Aside from the spectacle and excitement of the race itself, my favorite part of my semi-annual trip to the Nürburgring 24 Hours is the week after. Since I’m already in a beautiful foreign country, I usually take the week off, bring my wife over for some R&R, and see the sights a bit.
And, of course, I always get back to the track a bit.
Not only do I love the fact that I can rent a car and turn a few laps on one of the world’s greatest racing circuits, but I love the culture around the track. The sprawling circuit surrounds three villages, and another half dozen or more sit in the Eifel National Park within a few minutes’ drive. And all of them are largely dedicated to life around the track.
The best comparison is probably to a ski or surf town–small towns that wouldn’t exist except to service the enjoyment of a valuable natural resource, in this case 20-plus kilometers of the most exciting asphalt on earth. The Hauptstraßen–main streets–of all the towns are lined with businesses catering to track junkies and racers.
In the lovely village of Adenau, bordering the Breidscheid corner complex, there’s a lovely café where you can get an amazing cup of coffee and some delicious German pastries right next to a shop where you can buy your choice of Pagid brake pad compounds. That’s my kind of mall.
There are also the instructors. Much like the grizzled, sun-bleached surf gurus in ’80s movies who quit their Wall Street jobs to move to the North Shore and ride the waves with a near-religious passion, the Nürburgring is surrounded by veteran Nordschleife pilots who will gladly trade their knowledge for a few euros.
On my recent trip, I rented an F30 BMW 3 Series–instantly familiar as I’m greatly enjoying tracking our 435i project car–from the good folks at Ringfreaks. The crew there introduced me to Thomas Brügmann–easily findable online as RingStruktor–who daily drives a BMW M2 with a full cage and a wing big enough to lift a Citation business jet.
At this point, after a decade-plus of trips and a bunch of instructed laps during my Nürburgring permit class, I feel like I’m getting a decent handle on the flow of the track. Of course, the racer/journalist side of me couldn’t resist a few questions about Thomas’ unique perspective on helping people go fast.
How does he assess someone’s abilities and limits so quickly and adjust his instruction to make sure everyone is safe…
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