Think Motorsport and the likes of Formula 1, WRC and 24 Hour racing most likely flash through your mind. One racing series that may not spring to mind is the FIA World Touring Car Championship. You my consider WTCC to just be another supporting series to the aforementioned classes but in reality it takes the things we love about racing and condenses them into two 20 minutes races that are brimming with close and hardly fought action.
Prior to the infamous Nurburgring 24 Hour race the WTCC cars hit the tarmac and I was invited to watch the action from a helicopter that would lap the green hell giving me unparalleled views of the track battles below.
The second of the 20 minute sessions had just begun and ascending above the forest, the track and paddock came into sight. As far as the eye could see the 25 kilometer ribbon of tarmac hid and reappeared from a plethora of different obstructions ranging from campsites to paddocks.
The helicopter pilot latched onto the leading pack and I looked through the clear perspex below the cars swapped positions as many times as they do in an entire Formula 1 season in just a handful of twists and turns – truly thrilling and something I am sure is just as pulse racing from beside the tarmac as it is from above.
