Today is the day! Surprisingly, I had a great night sleep (no jet lag) and a well deserved German breakfast at the hotel ... cold cuts, hard boiled eggs, yogurt, granola, and apples ... before heading to the Nurburgring.
It started to rain as soon as I went over the mountains towards the track. The rain stopped as I arrived to the paddock but the track was definitely wet so I decided to wait until it dried as cars began to drive in as soon as it opened at 9am.
Lots of Porsche GT3RS, Mercedes AMG GTs, Audi R8s ... I guess we are in Germany after all. But I also saw a Tesla 3, a Mercedes station wagon with a family of 3, lots of Japanese small cars, a Mini Cooper, Volkswagens, a Jeep, Ford Focus', and some exotics like a Dallara, Caterhams, and the usual Lotus Elises, Lamborghinis and Ferraris.
Within 10 minutes of the track opening, a Porsche GT3 with a professional driver taking a "tourist" for a hot lap, crashed. Apparently it was pretty serious. Oil spilled on the track and tow trucks and emergency vehicles sprung to action. Not a great way to greet a newbie like me before I even get on the track.
The track stayed closed for an hour for cars and 3 hours for motorcycles to make sure everything was good.
I met Robert Gross, a German motorcycle rider, who had been to the track a few times. He suggested we go around the track to the different viewing points that you see often on YouTube while we waited for the track to open. It was great to see the cars racing, and the turns, and the screeching of tires, and the drifting and sliding.
When we got back to the paddock the officials said it would 10-15 minutes for the track to open for motorcycles so I began to get ready ... ear plugs in, bathroom break, drank some water, checked tire pressures, oil, gas. All good. My heart was beginning to beat faster. Turned the engine on ... and off I went towards the toll gate!
Woooooooooooow! Amazing!
21km is a loooong track to race ... so much fun ... so I decided to go again without stopping .... 40km ... full out.
This track is a fast track, with great pavement, nice elevation changes throughout, tight turns, decreasing radius turns, up hills turns, down hill turns ... and the most unnerving thing of all, cars in front and cars behind!
All the adrenaline made me hungry and after a nice Texas-style pulled pork sandwich and fries ... I went in and did it again! What is wrong with me : )
It always surprises me how fast you can learn a new track. It must be the complete focus and concentration required when you are doing it for the first time.
And, by the way, this little S1000XR is a beast in Dynamic mode! It behaves way better than expected. And the tires (Metzeler Sportec M9 RR) performed flawlessly.
After my third lap I decided to go on a leisurely ride through the tight twists in the surrounding Eifel mountains. I heard that the villages that were flooded a few weeks ago were actually in this area and around 30-40 kilometres away so I decided to go check it out.
I arrived at Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweller and it was like a war zone ... debris and mud everywhere ... all the bridges (4-5) that used to cross the river, gone ... the water mark on the buildings/houses by the river was up to the second floor ... army trucks, Red Cross tents, people wearing hazmat suits, workers on bulldozers cleaning things, tents handing out food.
The road there and back was a beautiful narrow 1.5 lane road with tight turns winding through very thick and dark forests. Nature at its best and unspoiled. It feeds the soul.
Made it back to the hotel and went to bed. A very good day overall.
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