Spirits were not so high since our cars were already falling apart after the madness at Hockenheim, and our bodies were only kept alive by copious amounts of energy drinks in our veins. Still, we *had* to do it. We arrived battered and sleepy late at night at the Nürburgring. We were booked in at an apartment and decided it would be a good idea to end the night with some delicious Rum that Don Icon had provided.
We would send three warriors into battle this time; Andrew Hirschy, Tobias Welti and myself. Toby’s turbo had exploded the day before at Hockenheim, but thanks to Pierre Tchoulkia we managed to find and bolt in a new Garret GT28 turbo on time.
My S14 had blown turbo gaskets; it sounded loud and angry like a grumpy honeybear! But it was definitely down on power. No matter, we still had Hirschy who smartly did not participate at Hockenheim Driftchallenge the days before so his car was still fresh!
The event was very laid-back, there was a kind of Sunday morning mood going on as most PRO drivers were also at Hockenheim the past two days and you could tell by their tired faces. Jörg Söhner did a quick briefing, and introduced the judges. Faruk would be one of the judges again. He’s a good judge and also a really chill guy!
The track was the classic: Nürburgring Mühlebachschleife. Super fast entries, nice braking zones forcing you to go from very fast to very slow in a matter of seconds. Also nice up -and downhill sections really testing everything a driver has got to offer. It really is a spectacular track and one of my all-time favorites!
We prepped the rides and went smokin‘
After like 1 lap I realized my turbo gasket was blowing like the cheapest of hookers and the engine’s performance was getting worse and worse. I needed less grip to get the car sideways properly. I started putting in 4 bars of tire pressure and throwing the fucker in like an old Corolla, carrying as much momentum as possible so I wouldn’t need as much power to reach the far outer clipping points on this track.
It was a bitch to drive like this but I wanted to make the best of it since it was a competition round. Since it was Hirschy’s first time on the track, Toby and me tried to show him the ideal lines. As you can see in the below sequence, I’m not sure how successful we were with that…
Shortly after, Toby had to dodge as Hirschy had a little hickup in his line. Toby decided to dodge over the grass, which turned out to be a bad idea as the grass was super-wet. He skidded all the way over the grass and hit the wall pretty hard. Ouch!
Toby’s steering rack was bent now – the PS13 practically undriveable. Fuck!! We were not allowed to switch cars according to IDS regulations, so we just tried to make the best of it.
The weather was stunning anyway so we tended to the crew and BBQ grill a bit more and enjoyed the nice summer’s day. After lunch, it was time for qualifications…
Toby still ran qualifying with an uncontrollable PS13 and managed to qualify 13th for battles. After this he went straight up the trailer with his car and strapped it on for the journey back home.
At the time of battles it turned out that he had to roll up to the starting line to secure the points. We asked if we could leave the car on the trailer but they said we have to unload.
So Toby unloaded the car, rolled up to start line, gave up due to technical problems and got 2 free championship points.
Andrew qualified 15th so he had the hard task of going up against the number 2 qualifier. It happened to be Oliver Harsch, who I met in the Top16 at Hockenheim in Round 2. Oli is a solid and fast driver.
Since Andrew was new to this track and Oli had been driving this course for 700 years this would be a tough one for Andrew. And unfortunately this isn’t a magical fairy-tale and Andrew was in fact beaten by Oli in the battle and was out of the competition.. Though his performance for the first time driving this course was very strong in my opinion!
Then it was my turn. I had qualified 9th, no idea how though since the engine felt like it was filled with honey and glue. Seems they liked my line trough the course or maybe they felt just sorry or something.
Tried to start the S14 for the battle which is quite a challenge due to the gaskets being fucked. Finally it spluttered to life and I rolled up to the start line. I was up against Alex Gräff in his M3 BMW. I knew it would be extremely hard to keep up with reduced power and a terrible rev-band (boost came in at 5500 revs).
I’d have to carry all the momentum I can and not slow down anywere or I would straighten out and lose the drift. Had the tires pumped to 4.5 bar tire pressure, felt like an AE86 Corolla drifter.
IDS Round 2 – Top16 Battle – Thomet vs. Gräff from Speed Industries on Vimeo.
The video shows our two battle runs. Chase run was fail, lead run was „OK“.
Launched off full throttle, Gräff leading. First Dunlop corner is not judged so we use it to gain more speed and momentum for the mental 3rd gear entry into Schumacher corners.
Tried to keep lots of distance to Gräff since I was pretty sure I would catch up a lot during braking. Initiated 3rd gear with weight shift and a dab of e-brake. Motherfucker won’t go sideways, mash thottle, slightly correct the steering and goooo!
Charging in hard onto the hairpin section. Fast switch, then foot brake and e-brake to slow down, charging in haaard on Gräff with superior entry speed and later braking.
But I charged up too close to Gräff coming into the uphill section! Fuck, gotta brake. Fell out of the rev-band and straightened out, reinitiate the drift but knew judges wouldn’t be happy.
Chasing down the downhill section up to final corner – Gräff straightening out so I do the same and re-initate. Shit; should’ve kept the drift going instead of copying his style there but was afraid I might crash into him if he stays straight. Gotta lose that fear.
First run went 7/3 to Gräff.
Damn, gotta step up my game for my lead run. Went off hard, use Dunlop corner again to gain speed. Full throttle, third gear near limiter, prepare to initiate into Schuhmacher corners.
Fast entry, nice. Solid braking into the hairpin uphill section. Line and speed is good, close to wall, satisfied but not enough power to increase my speed up the hill. Clutch-kicking like mad, turbo gaskets screaming like a wounded hippo. Gräff catching up a lot now.
Near-perfect line trought downhill section but have to stay 2nd gear due to turbo lag. Ran out of revs but used e-brake to keep drift going, full angle again and lots of throttle blasting out the final corner. Increased gap to Gräff again.
However Gräff in general copied my line nicely and did a good chase run.
Won second battle it with 6/4 but was out by a 1 point difference. A shame really, but Alex kept up with me pretty well and deserved the win. Gotta get my car fixed properly sometime.
So the Team couldn’t follow up with the great results from Round 1! We ended up with the following positions:
Alain – 9th
Toby – 13th
Hirschy – 14th
The three podiums went to the following drivers:
1st Christian Koegler
2nd Oliver Harsch
3rd Michael Scherr
Congratulations to all of you! I was especially happy to see Christian Koegler all the way up there, since he had bad luck in the last round and had hard contact with Hirschy in their Top16 battle. Now he had his mind and car focused and working and you can see it paid off! Really cool to see!
For the next Round in Sosnova, CZ I will be going up there with a few of our valuable supporters. Hope my gypsy-cursed car will finally run like I know it could.
until then, good night!
Spirits were not so high since our cars were already falling apart after the madness at Hockenheim, and our bodies were only kept alive by copious amounts of energy drinks in our veins. Still, we *had* to do it. We arrived battered and sleepy late at night at the Nürburgring. We were booked in at an apartment and decided it would be a good idea to end the night with some delicious Rum that Don Icon had provided.
We would send three warriors into battle this time; Andrew Hirschy, Tobias Welti and myself. Toby’s turbo had exploded the day before at Hockenheim, but thanks to Pierre Tchoulkia we managed to find and bolt in a new Garret GT28 turbo on time.
My S14 had blown turbo gaskets; it sounded loud and angry like a grumpy honeybear! But it was definitely down on power. No matter, we still had Hirschy who smartly did not participate at Hockenheim Driftchallenge the days before so his car was still fresh!
The event was very laid-back, there was a kind of Sunday morning mood going on as most PRO drivers were also at Hockenheim the past two days and you could tell by their tired faces. Jörg Söhner did a quick briefing, and introduced the judges. Faruk would be one of the judges again. He’s a good judge and also a really chill guy!
The track was the classic: Nürburgring Mühlebachschleife. Super fast entries, nice braking zones forcing you to go from very fast to very slow in a matter of seconds. Also nice up -and downhill sections really testing everything a driver has got to offer. It really is a spectacular track and one of my all-time favorites!
We prepped the rides and went smokin‘
After like 1 lap I realized my turbo gasket was blowing like the cheapest of hookers and the engine’s performance was getting worse and worse. I needed less grip to get the car sideways properly. I started putting in 4 bars of tire pressure and throwing the fucker in like an old Corolla, carrying as much momentum as possible so I wouldn’t need as much power to reach the far outer clipping points on this track.
It was a bitch to drive like this but I wanted to make the best of it since it was a competition round. Since it was Hirschy’s first time on the track, Toby and me tried to show him the ideal lines. As you can see in the below sequence, I’m not sure how successful we were with that…
Shortly after, Toby had to dodge as Hirschy had a little hickup in his line. Toby decided to dodge over the grass, which turned out to be a bad idea as the grass was super-wet. He skidded all the way over the grass and hit the wall pretty hard. Ouch!
Toby’s steering rack was bent now – the PS13 practically undriveable. Fuck!! We were not allowed to switch cars according to IDS regulations, so we just tried to make the best of it.
The weather was stunning anyway so we tended to the crew and BBQ grill a bit more and enjoyed the nice summer’s day. After lunch, it was time for qualifications…
Toby still ran qualifying with an uncontrollable PS13 and managed to qualify 13th for battles. After this he went straight up the trailer with his car and strapped it on for the journey back home.
At the time of battles it turned out that he had to roll up to the starting line to secure the points. We asked if we could leave the car on the trailer but they said we have to unload.
So Toby unloaded the car, rolled up to start line, gave up due to technical problems and got 2 free championship points.
Andrew qualified 15th so he had the hard task of going up against the number 2 qualifier. It happened to be Oliver Harsch, who I met in the Top16 at Hockenheim in Round 2. Oli is a solid and fast driver.
Since Andrew was new to this track and Oli had been driving this course for 700 years this would be a tough one for Andrew. And unfortunately this isn’t a magical fairy-tale and Andrew was in fact beaten by Oli in the battle and was out of the competition.. Though his performance for the first time driving this course was very strong in my opinion!
Then it was my turn. I had qualified 9th, no idea how though since the engine felt like it was filled with honey and glue. Seems they liked my line trough the course or maybe they felt just sorry or something.
Tried to start the S14 for the battle which is quite a challenge due to the gaskets being fucked. Finally it spluttered to life and I rolled up to the start line. I was up against Alex Gräff in his M3 BMW. I knew it would be extremely hard to keep up with reduced power and a terrible rev-band (boost came in at 5500 revs).
I’d have to carry all the momentum I can and not slow down anywere or I would straighten out and lose the drift. Had the tires pumped to 4.5 bar tire pressure, felt like an AE86 Corolla drifter.
IDS Round 2 – Top16 Battle – Thomet vs. Gräff from Speed Industries on Vimeo.
The video shows our two battle runs. Chase run was fail, lead run was „OK“.
Launched off full throttle, Gräff leading. First Dunlop corner is not judged so we use it to gain more speed and momentum for the mental 3rd gear entry into Schumacher corners.
Tried to keep lots of distance to Gräff since I was pretty sure I would catch up a lot during braking. Initiated 3rd gear with weight shift and a dab of e-brake. Motherfucker won’t go sideways, mash thottle, slightly correct the steering and goooo!
Charging in hard onto the hairpin section. Fast switch, then foot brake and e-brake to slow down, charging in haaard on Gräff with superior entry speed and later braking.
But I charged up too close to Gräff coming into the uphill section! Fuck, gotta brake. Fell out of the rev-band and straightened out, reinitiate the drift but knew judges wouldn’t be happy.
Chasing down the downhill section up to final corner – Gräff straightening out so I do the same and re-initate. Shit; should’ve kept the drift going instead of copying his style there but was afraid I might crash into him if he stays straight. Gotta lose that fear.
First run went 7/3 to Gräff.
Damn, gotta step up my game for my lead run. Went off hard, use Dunlop corner again to gain speed. Full throttle, third gear near limiter, prepare to initiate into Schuhmacher corners.
Fast entry, nice. Solid braking into the hairpin uphill section. Line and speed is good, close to wall, satisfied but not enough power to increase my speed up the hill. Clutch-kicking like mad, turbo gaskets screaming like a wounded hippo. Gräff catching up a lot now.
Near-perfect line trought downhill section but have to stay 2nd gear due to turbo lag. Ran out of revs but used e-brake to keep drift going, full angle again and lots of throttle blasting out the final corner. Increased gap to Gräff again.
However Gräff in general copied my line nicely and did a good chase run.
Won second battle it with 6/4 but was out by a 1 point difference. A shame really, but Alex kept up with me pretty well and deserved the win. Gotta get my car fixed properly sometime.
So the Team couldn’t follow up with the great results from Round 1! We ended up with the following positions:
Alain – 9th
Toby – 13th
Hirschy – 14th
The three podiums went to the following drivers:
1st Christian Koegler
2nd Oliver Harsch
3rd Michael Scherr
Congratulations to all of you! I was especially happy to see Christian Koegler all the way up there, since he had bad luck in the last round and had hard contact with Hirschy in their Top16 battle. Now he had his mind and car focused and working and you can see it paid off! Really cool to see!
For the next Round in Sosnova, CZ I will be going up there with a few of our valuable supporters. Hope my gypsy-cursed car will finally run like I know it could.
until then, good night!