It was not a bad 4 days away apart from the campsite which, let’s just say wasn’t the Ritz. It was full of Germans who were there to watch the touring car championships. They love to camp!! but it has to be with: 4 crates of beer; a big bonfire; huge speakers nailed to a tree; a marquee to put your tent up under and a lot of loud and random music. We saw a man brushing his teeth with beer, one using a leaf blower to fan the fire, one with a fridge freezer in his van, full on dj decks, a mini van turned into a beer fridge and a projector so they could sit up til 4am watching crashes on the ring. They also like to wake you up at 06:00 playing ACDC loud enough to wake the dead.
The track was impressive and there are some crazy drivers out there!!! But watching the professional BMW and Jaguar test drivers was pretty good. I have some vids
The mini only hour was early morning before the track opened and it was very wet as the heavens had opened throughout the night and left it very very slippery. There was about 40 mini’s including the German mini club who were absolutely mental and knew the track well! The first lap was a bit like wacky races and at one moment I was surrounded by about 6 German minis, they were like the Luftwaffe. A lot of the slower mini’s dropped out and one of the Germans was trying to overtake me on a tight bend and snapped the bottom arm retaining bolt which made him spin out into the armaco. By the 2nd lap I had a better idea and pushed the car a bit faster, with my conscience on my shoulder (the wife!!!) reminding me we still had to drive it home and that it was not a race. On the 2nd lap I also had a touching cloth moment when I got complete brake fade at about 60mph on a downhill bend, they came back soon after but it was a tense moment and my wife’s words began with an ‘F’. By the 4th lap I had mastered the conditions and it seemed like we had the track to ourselves which was nice, we only saw one other car. The only down part of the day was that when we went back to the car after some breakfast and was going to go back onto the track, I realised there was some oil coming from the oil cooler. After some inspection it looked like something had knocked it and fractured the joint between the fitting and the cooler. I had to quickly bypass it with what tools I could find while the Gestapo were trying to move me on. It all went downhill from then on, the track was shut more than it was open due to bad weather and accidents. We saw numerous bikes on the breakdown truck and even a Porsche. There was one fatality whilst we were there and a lot of oil spilled on the track.
Apart from all the negatives we did enjoy the adrenalin rush of being on the track and the little mini holding its own against its new bigger brothers and scaring the crap out of ourselves. The final good point about the trip was that we and the mini got back safe and sound and in working order and proving the doubting Thomas’s wrong. The organiser said that they had never had a turbo mini make the journey in one piece and that mine wouldn’t make it either so it’s one up for TM.
I can also now be one of those ******* who has a sticker on my car saying i’ve been to the ring and got stung for this sticker!
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