So on the 24th and 25th of May the team embarked to another Sport Auto drift challenge which is held annually at Hockenheim.
This is one of the biggest drift events in the german part of Europe so we definitely did not want to miss this one.
Start for us was on Thursday.
I drove the R34, should be on site as a display car
We started our journey and arrived at a very rainy paddock. Not the best weather to set up camp.
Marco, Jo and me did it anyway. So an hour later we had the most important stuff set up and took off with some super wet feet to our hotel.
After a good old hot shower we treated ourselves with some nice all you can eat chinese restaurant.
Andrew arrived later that night and just checked in silently.
Our camp, quite basic but does the job
Friday we had to get up early for the mandatory briefing, but since everybody was hungry for the event this was no problem at all.
The rain had also stopped so our mood just jumped up two additional notches and we got to the paddock.
During the briefing, Jo and Marco did a check on the vitals of the PS13, while Claudio is just freezing his ass off in the back ( best pit crew EVER)
Then things started quite fast.
We had 50min practice.
Sounds like enough but with 35 other cars on track that was actually not that much driving time, but just enough to set up the suspension via the Tein EDFC system.
Then after lunchtime qualification came.
Andrew went up before me and I saw that he did do some decent laps. So I was sure he would be good for the top 32.
Then it was my turn.
I started my first lap and went like 90%.
Ended up being a decent run so most of the pressure was off.
Thanks to V-Eight.de for the pic
I did step it up for the other two runs and was getting nice into the cliping zones.
Angle could have been more but this was most I could do with the limited amount of power I do have available.
After the qualifications results came up.
Andrew scored 87 and I did 89 out of 100.
That put Andrew in 18th place and me into 13th.
How you like Andrews license plate? Quite nice I think
I always get an odd feeling qualifying in the upper part of the bracket since the difference between the drivers can be very big.
Everytime this happens I remember when I qualified 1st in Lausitz and dropped out against a super slow car and funny line in the first round.
So I had some mixed feelings about it.
Anyways, I went to our cars and got them ready for the battles.
Again Marco and Jo were a big help.
I can not say how much it helps if you do have some reliable guys taking care of some of the workload that comes during a race weekend.
Keeps you focused for the driving.
Then we lined up for the battles and I saw whom I am driving against.
It was a guy with an old 6 series BMW. The car looks quite gangster but usually is a bit slow and sometimes sketchy on track.
So I did have some mixed feelings.
When it was our turn we had a warm up lap.
I took off and did an easy lap just to get some temperature into the tires.
While rolling back to the start line the other guy was missing.
It turned out he crashed into the wall. But besides some special alignement to his rear the car was fine.
So we started.
I took off.
1st
2nd
3rd
initiating
full throttle
switch to the other side
full throttle
break, break
e-brake
brake
down to 2nd
full throttle
switch to other side
full throttle
switch
full throttle
and we are out
a decent first run, nothing crazy but got good seperation on the BMW
Sorry for the bad quality, just a phone pic
So we switched places and took off again.
Ok he is not that fast, I hold back a little bit
Mmmh odd line he takes
I am too slow to initiate the usual way, so clutch kick and we go
catching up fast, more angle
shit this line is bad
switch to other side
mmhh, might be a bit close with those tires standing there
BUMP
ok, was too tight
keep going though
oh shit, more tires and no space
CLUNK
huge stack of tires is inside my door and the window is shattered all across the inside
OK, so the epic fail was back.
I dropped out in top 32 and my battles where over.
And the car looked like this.
Fortunately though it mangled only the door and the rear panel.
Chassis itself was still straight.
So I went up to the stands and checked for Andrew and his process.
He was up against Rene and his R33 Skyline, a good friend of ours.
Andrew had two decent runs but Rene just got a little closer to him then the other way around.
Unfortunately Andrew dropped out.
In the end Matt Carter from Falken took the win and Oliver Harsch got a very impressive second place.
Third went to Remmo Niezen who won the past few years.
So this was it with the battles, but we knew the next day would be funday with lots of driving so spirits were high.
We secured camp for the night and took off to our hotel.
Next morning we arrived back at the track and started to get the cars ready.
Then it was lots of taxi rides on the east track.
The line for taxi guests was impressive, easily 50m long.
We took our own boys out in the passenger seat since we drivers also want to give back to our team members. They work their asses off and are not even behind the steering wheel.
Andrew and me doing some tandem practice
Nice footage from a photographer riding shotgun in Andrews car. Props for the steady hand
I also tried to go crazy on the entry into the slow right hander.
Then after lots of driving on the east course we went to the „Sachskurve“ for the drift show.
This is just a fun event where the public gets to see lots of drifting.
Check out the crowd, around 20’000 in attendance
Then again it was a wrap.
See you next year Hockenheim.
Thanks to
Sport Auto for the top organization of the event
V-Eight for the pics
And BIG thanks to our sponsors:
Monster Energy Switzerland
Brian Crower
Sonnenberg GarageSo on the 24th and 25th of May the team embarked to another Sport Auto drift challenge which is held annually at Hockenheim.
This is one of the biggest drift events in the german part of Europe so we definitely did not want to miss this one.
Start for us was on Thursday.
I drove the R34, should be on site as a display car
We started our journey and arrived at a very rainy paddock. Not the best weather to set up camp.
Marco, Jo and me did it anyway. So an hour later we had the most important stuff set up and took off with some super wet feet to our hotel.
After a good old hot shower we treated ourselves with some nice all you can eat chinese restaurant.
Andrew arrived later that night and just checked in silently.
Our camp, quite basic but does the job
Friday we had to get up early for the mandatory briefing, but since everybody was hungry for the event this was no problem at all.
The rain had also stopped so our mood just jumped up two additional notches and we got to the paddock.
During the briefing, Jo and Marco did a check on the vitals of the PS13, while Claudio is just freezing his ass off in the back ( best pit crew EVER)
Then things started quite fast.
We had 50min practice.
Sounds like enough but with 35 other cars on track that was actually not that much driving time, but just enough to set up the suspension via the Tein EDFC system.
Then after lunchtime qualification came.
Andrew went up before me and I saw that he did do some decent laps. So I was sure he would be good for the top 32.
Then it was my turn.
I started my first lap and went like 90%.
Ended up being a decent run so most of the pressure was off.
Thanks to V-Eight.de for the pic
I did step it up for the other two runs and was getting nice into the cliping zones.
Angle could have been more but this was most I could do with the limited amount of power I do have available.
After the qualifications results came up.
Andrew scored 87 and I did 89 out of 100.
That put Andrew in 18th place and me into 13th.
I always get an odd feeling qualifying in the upper part of the bracket since the difference between the drivers can be very big.
Everytime this happens I remember when I qualified 1st in Lausitz and dropped out against a super slow car and funny line in the first round.
So I had some mixed feelings about it.
Anyways, I went to our cars and got them ready for the battles.
Again Marco and Jo were a big help.
I can not say how much it helps if you do have some reliable guys taking care of some of the workload that comes during a race weekend.
Keeps you focused for the driving.
Then we lined up for the battles and I saw whom I am driving against.
It was a guy with an old 6 series BMW. The car looks quite gangster but usually is a bit slow and sometimes sketchy on track.
So I did have some mixed feelings.
When it was our turn we had a warm up lap.
I took off and did an easy lap just to get some temperature into the tires.
While rolling back to the start line the other guy was missing.
It turned out he crashed into the wall. But besides some special alignement to his rear the car was fine.
So we started.
I took off.
1st
2nd
3rd
initiating
full throttle
switch to the other side
full throttle
break, break
e-brake
brake
down to 2nd
full throttle
switch to other side
full throttle
switch
full throttle
and we are out
a decent first run, nothing crazy but got good seperation on the BMW
Sorry for the bad quality, just a phone pic
So we switched places and took off again.
Ok he is not that fast, I hold back a little bit
Mmmh odd line he takes
I am too slow to initiate the usual way, so clutch kick and we go
catching up fast, more angle
shit this line is bad
switch to other side
mmhh, might be a bit close with those tires standing there
BUMP
ok, was too tight
keep going though
oh shit, more tires and no space
CLUNK
huge stack of tires is inside my door and the window is shattered all across the inside
OK, so the epic fail was back.
I dropped out in top 32 and my battles where over.
And the car looked like this.
Fortunately though it mangled only the door and the rear panel.
Chassis itself was still straight.
So I went up to the stands and checked for Andrew and his process.
He was up against Rene and his R33 Skyline, a good friend of ours.
Andrew had two decent runs but Rene just got a little closer to him then the other way around.
Unfortunately Andrew dropped out.
In the end Matt Carter from Falken took the win and Oliver Harsch got a very impressive second place.
Third went to Remmo Niezen who won the past few years.
So this was it with the battles, but we knew the next day would be funday with lots of driving so spirits were high.
We secured camp for the night and took off to our hotel.
Next morning we arrived back at the track and started to get the cars ready.
Then it was lots of taxi rides on the east track.
The line for taxi guests was impressive, easily 50m long.
We took our own boys out in the passenger seat since we drivers also want to give back to our team members. They work their asses off and are not even behind the steering wheel.
Andrew and me doing some tandem practice
Nice footage from a photographer riding shotgun in Andrews car. Props for the steady hand
I also tried to go crazy on the entry into the slow right hander.
Then after lots of driving on the east course we went to the „Sachskurve“ for the drift show.
This is just a fun event where the public gets to see lots of drifting.
Check out the crowd, around 20’000 in attendance
Then again it was a wrap.
See you next year Hockenheim.
Thanks to
Sport Auto for the top organization of the event
V-Eight for the pics
And BIG thanks to our sponsors:
Monster Energy Switzerland
Brian Crower
Sonnenberg Garage