Qui Me Comitat Vincebit
Confusion Reigns
Supreme or why the EU will never work !
From the author of the award-winning report on the German event in 2002
In
the run up to the Nurburgring’s famous Oldtimer meeting I found myself recently
escaped from a minor op in hospital wondering whether to cancel my entry as I
was only permitted to drive by the ‘quack’ the day before we left. Nervously, to appease my daughters, I asked
him if I was cleared to go racing and he sensibly said ‘I’ve told you, you are
free to drive’. I am sure he correctly
realised there is a difference between our events and F1 ! To be on the safe
side I asked David Morris to come to share the towing and the racing.
We
arrived at my traditional German B&B, which is really Bob Wood’s, run by
Frau
Fassbender
inevitably known as Fastbenders, late Thursday evening having completed some of
the formalities, checked into Bob’s ‘box’ in the alt paddock and had the
regulation wiener schnitzel and chips in the Pisten Klause.
As
last year, the highlight of the event was the drivers briefing handled with
great precision in German and English by the same man who is Clerk of the
Course for the GP. The most startling
information he had for us, was to remind us that the first corner had been
altered again. Last year it was to
divert the track past the new stand that Mercedes had paid for. This year to save us going round the corner
and shorten the track, they had installed a new bend which he (rightly) told us
was VERY DANGEROUS and that we should take care as we would find people
spinning off and into us from all
directions (also spot on). So one wonders why on earth had they persisted with
it, having identified all these problems!
Just
when he dismissed us, Bscher (sensing a walk-over) asked whether it was
compulsory to stop if there was only one driver in the one-hour-race which was
being co-organised between Hubertus Donhoff and Sheridan Thynne for the HGPCA’s
Drum Brake Series. The Clerk of the
Course said that a compulsory driver change was not mentioned in the regulations
and therefore there would be no need for a single driver to stop. The drivers revolted en masse. Martin GP looked uncomfortable but quelled
the crowd(ooh! that military training) and took a vote. Not surprisingly most
present who were members of two-man teams voted for a stop, Ollie was honest
and Bscher behaved with impeccable sportsmanship. A ruling was made eventually,
and it was stuck to on the Saturday, we all stopped.
On
the Sunday there was a shorter race for the same group of drum braked cars, by
which time, as it was the last race, all the Germans with a measure of
prescience and their fast Italian machinery had hurried home to be with their
families whilst the Brits stayed and slugged it out with the officials. We all thought that this ten-lap race would
be without stops and most people had elected to drive solo (in our case David).
There was consternation on the line when Martin GP was assuring people there
would be no stop and there was a rumour going round from the marshalls that there
would be a stop. Apparently the
organisers held out a board saying ‘Stop 1 Min’ amongst the count down boards,
but who knows a good driver that can read when he is psyching himself up? Fortunately I managed to tell David that
there was some uncertainty and that if he had to come in I would wave my hat at
him. Many of the others had no
signalling system, let alone one of such elegant simplicity.
Thus
it was that the last race took place and when it was over nobody knew who had
won. Martin GP was asking people
whether they had stopped or not, to work out to whom they would give their
awards and the organisers produced their own version of the results. There were two prize-givings, one well
attended in the HGPCA pit with much wine, sardonic comment and camaraderie and
one secretly scheduled by the organisers in the enormous hospitality tent where
only the organisers sat, in a sad group, soberly drinking the celebratory
German bubbly and looking at a vast table laden with trophies and garlands but
with nobody to give them to!
To
my delight David got a splendid HGPCA award for first in class, because he had
stopped. Tony Bianchi and Josh Sadler
each in Allards may have been first and second but they came into the pits as
the race was ending (a Schumacher ruse I seem to remember), but were they there
for a minute - who knows? Several
others never stopped at all but some of them got awards so all in all the HGPCA
achieved a good result and we all went on our way rejoicing, sunburnt and happy
after a good few days at the ‘Ring.
SC
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