06/22 NurburgRing Short Course Serien Sport Race Report:

I decided to follow up my EuroSpeedway weekend with a quick blast up to Nurburg. NurburgRing is pretty close to home for me (less than a 2hr drive). It was not a race I had originally planned on attending, but being so close and running the weekend after the World SBK guys were there was too tempting to pass up!!!

So Yasuyo and I set out Saturday afternoon to spend some time sight seeing. We stopped by the Nurburg castle and the famous Nurburg Ring Nordschleife. It is difficult to describe the Nurburg area, except to say that any motorsports enthusiast would be in heaven there on a sunny day. Strangely enough, since the Nordschleife course is nicknamed "Green Hell".

After a bit of relaxing and a great meal at the Motorsports Hotel (you can see a few turns of the Nordschliefe from the room window!) I met up with Sean for a late night sign-in and tech inspection process. The paperwork side was a bit unorganized this weekend for some reason and the wait was very long. We finally made it through and with a bit of sweet-talking from our SerienSport regular, I was allowed to pass tech. Many "weird" rules had me worried, i.e. no aftermarket gas caps, no aftermarket case covers, and a 98db limit. Luckily no one questioned anything (I did swap out my Vortex gas cap for the OEM one before I left). So many thanks to Sean for holding my hand through the process.

Sean and I then setup the pits/canopies and I headed back to the hotel for a good nights sleep and breakfast the following morning.

We arrived back at the track around 7:30AM, just in time to suit up and head out for the "Dauproofing" (sp?). This is an interesting concept unique to the Serien Sport series. Every rider must complete 100km in 80min. It really isn't a qualifying session in that the best lap times determine the grid, it is more just a requirement that must be met before you are allowed to race. So if you crash or have any kind of technical difficulties during the dauproffing and don't complete the specified distance in the specified time, then you can not race.

I used my lap timer to count laps for me to ensure I had enough before the end of the session. These laps served as my training/learning session. There seemed to be a bit more confusion from the track staff as they had the access to the paddock area blocked. This confused me as I didn't know if that meant I wasn't allowed to go back to the pits or not. Luckily I put in a full tank of fuel and I wasn't running any kind of fast pace to burn it all up! I came into the pits twice trying to find access back to my pit area behind the pit boxes in the paddock and failed both times.

Eventually, I was running out of gas and just asked one of the racers who had rented a pit box to just let me through. By the time I had made it back to our paddock space Sean was already there and gearing down. After some discussion, I figured I was ok too and parked the bike. So after less than 30 laps, I had to prepare myself for the race.

The race situation was a bit interesting unorganized too. Again, many thanks to Sean for helping me through the process, but it turned out that the paperwork admins had left my name off the starting grid?!?!?! So they literally "penciled me in" at the very back of the grid. Number 42 of 42 to be exact. It didn't matter much anyway, since they grid based on series points and I had none, since this was my first race with them.

Sean put on a good showing in his Klasse 6 race finishing in the top 10 after a good battle that lasted the entire last half of the race.

Now for my race in Klass 4 which is 600cc machines. I didn't realize just how many bikes were out there until I sat at the back of the grid and had to squint to focus past everyone to find the timing lights! As luck would have I wasn't gridded last, there was one dude completely confused and ended up getting stuck in the 43rd spot beside me.

I really enjoyed the start of the race and the first lap, heck I could have pulled in at the end of lap one and called it a good race! I managed a pretty decent start sorta weaving through traffic down to turn 1. I was a bit timid through T2, but managed to grab a few more spots here and there in the first 2 laps. After that some faster guys came by and something either fell off one of their bikes or it was other misc debris on the track, but braking for the back esses, I ran over something bouncing in the track and it sorta threw off my concentration for the rest of the race. I ended up running mostly blocking lines, since I hadn't really been able to put together each peice of the track to get a flowing lap. I could hear bikes behind me even through the ear plugs and figured it was only a matter of time.

A few guys pulled up next to me after I made a mistake, but I was usually able to out brake them at some other point on the track to regain my spot. The race got pretty boring toward the end, but as people started putting last ditch passing manuvers on me, I managed to pickup my fastest lap of the day on the second to last lap of the race. I guess I really need to work on my concentration.

All in all it was a good race with an 18th place finish. I wish it would have been top 10 at least, but not bad for only 27 laps of practice. It was a great experience to actually ride Nurburg Ring and to experience the surrounding area. It really is a must visit destination for all motorsports fans! I will be looking for an opportunity to go back and run the full Nurburg course and maybe even managed a trip around the famous Nordschliefe.

A great weekend! Many thanks to Yasuyo for all her support and picture taking all while lugging around chibi-shima in her belly! Thanks also to Cy for driving all the way from Sembach just to lend a hand in the pits, it was much appreciated!

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