INTGRR repaired, prepped and ready to roll!

After my mishap in Ohakune in the Ohakune Giant 1000 Hillclimb,  INTGRR has been beautifully repaired by Ken Braun Panel and Paint, and put back together again by the brilliant Andrew Johnston. She’s looking better then ever and ready for the next event, the Golden Cross Rallysprint above the Karangahake Gorge, on September 18th .

Wheel alignment booked tomorrow followed by scrutineering – usually a formality, but with the rebuild I hope all is well…..

Feeling a little more pressure than usual as the last 2 events (Ohakune and the Nurburgring 24 Hour) I’ve had a crash – hope it’s not a sign my fortunes have changed permanently! I’ll certainly be feeling my way carefully for a start as the first leg is the downhill 8.5km run from the Golden Cross mine headquarters and early morning there is usually damp if not actually raining!

Got a rookie crew coming as Andrew is competing in the final round of the Motul Cup (good luck mate, the Gods are smiling on you after a “mixed” series so far with 3 engine rebuilds). Jack Williamson and friend Ben are two young guys keen as mustard to sample the rally scene and it will be great to have them along for the ride – literally as co-drivers are compulsory for this event.

Taranaki August ’11

Spending the weekend staying with Jon in New Plymouth. Laxing out bigtime, and have tickets for the Taranaki vs Hawkes Bay Ranfurly Shield game on Sunday night!

Today we travelled to Stratford Plateau which is the hop-up point for the track to the ski-field on Mt Taranaki.

There was plenty of snow, still soft enough to sink in almost to our knees in places, and we decided to do the walk up to the ski-field. The track is cut into the cliff face in parts which considering my fear of heights, was quite challenging for me!

Here’s some pics from our day:

N 24 Hour: Pics up to start

Been in Paris since Monday with no Internet at Hotel.

Just arrived in Bruges, but feeling well under the weather with a head cold.

Here’s a bunch of pictures from the race up to the start – more later

Glickenhaus carbon fibre "Ferrari" - unbelievable!

Richard Field: Car builder/service guru

Hans Stuck - German Superstar

Lynette before Race Start - my support crew!

The Gotz RS4 - No. 72: 3 Kiwi privateers driving

Aussie presence - Oi Oi Oi

2nd Gotz car

Lexus LFA

Ferrari on Pole! - last years 2nd placer

Grid walk - I was supervised!

KTN's main opposition in Class N2!

This man started it all in 2006 - Greg Taylor: great dream!

Rod Hicks; starter in 248

Dare to Dream: 2nd time here!

Straining at the leash.....

Fans at T1: any vantage point will do.

KTN guys in prime spot at T1

Nurburgring 24 Hour: Wrap up

Back at the hotel now and unwinding after a very eventful day again…..

But to cut to the chase:

Kiwi Team Nurburgring has taken 1st and 2nd in class N2 for the 2011 race! Car 248 1st (Hicks, Corbett, Cockerton, Eady) and 247 (McGovern, Spark, Lowery, Taylor)

In the context of the history of KTN this is highly significant: KTN has contested the last 6 24 Hour events, and the two Honda Civics have successfully completed each event over the last 6 years, with multiple podium wins. While I don’t have the information to confirm this, it must be possibly a unique record in the 39 years the event has been held.

At the prize-giving, which is a thouroughly professionally run slick production, as is tradition, the Kiwi team is honoured by being the first on stage to receive the beautiful crystal trophies – identical but smaller for 2nd. There was considerable unwinding………….

As predicted the weather picked up as the day wore on and I took my seat in car 247 about 10:30AM. Conditions were perfect. Sun shining, dry track, grip galore. Out onto the track into thick traffic….sheesh, will this ever improve? No! THere’s also stil carnage galore and at least 2 yellow flags situations every lap, often quite long and slow sections.

All was going very well, consistent times, car going well until………….. Just before Brunnchen the steering felt odd and the wheel was off-centre. Turning right off pace due to traffic onto the flat section at Brunnchen the car almost refused to turn and I ended up with the left wheels on he grass. It felt all the world like a puncture. Turning right seemed fine, turning left produced a coarse vibration and severe understeer to the extent that I nearly ran off the track. Limped back to the pits and discovered that a bolt had sheared off one of the suspension supports and the wheel had been wobbling  about a vertical plane! The guys fixed it quickly and a driver change meant my session was shortened by three laps, ending my final driving stint at the Nurburgring for 2011. A slight disappointment in what has been a fantastic experience again.

More details and photos later when i get time and bandwidth!

 

Nurburgring 24 Hour: Sunday morning

Have just woken after some much needed sleep after the night drive.

There has been a huge amount of carnage through the night apparently – fortunately not involving KTN.

Both cars continue to circulate with the 248 car some way ahead of my car, 247.

We had some problems in 247, starting with yuors truly running into the armco at Adenauer Forest – the rear stepped out when lifting for the next left hander and I ran onto the grass – fortunately only cosmetic damage, but the impact made me feel certain that some serious damage must have occurred. Not a good feeling

Then there were acoule of other problems that weren’t so serious.

The day has dawned cloudy and cool, but forecast to clear later.

Lynette is still full time time-keeping and has had no sleep, but after a quick freshen up in the bathroom looks fresh as a daisy – of course . She’s doing a fantastic job!

RACE DAY: Update 1

The day dawns overcast and cool.

Forecast for the race is:

Saturday: 60% chance rain during day, 30% (trace only) at night. High 15deg, low 10deg. = possibly damp at times

Sunday: Partly Cloudy. High 26deg, light winds = dry track!!

i.e. about as good as you can expect here in the Eifel mountains at present.

The team is in good spirits, with a quiet day yesterday, and everything is ready. Will be doing practice driver changes today, now that the driving order is sorted.

My car has Brian McGovern doing the race start, Jeff Lowery 2nd, me 3rd and Ali Taylor 4th driver.

That means I’ll be in the car approximately 7:45PM finishing before dark, and again around 3:30AM (full darkness – might be getting light by end of session). Suits me well as I wasn’t keen to be having to deal with sunstrike with a rising or setting sun.

We’re off to the track shortly.

Not sure if I’ll have much chance to update but will try.

I’m confident we’ll do the Kiwi flag proud!

Qualifying done and dusted

All drivers in KTN completed their 2 qualifying laps without incident last night. In near perfect conditions and on a dry track the drivers set times all within seconds of each other.

For me it was a fabulous experience – so different to the first laps last year which I found very difficult. In fact it was almost as good as the final session last year, so I’m really looking forward to the race!

The traffic is horrendous at times – the fastest cars are incredibly quick and in certain places the gap to our speed is scary as all hell. just after the jump at the top of the hill just after Hatzenbach a Lexus LFA flew through past my drivers door when I would normally have turned in for the next corner – fortunately I had glanced in my mirror and got a flash of “something”! I had not indicated I was staying left and would have been “in the right” if i had turned but………..

It’s incredibly exciting, the atmosphere is vibrant – amazing place to be.

Han Stuck is in our box – talk about a superstar around here. Apparently this is his last race so the media interest is intense.

Lynette got into the thick of it last night too – was one of the timekeepers for our team (for my car actually – but the times ARE accurate ). She really enjoyed herself .

Day off today – we don’t need to run the cars in the session today so they are parked up. Off to Koblenz for a gander and a river cruise on the Rhine.

Next stop: RACE DAY Saturday!!!

KTN All Prepped and Ready to Race!

We’re all set to ge here at the Nurburgring for the 24 Hour race this weekend.

Only a quick update sorry – it’s been very full on and the internet connection here is rubbish – not typical for Germany, but a function of the fact that our hotel has a rubbish copper-wire connection and my Vodem suffers poor GPRS reception.

The cars arrived on schedule on Monday and we unpacked them today and set up our paddock presence – 2 Marquees in the middle of a sea of other teams.

The event is much bigger this year with 220 entries and a support race for the Porsche Carrera World Cup running in the morning, and there are allegedly expected to be nearly 500,000 spectators this year. The surrounds of the track are already pumping to the music and festivities and we’re over 4 days away from race start – it’s and amazing event to see building over the week leading up to the start.

All the drivers had their registration and equipment checks today. 3 drivers have to buy new helmets because theirs lacked a “critical” sticker despite being compliant in terms of their Snell classification – the Germans can be infuriatingly pedantic and inflexible at times! Apart for that we’re all officially approved to race, which is a great relief considering the time, distance and cost of getting here.

The cars look great and flew through srutineering without a hiccup – and the service teams have got them all ready to race over 24 hours early – these guys really are a well oiled machine, now in their 6th year of this event. Gives you great confidence as a driver knowing you jave that support.

I arrived Sunday and went straight to the track with a hired Scirocco from Rent-race-car.de – wow what a great machine – really enjoyed it. The conditions were butt-clenching at times – my first lap was very wet in parts and the surface was like a skating rink on some corners! Then it dried somewhat for about 4 laps and then the heavens opened again, as they can do up here in the Eifel mountains. Made myself go out for a lap in the downpour in case this happens during the race – very sobering experience I can tell you! Some parts are far more treacherous than any Targa roads I’ve ever driven, and I ‘ve driven heaps of those in very wet conditions. Throw another 218 cars into the mix and it doesn’t bear thinking about. Fortunately the forecast is looking not too bad – patchy Saturday, with a fine Sunday – hope so!

As a bit of a bonus we are sharing a pit box with Hans Stuck and his 2 sons driving their Lamborgini and in fact he was eating at the next table in the restaurant tonight. The place simply oozes motorsport everywhere – the whole regions around the track is focussed on what goes on here and servicing the needs of the track users. It’s their economic life blood. Anyone with even a passing interest in the sport needs to come here at least once, and enthusiasts shoudl see it as an essential homage – the Mecca you need to experience before you die.

Tomorrow I’ve got Drivier Training – consisting of guided laps behind instructor then 90 minutes free track time – will be about 300km on the Nordschleife . Following which i’ve got a 700km round trip to go and pick up Lynette from here sister’s just south of Stuttgart – at 160-170kph on long stretches of Autobahn won’t take as long as in NZ – I feel 10 times safer at that speed here than at 100kph in NZ – really!

I’ll try and drop some pictures into here but may not have a lot of success due to the internet connection – they’ll be low-res for now and I’ll updat ethem later. Maybe.

Hope everythings OK in here!

Pigeon Pair

Tyres Tyres Tyres

All carbon Beemer

Message for Sabine

They start 'em Young Here

Willie Moore on the finer points of the Foxhole: Driver's Course

Fans: Not recommended during the Race!

Fans: Beer skittles at the Pflantzgarten

One for the VW fans

Awesone machine: AMG SLS

Stunning R8

Cutaway..........

A trip to Zandvoort

Picked the rental car up today – booked a Renault wagon and got given the keys to a Kia. I said thanks but no thanks and ended up with a Merc A160. Gutless and auto – uninspiring to drive, but quiet and good ride with passable stereo. But the quality of the materials in the interior are so bad it pales compared to the offerings from Audi. Might explain why Audis far outnumber Mercs  and especially Beemers on the roads here!

Anyway, this is where I ended up:

Zandvoort Circuit

And this is how someone’s day at the track ended up – lends new meaning to the term Splitting the Atom!!

A split Atom

Atom from Ariel

But this was nice :

R8

Caught up with the owner of a Race Car Rentalcompany there with various 3 Series beemers available, from 325s p to some late model M3s. When he mentioned 430Euro for half a day in the basic car, I passed…. (not quite out!)

The track looks fabulous – it’s literally set among the sand dunes on the Atlantic coast with the sea a good stone’s throw away. Some large elevation changes make for an interesting track I suspect – pity I can only suspect it

Must very very hot and dusty on a windy summer’s day there.

Will update on the WW1 battlefield visit tomorrow night – can’t stop yawning right now!

Hello from Amsterdam

Water and city in harmony

This is a city you could fall in love with.

So vibrant and busy and the merging of canals and streets is amazing.

Amsterdam canal 1

There are bicycles everywhere, they have their own designated lanes and woe betide any pedestrians who try to encroach!

Wandered through a market – very similar to our Farmer’s Market – amazing array of produce including a selection of funghi which were something to behold – hope none are poisonous! Bought some bread and cheese for lunch.

All apparently safe to eat.......

Fresh produce market

Have spent last two days at the conference and caught up with quite a few kiwis there – we do love traveling

Just to prove I was there!

Saturday night had a very pleasant evening dinner out with Rob and Penney Cameron and their daughter Mira, and John and Jane Moodie. Tram into city, so many restaurants to choose from. Italian was the order of the day – very good and not outrageously expensive.

Dinner on the canal in a beautiful canal boat last night courtesy of GE. Very interesting talking to the skipper – he’s a retired ship’s captain. He had a heart attack aged 38 on board his ship and was saved by his ship’s doctor. Lucky guy.  The food was excellent and the buildings around the city so full of history. Apparently the houses lining the Gentleman’s canal go for around 13,000,000Euro!

Getting around central Amsterdam is so easy with the excellent tram services.

You wouldn’t want to drive around, in fact there are not a lot of cars driving on the streets. Virtually all are Euros – occasional Toyotas and hardly anything else. Audis everywhere – more numerous than either Merc or BMWs.

Hope everyone is ok back in the Shaky Isles – very shaky I see in Christchurch again! Poor people there must be going spare.

Jenny is in New York of course at the moment, going to do a presentation at a music conference – good luck Jen!

Looking forward to Lynette arriving on Saturday – assuming that damn Chilean ash cloud doesn’t foul up the airways!

And I must admit my thoughts often turn to the looming race at the Nurburgring……….