Team TwinSpark take Pole Position and 3rd Overall at Nurburgring

Our third racing weekend of the championship was just completed at the Nurburgring. In the intermissions of the 159 participant VLN Barbarossapreis (German Endurance Series), the Dantuma Dutch Historic GT and Touring Car Championship drove an early, wet qualifying session and two dry races.

Coming to this venue as an observer during e.g the Oldtimer Grand Prix, in the past you are overwhelmed by the scale of the Nurburgring facilities. It practically dwarfs Spa-Francorchamps. Imagine arriving as a participant to the Holy Gates next to the Lindner Hotel and presenting your participants parking pass! This was going to be fun. The place was packed with professional racing teams, supporting tens of 997 RSRs, several Mercedes SLS Gull Wings and a raft of lesser equipment. For a moment you think:”have we arrived in the right spot?”

The weather predictions were for a wet Friday night, but improving conditions on Saturday morning. Our Qualifying was to start at 8 AM, so it was an early rise. When I got to the track, my friend and TwinSpark partner Lex, was already getting the full wets ready. Nobody else seemed too worried by the condition of the GP track, but we were. So Woodstock put on Wellies and the rest of the field departed on Slicks…

As we were the first class out there on Saturday, the track had no dry lines and was as slippery as an eel in a bucket of gelly. Even on the full wets I had a hard time shaving off speed at the end of the main straight and there was some serious pump-braking required to keep pointing in the right direction. So imagine how the others were doing on slicks… After 8 laps I pitted to see how the track dried out. After ten minutes of sitting in pitlane, I went out for one more fast laps and that was enough for pole position. And my rain tires were still in good shape. Slowly the rain lessened and the track dried out.

Race 1 had me trailing Jan van Elderen, who drives his nice Mexico Blue 3.0 RS with an RSR engine in our class occasionally, in third position. Woodstock’s milder engine was about a second and a half slower per lap and Jan tore away slowly. Loved blowing through the back-straight chicane at about 140, but not much else happened behind me.

Race 2 provided more excitement. Starting from 3rd place an orange Carrera provided a drag race to the first corner, literally door to door. The next few corners are very technical and if you lose the first one you can still lead in the fourth one, which worked out. After a few laps I over braked and the orange Carrera slipped by. Jan van Elderen had dropped out with a broken drive shaft, so I was still in third and right behind Van Zeeland’s orange Carrera. In the sixth lap I was switching to the left to outbrake him at the end of the straight, when the Orange car braked and shifted down. Contact could not be avoided and I bounced off Van Zeeland’s left rear and spun counterclockwise. Within 8 seconds I was back on track, though. I checked that the contact had not damaged the suspension and the chase was back on.

I got closer each lap but could not catch the orange car in time. Another 3 place. The damage on both cars was light, however annoying, but this can happen in racing. Hands were shaken and apologies accepted.

Ronald Aardse had a leaking fuel cap, leading to weird traction on the left rear wheel… Thank God it was not a differential issue but merely a matter of dissolving contact patches! A bit of duct tape took care of the leakage.

Next weekend Lex and I race the ’74 RSR in the World Sports Car class of the Masters Series at Zandvoort. This being an open exhaust event, the megaphones have been dusted off to go do battle with the Chevrons and Lola’s during this Historic Grand Prix. If you are around, you can not miss this event. Come cheer us on on Sunday.

 

 

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