The 14 mile Nordschleife race track is renowned as the greatest challenge a racing driver can face. The track, designed and built in the 1930s, twists and turns through the steep slopes of the forested Eifel mountains of northwestern Germany and features no less than 84 demanding corners (not including 11 further corners on the grand prix track which the 24 hour event also uses).
To make matters even more difficult, the weather in the region is notoriously changeable, a hot summer sun replaced in minutes by a heavy downpour, conditions changing even from corner to corner.
This was Peter's second visit to the "Ring" for the 24 hour race, last year's finish in the Brunswick Alfa 156 marking a successful debut. "I spent a lot of time last year preparing for the race, watching videos of the track and so on. This year I have been so busy, it was difficult to find the time, but it only took the two laps of the first qualifying session to get comfortable with the track. The weather was a bit tiresome though..."
That was certainly an understatement; the warm sunshine of Thursday was replaced with heavy rain showers on Friday, when the two qualifying sessions were scheduled to take place. The first session would last for 2 hours in the morning, just enough time for the four drivers to do their mandatory two laps to be eligible to race.
Team Think (run by Martin Rogers and Matt Potter - see www.teamthink.co.uk) had done an excellent job preparing their Renault Clio RS for the event and apart from attaching sponsor decals for the race, there was little to be done but strap the drivers in and hit the ignition! "I was keen to drive the Clio since last year, having seen how agile they are, which counts for a lot around this circuit," Peter said. "The sequential six-speed 'box is also a huge bonus. It prevents mis-shifts and reduces the time lost changing gear which is also a big deal when you have over 100 gear shifts per lap".
The car's owner, Meyrick Cox took the wheel first, followed by Anthony Coxon (who came with several years of Nordschleife experience, albeit in a rear wheel drive VW Beetle). Peter would run third, and Autocar Road Test Editor Chris Harris would complete the session (also bringing valuable experience from a 10th place overall Nurburgring 24 hours finish in a Caterham in 2002).
With the rain momentarily holding off, the track was relatively dry in most places during qualifying, and Peter was able to put in a 10 min 38.8 sec lap which was sufficient to qualify the car 150th overall out of 230 cars (23rd in Class out of 41 cars). "The car was actually terrible to drive, a real handful, with the rear just bouncing around on the bumps. We need to sort this out - I can't drive it like that for two laps let alone twenty four hours!"
After discussion between drivers and mechanics, the rear suspension was stripped down and the likely cause of the problem was traced to a faulty rear damper. This was replaced, and some suspension geometry changes were also carried out to improve stability and grip before the evening qualifying session which would run from 7:30-11:30pm. A large bank of spotlights was also mounted on the front bumper to provide the necessary visibility through the night.
"The car was completely transformed after the changes, and we could drive with confidence where previously we'd all felt way too close to the limit," Peter grinned. Unfortunately the deterioration in the weather had left the track damp and in general the lap times would not improve compared to the morning qualifying session. Some of the more powerful cars, which had experienced problems in the morning, did bump the Clio down the order to 156th but nevertheless, all four drivers confirmed a big handling improvement had been made. With no technical worries, the team headed off to catch some sleep before the inevitable tiring twenty four hours to come.
Saturday morning started sunny and bright, but it was to be a false dawn: by the time the grid was due to form up, large black clouds loomed overhead and patchy showers began to fall. Meyrick would take the first stint of 2 hours, and leading up the the start, there was the difficult decision to be made regarding tyres: slicks or wets? Ultimately, the team opted for slicks along with most of the field, and the cars moved off on the warm up lap on an essentially dry track.
At 3pm, the cars crossed the line and the race was underway! Meyrick was able to hold his position after several wayward cars charged past only to spin off in front of the Team Think Clio! Shortly into the race, rain began to fall and it was touch and go as to whether Meyrick would need to pit for slicks. However, unlike many other cars, he held on and as the shower passed, it was clear the team had made up several places as other cars had stopped for tyres.
Eventually, Meyrick was forced to stop for wet tyres owing to a torrential downpour and the team elected to change drivers also. Anthony Coxon took over, and in the appalling conditions, was able to climb up the order still further, despite a misted up windscreen making life difficult.
Peter took to the track in the early evening, the rain having eased off sufficiently for slicks, and the Clio steadily progressed to 136th overall before the heavens opened again. What happened next is best relayed by the driver: "I could see a few spots of rain on the windscreen as I approached the pit straight, but the rest of the track was dry, so like the cars ahead of me I carried on. It's a shame my pit radio was not working because the team could see the track was awash beyond the pits. By the time I saw the water, it was too late to pit so I decided to drive around to the "cut through" where it's possible to go back to the pits from the grand prix circuit. Everything was fine until I got down to the far hairpin and all the cars ahead started sliding on the huge lake of water there. Rather than risk hitting them, I went down the run off area (on the unused part of the grand prix circuit) and turned around. As luck would have it I couldn't get reverse gear, and as I was right in the target zone should anyone lose it under braking, I drove forwards over the grass to turn around and get out of the way. Trouble was, I didn't have enough steering lock and so I tapped the armco (barrier) on the way past. It didn't do any real damage but I lost momentum and got stuck on the wet grass! It seemed like ages to get the car back on the track and to the pits!"
The team switched the car over to wets and Peter was able to complete the stint, taking advantage of the bad weather and hauling the car up to 126th overall. At that point, there was a very real possibility that the team's target of a top 75 finish would be achievable.
Chris Harris was next in the car, and did an admirable job of piloting the steamed-up Clio through the rain, the only places lost being due to the pitstop after his stint. "I couldn't reach the windscreen to clear it," he said afterwards. "I was just driving blind in all the righthanders." The team was in good company with the demisting problem - even the top factory Opel Astra team (with whom Team Think were sharing a pit garage) struggled with visibility.
With Meyrick back in the car, it was time for Peter to catch some sleep, before taking over the car for the "graveyard shift" at 3am. Anthony would be next out and the team would wake Peter half an hour before he was due to drive. Peter was duly ready in the floodlit pitlane at a quarter to three, but, to the teams mounting concern, the Clio had failed to show! It was clear something had gone wrong and despite all the TV coverage, it was not until Anthony was able to call the team on his mobile that they established what had happened. Anthony had approached the fast Pflanzgarten section and had been shocked to see car headlights facing him! In attempting avoiding action, he lost control and the car spun off the track, clunking the barrier heavily at the front and rear before coming to rest. Thankfully Anthony was fine but it was over an hour before the team could check the car when it arrived back at the pit garage on the back of a truck.
The worst of the damage was just behind the front bumper where the impact had seriously bent the chassis legs which was preventing the alternator from rotating freely. The Team Think mechanics sprang into action, straightening the damaged metalwork, resetting the suspension and checking the car for further damage. Amazingly, the car restarted at the first attempt, and despite copious lengths of "gaffer tape", Peter was able to drive out onto the track at approximately 6am.
"I was really tired at that point," he said. "I had only really slept for about an hour when they woke me and then we all were helping fix the damage to the car, so when it was time to drive, I should really have been in bed!". Modern day energy drinks are wonderful things however, and Peter was certainly awake as he accelerated down through Kallenhard when he felt an ominous vibration through the steering wheel. "I backed it right off immediately. This isn't a track where you take risks and my first thought was that I had a puncture, perhaps from the bent bodywork."
Running gently down the hill towards Wehrseifen, it was clear what the problem was: the front left wheel was detaching itself from the hub! Fortunately no damage was done and Peter was able to park the car off the track at Exmühle, calling the team on his mobile to explain the situation. Shortly afterwards, the team arrived by public road and the wheel was swiftly changed after the hub was checked over. Peter drove slowly back to the pits where the team gave the car a more extensive safety check whilst the drivers determined their new goals for the event.
Having lost over four hours with these various problems, a good finish was out of the question. Therefore, it was decided that the team would simply go for a finish. However, even this would be a challenge, not only because the car had been through the wars, but in order to be classified as a finisher, the team would have to complete more than 50% of the laps of the eventual race winner (a much more powerful BMW M3 GTR driven by Dirk and Jörg Müller, Hans Stuck and Pedro Lamy).
At that point, the Team Think Clio had done 50 laps (languishing in 182nd position), and the leader had completed 105 laps; there was nothing for it but to push hard to avoid the disappointment of a non-finish. Peter went out and completed his stint, driving again in the rain with the misted up windscreen, before handing over to Chris.
The scene was set with four hours to go: each of the Team Think drivers would complete a 1 hour stint, during which time they would need to lap as rapidly as possible in order to complete the required number of laps to be classified a finisher. With the lead car estimated to complete around 143 laps by the finish, the Clio would need to total at least 72 laps in the time remaining. This would require an average lap time (including pitstops) of approximately 11 minutes, which, on a clear track with new tyres and brakes would have been reasonable, but at this late stage was a major challenge.
Meyrick went out and was able to lap in the right ballpark, the track having dried out as the day progressed. As he handed the car over to Anthony, the tension built up; Anthony's previous lap had involved the 3am crash and none were more concerned than he about the task which lay ahead. Lapping conservatively, he completed his stint without a problem and Peter took the wheel.
"I had been watching the stopwatch during Anthony's run and I knew his best lap had been an 11:16 which I was worried might not be quite enough to keep us on target," he said. "I also knew from last year that we would probably lose a lot of time at the end when everyone slows down on the final lap, so I was determined to push hard."
It was immediately obvious to the team that Peter was going for it, lapping quickly and consistently right out of the pits. In fact, his quickest recorded lap (10min 15.262sec) would have been good enough for 10th in class on the grid, despite the worn tyres which were causing severe handling problems, particularly over the fast crests at Schwedenkreuz and Pflanzgarten. It was enough for Team Think to make up three places overall, and when Peter handed the car over to Chris to take the finish with a hour to go, it seemed that a classified finish was very much on the cards.
In fact, with Chris keeping up a good sub 11min lap pace, Team Think were able to complete 77 laps at the flag, and with the lead BMW M3 GTRs slowing right down to create a formation finish, this was easily enough to exceed the 50% target! The expression of relief on every team member's face said it all, as they cheered Chris across the line from the pit wall shortly after 3pm.
"It's been another great fun event at the Nurburgring," Peter smiled after things had calmed down. "We knew after the night stints that there was only the finish to go for and we achieved that together. The Clio was pretty much faultless throughout, and was very rewarding to drive in the wet or dry, embarrassing even BMW M3s in the twists and turns. However, it's a track without mercy and we would never recover from the time we lost in the night repairing the car. Our fastest lap right at the end on old tyres and brakes, heavy fuel and carrying damage from the impact, was good enough to have qualified us 10th in class. An Audi A3 turbo did a similar fastest race lap to us and finished 33rd overall!"
Peter is already planning his return to the 'Ring in 2005, as ever looking for an even quicker car with which he can score a much-coveted top result in the overall rankings. "I love the strategic approach that has to be taken in a 24 hour race, and in particular the challenge this track offers the driver. I am also looking at other 24 hour events worldwide but for sure I will be back here again next year!"
