Although he raced on the Nurburgring Grand Prix circuit in 2000 (Autobytel Lotus Elise Championship), Saturday 24th May was the first time Peter had driven around the world famous 14 mile Nordschleife race track in the forested Eifel mountains of northwestern Germany.
The track is normally open to the public when there is no race event, so Peter and his team mates (Giles Groombridge of Brunswick, experienced Alfa racer Gary Lucas, and former K-Sports champion David Smith) took a hire car around the track just to try to get a feel for the 76 corners, high kerbs, tricky cambers and steep gradients. Afterwards, Peter commented: "I'd watched a number of videos of the circuit but until you actually pedal a car around there, you'll never appreciate the incredible challenge of the Nordschleife. Having said that, I'm pretty sure we won't be changing down for the hills in the race car!"
The 24 hour event itself started on Thursday 29th May (driver signing on), with two Qualifying sessions on Friday. Each driver must complete at least two qualifying laps of the Nordschleife in order to start the race. The first Qualifying session ran from 10am to Midday, and Gary, David and Giles were able to complete their two laps before the clock stopped. With a dry track, Giles achieved a 12min 50sec lap, but with yellow flags and a safety car slowing him at the end of the run, it was clear there was more to come.
Throughout the afternoon, the skies darkened and an immense thunderstorm literally flooded the track in the evening. This delayed the start of the second Qualifying session (scheduled to run from 7pm to 11pm). By the time the session started at 8pm, the drivers were all keen to get out there on what was a very tricky half-wet / half-dry track!
Peter left the pits and brought the car around the Grand Prix circuit to the point where drivers can turn right and cut through to the start-finish straight, in order to start a full lap without having to drive around the entire 14 mile Nordschleife circuit. As he slowly approached the cut through, a Porsche 996 dived up the right hand side as if to cut through ahead of the Brunswick car. However, the Porsche driver apparently changed his mind and suddenly veered left, and despite braking and taking avoiding action, Peter couldn't avoid being swiped by the rear corner of the 996, which immediately punctured the front right tyre. "I don't know what the guy was thinking," Peter said, as the team worked to replace the damaged tyre, re-set the suspension geometry and check the car over. "He ruined his qualifying and may have done the same for us."
Fortunately, with a new tyre fitted, the Alfa was soon able to leave the pits for Peter's mandatory two laps, but it was immediately obvious that something was amiss with the handling. "The car didn't want to turn right, and on the really tight corners, I could feel something was fouling when the car was on full lock." Nevertheless, the car achieved a 12 min 12 sec lap which improved its starting position by several places, but as Peter drove around the Grand Prix loop to cut back into the pits, he lost third gear, a legacy of the Porsche impact.
The concern at that point was that Peter had not completed his two laps and would perhaps not be allowed to take the start of the race. The team worked frantically to strip the gearbox, but it became obvious that despite a fantastic team effort, the curtailed Qualifying session would not give them enough time to get the car out again. Just a few more minutes would have been sufficient! Fortunately, after later reviewing the situation, the Clerk of the Course decided to allow Peter to drive in the race.
With the likelihood of little sleep during the race itself, Peter was glad to return to the hotel with the other drivers to get some rest. It was not until he returned to the pit garage the next morning that the full extent of the damage from the Porsche impact was clear. Not only had the gearbox been damaged and replaced; in addition the front right suspension was badly distorted and the shock-absorber bent. Great teamwork managed to overcome these difficulties, and the car would be ready to go at 3pm on Saturday, albeit with a standard gearbox (taller gear ratios and no limited slip differential)
"The guys are unbelievable. They have been up all night working to ready the car, and as they went through it, they found more and more problems! It's a total credit to their skill and passion for the sport that we are in the race at all."
At around 1pm the cars were all assembled onto the grid. It was only at this point that the full impact of the 150,000 fans was felt, as they cheered, waved their flags and blasted their airhorns! As Peter would take the first stint, he settled into the car after topping up on fluids, and the cars slowly moved off on the warm-up lap shortly before 3pm.
"I have never experienced anything like that lap in my life," he grinned. "Most of the fans were on the track, particularly through the Hatzenbach and up the hill to the Karusell. They all wanted to high-five the drivers and touch the cars. We were going so slowly I was worried the engine would overheat!"
Nevertheless, the crowds all returned to the spectator areas and the cars crossed the line for the race proper, streaming down into the new section of the Grand Prix circuit before turned back up the hill and out into the forests of the Nordschliefe.
"I had been warned about the chaos on the first lap and I took it pretty easy. We'd already decided to drop into the pits at the end of that lap to make sure everything was ok with the car, so there was no point in pushing hard." With no obvious problems detected, the Alfa was sent out to complete the rest of the 5 lap stint, and Peter was able to circulate fairly consistently, getting down to an 11 min 41 sec lap time before handing over to David Smith.
"The car was great! The team have sorted the handling issue and it's clear they knew what they were doing when the built the car up - it deals with the Nordschleife bumps really well and has plenty of steam for the main (3km) straight. The standard gearbox seems fine, even if it is not able to put the power on the road quite so well - hopefully it will hold together!"
David handed over to Giles, who completed his stint in the early evening and Gary Lucas departed from the pits as the sun dropped lower in the sky. Gary was lapping well without problems but suddenly he saw the oil pressure drop on the main straight and immediately pulled into the pits. It turned out that the exhaust had hit a bump or kerb somewhere along the way and had been pushed up against the aluminium sump where its vibration had eventually worn a hole! The team used all the tricks in the book to fix the problem and incredibly, the car was on it's way after just 30 minutes in the pit garage!!
At 8pm Peter was out on track again, and although huge thunderclouds threatened to the east, his evening stint went without problems. "It became a little hard to see into some of the corners as the sun got lower, but the flag marshalls were great at warning the cars of any incident. The car just got quicker and quicker as the temperature dropped, but due to major accidents around the track, we had to slow to a crawl through several sections whilst they cleared away the debris."
At the end of this stint it was completely dark, and the additional spot lights fitted to the Brunswick Alfa were essential, particularly through the twisty sections of the track where regular headlights don't illuminate the edge of the track. Things were running smoothly at this point and Peter was able to catch some sleep before taking over the wheel again at 2am.
"I really enjoyed the night session. The track was slightly dewey and the campfire smoke was a problem in some places but it seemed much quieter in terms of race traffic, and the car really responded well to the lower temperatures." Peter was able to focus on turning in consistent laps and apart from various yellow flag incidents, the only restriction was not being able to use 2nd gear which had become increasingly "notchy" as the race progressed; this was not a big disadvantage as the lap times in the 11 min 40sec showed.
Apart from burning a certain amount of engine oil in each stint, the car continued to run faultlessly through the rest of the night, courtesy of David, Giles and Gary, before Peter took over again at around 6am in full daylight; at that point, a mist had blown in and hung over some low parts of the track.
After a couple of laps, the oil pressure warning lights flickered on some of the more severe right handers, and Peter came into the pits briefly for a top-up of engine oil, before going out again and setting the car's fastest laps of the race, getting down to 11 min 25 sec lap time. "This was the first time we had had a clear track with no yellow flags and even without 2nd gear, the time came to us. I think the car had a lot more left in it but on this track, over 24hrs, there is little point in thrashing it to achieve a quick lap."
The only drama in this stint came when Peter encountered oil on the track approaching the tight Adenauer-Forst chicane. "Surprisingly, there were no flags out and as I turned left into the very slowest part of the corner, the car just went straight on over the grass. Fortunately the kerbs there are not too severe and I was able to get the wheels straight as we went over." With no damage to the car, Peter was able to finish the stint and hand over the car to David.
As the morning progressed, everything was going to plan, and the team began to believe a solid finish was possible! The car had risen up to 13th in class (106th overall) and apart from the continual refills of the engine oil at each pit stop, the Alfa was faultless. Even an impact with a Saab 93 Turbo during Giles's mid-morning run couldn't stop Brunswick! The Saab drove Giles off the track, smashing the right front wheel and putting the suspension and drive-train under yet more stress, but still the Alfa was able to continue.
Finally, with the end in sight, Peter would take the car for his last run before handing over to David Smith who would take the flag on behalf of the team. This run was to be a "slow and careful" affair to ensure a finish, but as Peter emerged from the pits to start his session, something seemed immediately wrong. "As I turned through the first right hander out of the pits, I could hear a slight chirping sound from the front left wheel. I did not hear it again for the rest of the lap, but next time round it was there again, also on a couple of other sharp right hand corners. By lap three, I could hear it even on gentle curves, as soon as the left wheel was loaded. It sounded like a wheel bearing was going so I pulled in to the pits so we could check it."
The team took a quick look at the problem area but nothing obvious seemed amiss so Peter went out again to try to maintain the class position on track. However, with the noise now increasing with every corner, he had to cut short his lap and take the cut through to the pits with just one hour left in the race!
A more in depth investigation by the team identified the CV joint as the problem. Since there was so little time remaining, this was packed with grease and the car sent out at 2:45pm, with David at the wheel, in order that it would only have to complete a single slow lap before crossing the finishing line.
As 3pm passed, the crowd went crazy as the winning Opel Astra V8 Coupé crossed the line (driven by Manuel Reuter, Timo Scheider, Marcel Tiemann und Volker Strycek). Meanwhile, the Brunswick crew were looking nervously up the track, awaiting their car, which thankfully reappeared to finish the race at 3:03:31pm, with David proudly flying the Union Jack from the drivers window!
Overall, the Brunswick Alfa Romeo 156 finished in 116th place (out of 230 entrants), one place ahead of the BMW M3 of John Cowgill, Calum Lockie and Cor Euser. Within the A3 class, Brunswick finished in 16th place, a fantastic result considering the technical difficulties and time lost in the pits towards the very end of the race.
"It's hard to describe the feeling at the end of a race like this. Maybe it's the lack of sleep, or too much Powerade, but there was a lot of emotion in the team when David crossed the line. The guys truly gave 200% this weekend, working all day and night since Friday qualifying to keep us in the race. I don't think there is anything that could have stopped this car! This has certainly opened my eyes to a different form of racing and I am hooked; we're already discussing Nurburgring 2004!"
Before then however,
Peter will again be driving for Brunswick, this time in their
Lotus Elise, contesting the British GT Championship rounds at
Oulton Park (near Manchester) and Spa Francorchamps (Belgium),
again supported by sponsor i-TRAK
, whom we would again like to thank for their backing this year.
