast laps.
About the only instances of bad driving was when we got stuck behind a caterham for around a minute and a half and when we saw a Ferrari undertake a Lotus. Other than that it was fantastic.
We didn’t have too many cars coming past us on the day but one car that did go past us very fast and several times was a Ferrari which I think was from a racing team. He was absolutely flying! You can see and hear him go past us here. Watch how fast he appears in the rear view camera! On the same outing after we have completed 2 laps he goes past us again here. Looking at the time codes on the original video it only took him 19:20 to do 3 laps (assuming he didn’t pit). That’s a lap time going on for 6:30 (although not complete laps as he missed out the straight on one lap).
He was certainly trying hard and unfortunately he was one of the accidents that occurred that day. You can see the Ferrari in the side here and being winched onto the lorry here. Apparently he damaged the sump, got oil on the track and on his rear wheels and spun into the barrier. The car which was worth around £200k was pretty much written off so I am told.
The camera system worked brilliantly. We’ve got some really good videos. It turns out that the start and end points for the lap that I have been using are a little off. They do not correspond properly with the bridge and gantry locations. It is only a little off though and is the same as the points I have used previously so is valid for comparison.
My fastest lap of the day was 8:53 as I previously mentioned. It was a flying lap (meaning that I wasn’t starting form the pits) but on looking at the speed at the start of the lap on circuit tools this didn’t give me any advantage. I was actually slower than on a previous non-flying lap. The video is below. To view in HD view it on YouTube.
The bings you can hear on the video are fuel warnings. At the start of the previous lap I comment that we we might not have enough fuel for 2 laps and we only just did. When we finished the lap we only had 8 miles range left. The 2 warning normally go off around 30 miles apart. On the track they were only just over a minute apart!
Before this weekend I think that I had done 70 laps of the ring, I did 13 this weekend making a total of 83. I’m getting pretty close to the 100 laps where they say you can be fairly confident you know what is coming next. I already do feel fairly confident but it’ll be nice to get to 100. We’re going back to the ring later in the year for 2 days before a 2 day Spa track day. I am sure I’ll crack 100 laps that weekend.
Linzi brought her lap total up to 25.
You can see all the videos from the day below:
Giles
lap 1 lap 2 lap 3 lap 4 lap 5 lap 6 lap 7 lap 8 lap 9 lap 10
Linzi
All the pictures I took and the ones we bought from bookATrack.com are here.




