The Nurburgring 6 Hour race proved to be a little less than straightforward but all in all a successful first drive for the German TJS Autosport team.

The track was dry for the Friday testing session and it soon became apparent that all was not well with the number 478 Renault Clio. Lack of stability at high speed and during hard braking was worrying to say the least and it was a struggle to keep the car steady going in a straight line let alone whilst cornering. After a close examination of the car and much head scratching by the team it was a case of change the rear dampers, put on some fresh tyres and hope for the best!

Qualifying was 8 o'clock the next morning; did I really get out of bed that early? This was to be my first experience of the "Green Hell" in the rain and I could not wait. Fortunately the car was better suited to the wet conditions and we managed to qualify 131^st out of 200 cars which I thought was not too bad for a little Group N car although not quite as good as the teams other car which had managed 114^th. I was now hoping for a full day of rain but it was not to be.

The rain continued until shortly before my stint in the car and it was then a case of changing from wet tyres to slicks when I got into the car. Unfortunately we had no chance to scrub in any slick tyres during qualifying so it was un-scrubbed slicks on a wet track! This meant total concentration to keep the car on the track and judging by the amount of crashes during the following hour and a half there was a fine line between being on the tarmac and being buried in the Armco. Had the wet conditions persisted I think the result would have been better but the track dried and it became obvious that even our sister car was consistently quicker than number 478. Unfortunately its driver Ulrich Mahler had a massive shunt half way through the race at Aremberg which destroyed the car, fortunately without injury to the driver.

We finally finished 122^nd and 10^th in class; a result I would normally be disappointed with but given that the car clearly had problems and the treacherous conditions it was quite an achievement. I just can't wait to go back to the "Green Hell" again and I hope it rains…

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