Success at the Ring
The Nurburgring weekend was everything I had hoped it would be and more. With two 3rd places I came away from the weekend, on combined results, as the most successful English Vee driver, which was the perfect end to a great debut season in Vee. It was nice after an innumerable number of 2nd places in heats and 4th places in Finals to finally win some trophies 
Everything about the weekend was dreamlike, getting to drive my Vee around the Nordschlife was a once in a lifetime experience, allowing me to join a very select group (and even fewer amongst the living) who have driven a single seater around the long circuit. Then the racing itself was awesome. Saturday’s damp and changeable race was simply a case of keeping the car on the road, although my fully wet set up cost me in closing laps as the track dried. Even so 30 minutes in those conditions was a real test of endurance.
Sundays race was great, but could have been better. I made an awesome start and made up 7 positions over the first lap and was moving through the field into lap 2 when I got hit from behind by one of the German cars. This luckily didn’t put me out on the spot, but as I later discovered it did dislodge my oil cooler, which caused the car to gradually overheat during the race meaning it lost power quite dramatically by the end. Another lap and I would have had to have stopped. Even so it was a great race, and I had truly exhilerating dices with some of the German and South African drivers together with a titanic scrap against Mike Jenvey. Full credit to everyone for keeping the racing so clean.
Apart from the racing the trip was awesome. The countryside around the Ring was stunning, the beer was cold and cheap, and some of the haircuts were so astounding their owners could be entered for Crufts. Furthermore the German way of going racing provided a lot that we could learn here. The meeting was well promoted with low spectator entry charges (equivalent to 750mc for a far larger meeting) and this meant that several thousand people came over the weekend. Better still trophies down to 15th place is an excellent idea, especially coming from a UK season where I finished 8th overall, and won nothing on the day. This also gave drivers throughout the field a real sense of achievement.
Finally the organisers really made the event feel special, the parade was a lot of fun, whilst everyone was so welcoming. Hopefully next year we will able to do something similarly special (but hopefully without the hair)
A huge thanks is owed to Andy and Jon Storer (and Roger, Stuart, Jeremy and Ann) for all their support over the weekend, that made it something more than a race weekend, and provided the perfect end to a great season.
