Nurburgring and Spa
Nurburgring and Spa – a father and son weekend at its finest !
VLN Rowe 6 Hour from the Nurburgring and the Young timer Races at Spa Francorchamps
Report by David and Andrew Harbey
Those of a certain age may remember Cub or Scout father and son weekends – where reluctant dads were dragged off to a camp site for the weekend by their sons to enjoy a weekend of fun. For many years now, I have enjoyed similar weekends, except that Scout camp was quickly replaced by Le Mans and the 24 Hour race and has since extended to other iconic racetracks in Europe.
Thus, we found ourselves heading out to Europe recently for a double header of German national racing – the VLN Rowe 6 Hour race at the Nurburgring on the Saturday and the Youngtimer races at Spa on the Sunday - before catching the late Shuttle back to Blighty and the M20 and the M25 and the M1 ….
I’d been to the Nurburgring 24 Hours in June but it was Andrew’s first trip to the Ring this year. My report of the N24 with a circuit map can be found here.
The plan this time was to fill some gaps and to get some photos of the racing in the Pflantzgarten / Brunnchen area and to visit Hocheichen later in the day when the sun was at a better angle than in June.
However, we awoke to a typical Nurburgring morning. Low cloud, persistent rain and qualifying due to start at 08.30. Our hotel was close to the bridge at Breidscheid and we had a view of the track from our balcony.
Now it was very tempting to sit there and watch flashes of headlights in the gloom – but we are British, we had the right clothing and I really do like taking photos of cars in the rain …
There’s a steep downhill to the fast left at Breidscheid, across the bridge and then the road heads back up to Exmuhle and Bergwerk. I went for the head on shots with the 200-500mm zoom while Andrew headed a little further up the hill to get panning shots with the 70-200mm zoom. He had the step with him to provide much needed clearance over the fence.
I was really pleased that the D850 was able to adjust the exposure in virtually every case for head on shots with headlights blazing.
Andrew was using the D610 instead of his usual D3400 – meaning that he lost the extra reach he could have got with the latter when using FX lenses – but he seemed very happy with it.
VLN race days are very simple – qualifying from 08.30 to 10.00 – then the grid starts forming from 11.00 for a 12 noon start. The grid is open and anyone can be present as the cars roll in.
There’s a modest cost of €18 to access the paddock, grid and grandstands. Anywhere else round the track is free to enter – there’s a modest one-time parking fee for all car parks.
Our plan was to get into the Mercedes Tribune – the semi-circular one you see on the TV with a superb view all the way up the start finish straight. This was denied us due to a private booking – which seemed to consist of about 30 people who turned up as the race started.
So we were in the Bilstein Tribune in line with the tight right hand hairpin. The rain had eased but the track was still very damp as the cars took the line for the start.
Of course, I should remind you that whilst this is a German national series, it has gained greater prominence in recent years. Most of the entries are still from Germany but there is a decent smattering of other nationalities, especially for the VLN races before the N24 each year.
Oh, and there’s usually around 150 entries which means that there are three starts of around 50 cars each.
I had hung on to the 200-500mm zoom for the start, but Andrew managed to grab some good shots of the action too with the shorter lens.
We also spotted an interesting location at the bottom end of the paddock overlooking the twisty arena section for our next visit. 2020 Nurburgring 24 Hours accommodation is booked …
Having allowed the race to settle down - and waited to see the Opel Manta with its ubiquitous foxtail finally take a delayed start to the cheers of the crowd – we decided it was time to head off to Pflantzgarten. The weather by now was warm and sunny and a good number of people were out to watch the race.
The VLN races attract a much smaller crowd than the 200,000 plus that spend the week at the N24 each year, so there are more opportunities to use the photographer’s windows in the fences.
Safety means that much of the track is lined by extensive fencing but there are enough spots to get decent photos – we are planning to write up a spectator snapper’s guide to the Ring over the winter.
The jump at Pflantzgarten is often feature by the accredited snappers from the inside of the track (look up Frozenspeed on Twitter) which is inaccessible to us mere mortals. However, you can get a sense of the jump from these photos looking back up the track.
Heading In race direction there’s then a fast downhill section, the Stefan-Bellof-S – named after the man who could have been Germany’s first world champion and who set the fastest lap around the Ring until the uber-spec Porsche 919 Evo smashed it last year.
There’s a lot of fences, but there are gaps and angles that work – and you are, as in so many places, close to the narrow and sinuous track.
We then walked up to Schwalbenschwantz and then inside of the Kleines Karussell – not really any good for photography but worth it to watch the cars hustle through.
There’s a rear shot of the cars heading into Galgenkopf or a wider look back to the Stefan-Bellof-S.
Back to the car and a short drive to Brunnchen where there was a good number of spectators.
There’s the entry to the corner – a fast downhill left right at the end of the flowing downhill sequence from Hohe Acht – a short straight and then a right hander that climbs up to the Eiskurve.
We started out at the entry – using the 200-500mm zoom to capture the inside wheel off the ground as the cars turned into the corner.
Then a short walk to the exit of the corner – here the fencing is tall, but there is a narrow gap at the right hand side of the fence that (with patience, as it is popular) gives a great shot back up the track.
There was one final location I was determined to get to. You may recall from the N24 report that we ended up at Hocheichen late on Saturday evening in the dark or mid-morning where the sun was (rather inconveniently) not in the right place !
This time we aimed to get there around 5pm – with an hour of the race to go – and with the sun in a better place. There’s a window – so patience is required – but what a shot !
By the time we finished there it was 6pm and the race was run. There’s no slowing down lap round the full Nordschleife but we were able to keep in touch with progress most of the way round by listening to the English language commentary from the knowledgeable Radio Le Mans team.
All that left to do was get back to the hotel, freshen up and return to Nurburg village for dinner at the Schmitz family (yes, of Sabine fame) restaurant the Pistenklaus and enjoy their speciality - steak cooked on hot stone at the table. The walls are covered in motorsport memorabilia and graffiti.
Sunday morning dawned bright and dry and we had an easy drive from the Eifel Mountains to the Ardennes. It’s beautiful countryside and takes a little over an hour.
The last three miles of the route is part of the original Spa racetrack which reminds you just how brave racing drivers were back in the day. Youngtimer is a German national series and caters broadly for cars from the 60s to the 80s.
Arriving mid-morning, we headed first to the restaurant above the modern pits for a coffee. This was our bonus event and photography was less of a priority – initial plans to walk the track were put on hold as the temperature headed towards a high of 29C.
Refreshed we headed to the embankment above the Bus Stop chicane (PistonClick’s Spa guide can be found here) to watch the racing.
I was using the 24-120mm zoom as I also wanted to get some panning shots from above the pits later on, while Andrew was using the 70-200mm zoom.
There’s nothing wrong with Porsche 911RSRs, BMW M3s and a 635CSI especially if they also have iconic liveries.
Alongside the Youngtimer races there were also two longer races for the RCN – or Rundstrecken Challenge Nürburgring if you prefer.
For these races we headed down to Eau Rouge noting the huge scaffolding grandstand for the Rally Cross event constructed earlier this year. This has also removed the old concrete grandstands which used to provide a good view of the Eau Rouge and Raidillon.
We had a relaxed day enjoying the racing and taking a few photos. There was an eclectic mix of cars in RCN1 – from a Lupo to a Mini Cooper to a BMW Z4 Coupe.
RCN2 was for quicker GT4 and TCR cars – with a very VLN feel to the entry – even to the extent that one or two entries appeared to have been racing at the Ring the day before and simply had the new race number sticker applied over the previous one.
Spa was delightful in the sunshine and to be recommended. However - disclaimer alert - the sunshine can’t be guaranteed. Just a week before we were there, the Spa 24 Hour race was red flagged for six hours overnight due to rain …
There will be more similar father and son weekends !
Lots more photos from the weekend can be found on Flickr as usual.
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