From our friend, Andres Serrano:
Dancing has commenced in this, the 43rd running of this race of races……and it promises to be different.
Between the Classic 24 Hr, the German Porsche Cup, the RCN series and a rather full WTCC field, close on 500 cars and crews are spending this weekend pounding around and into The Green Hell.
Open practice and night qualifying for the 24 Hrs is done, the latter having been held under wet conditions with dryness coming on in the waning minutes of the four hour session. Dark, wet, flashes in your face, scary, in a word, the Ring at its best and worst. Fans arriving in droves have the track surrounded. As a wild guess, the starting field will be “160-ish”, culled down from the maximum of 180 entries apparently imposed by the Sporting Authority, together with drastic penalties for speeding, particularly under yellow flags and the two actual “speed zones” imposed earlier in the year.
Bimmerdom, the Z4’s are competitive with both Schubert and Marc VDS showing real speed against all sorts of machines including the fantastic looking SCG machines fielded by James Glickenhaus and his team.
“Holy Cow – “Green Hell’ is a well deserved name. Check the in car pix and compare the red sign out the windshield vs. the ‘clear’ side window. Let’s just say that the defroster has room for improvement.” – Bruce Ledoux
The USA has a very large presence this year, over 20 drivers, which is very cool to see. Other American countries present are Argentina, Mexico and some bald guy flying the Ecuador flag. The world at large is here as well.
Cheers, Andres
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