Day 1! (Photos)
This morning we got up really early, I skipped breakfast as usual for an additional 10 minutes of sleep Then put all the gear in the car and drove to the startline at Tobit.Elements. A growing crowd gathered near the hangar and startline with the police present as special guest.
We were the third car to leave but parked the car right after the start to film and take some photographs. We then left with only 7 cars remaining, where all the satnavs told us to go right, my reckon plus knowledge of the police traps on that road made me decide to go left and within no-time we made it to the highway without seeing any police.
First checkpoint was the test-track in Papenburg about 150km north of Ahaus. On the highway we saw multiple police cars keeping an eye out for us but we all drove according to rules and regulations. Closer to the track more radar and laser controls greeted us but we couldn’t be bothered we knew a track was waiting for us less then 10 minutes away.
On the track we first got a briefing and then we were split into two groups. As we were in the second group we first checkout the others racing round. The Ferrari F430 and Porsche Turbo Techart being the highlights of the first group. After 30 minutes it was our turn to hammer around the still dry track. The track is an copy of the small Hockenheimring and has some great corners. Later it started to rain and due to the rain we lost a lot of grip in the corners making the car heavy understeer more then once.
In between the laps we did at the small Hockenheimring a test-driver took us around the 12 km long highspeed oval. It’s amazing to drive round a corner at 220 km/h with one side pointing to the ground and the other door pointing to the sky.
After the track fun that ended at 1pm Luxemburg was our next checkpoint. We left at 1.30pm exact as we knew from experience traffic around Dusseldorf and Cologne is very dense on a friday. At the gasstation about 100 km from Papenburg we met up with the Diablo and white 997 GT3. But after a quick sandwich and petrol for the car we carried on. Between Dusseldorf and cologne we had a small traffic jam but we took a paralel road that saved us a lot of time. On the ring around Cologne we had two more traffic jams due to roadworks but soon we made our way in the direction of the Nurburgring, sadly our schedule didn’t allow us to stop by at famous track.
To our amazement only Andy with the Speedster arrived minutes before us at the Hotel Royal, all the others were still stuck in traffic somewhere. A big miracle since we thought we were at the back of the pack due to the traffic and our low average speed. Thumbsup to the guys in the Hummer who drove all the way through the Netherlands and Belgium and made it to checkpoint before most others without breaking any laws.
Now we are waiting for the last drivers before going out to dinner and party in Luxembourg City.
