dream | act | succeed

Yesterday, I visited the VLN race 7. The VLN is the so called “Langstrecken Meisterschaft” on the Nürburgring & Nordschleife.

The goal is of course to be the fastest in the end. That is the reason for doing motorsport. But here at the ring, you can literally feel that motorsport is even more than this. When hundreds of cars in different classes are hitting the track at the same time, everybody needs to respect each other and leave leave some space for the other cars. Even though, or especially because the track is not really wide.

The fascination of this famous track is of course its sheer endless length, its elevation changes as well as the weather conditions, that can be different on different parts of the track at the same time.

From my perspective myself, with the big goal to become a race car driver, the Nordschleife is the perfect track to race on. This comes due to two facts. The first one is, that there is the possibility to have multiple races a year at the same place. Which makes logistics and everything besides actually racing a repeated process, that can be optimized over time by learning from mistakes. And the other one is, that the track is so difficult to learn, that experience is king. If you just focus on this one particular track, you can learn it by hearth. But this doesn’t only mean to know if the next corner turns to the left, or the right. This means knowing everything. Which line under which weather condition with that car behind you. Dealing with traffic is far more important in endurance racing, then anywhere else. You need to drive your car, watch out for weather changes and deal with traffic. The perfect combination for having a great time.

But even if you are not that ambitious, the Nürburgring is worth a visit. At the VLN Races you are not only allowed to visit the paddock, but you have also the opportunity to walk in the pit-lane, or the starting grid before the race. This is motorsport as close as it can get. The only thing you are missing out is actually driving on the track. But don’t worry, on the simulator, you can even do that.

Because of the huge amount of cars, there are actually three starting groups. This avoids too much traffic in the first view laps, until the drivers are back into their normal driving mode.

While you can watch the race at the GP track, which costs 18€ including the pit walk, the entry to the museum and all the other things you can do, you can also visit the Nordschleife directly. If you decide on doing this, there is no entry fee to pay, just a 8 € ticket for parking around the track, which you need to pay when visiting the GP track as well. (You pay that once and can change between different parking places as often as you want to).

Of course, there is a free live stream on youtube as well. So, feel free to have a first glimpse at this fascinating real motorsport.

Here are some other pictures I have taken.

See you next time.