My Year Abroad: All good things must come to an end

Sunday

We woke up, made breakfast and quickly broke down camp. We packed all our belongings into the car and cleaned the campsite better than we found it. I tallied up what everyone owed and spent for groceries, cars and gas so we could split the cost (i kept all recipts). Then we split up and a group of us went to Nürburg. The other went straight to the Grand Prix circuit to watch the last 3 hours of the race.

Burg Nürburg is a castle built in the middle ages and stands on the second highest hill in Eifel. It is a major landmark of the area next to the Nürburgring itself and is visible from many spots on the east side of the track. It cost about 2,50€ to get in to the ruins with student I.D. It was an absolutely beautiful view. The spiral staircase to the top of the main tower was dark and cooler than the outside temperature. Once to the top however, there were so many flies, bees and other bugs! We were running around flailing, barely could take a picture. It was a grand view of the beautiful landscape which is by far one of the best I've seen in Germany so far (other than the mountains down south of course).

We head back to the Grand Prix track and I set off to meet up with, once again, Mrs. Hürtgen. But alas, no one could tell me where I could find her, and the team mates at the Paddocks were very very busy. I called Jörg and he was kind enough to meet up with me again so I headed over to the Dörr Motorsport tent.

He invited me in and I asked him if he could take the map [which he himself had signed] and ask for Claudia's autograph the next time he saw her (following monday or tuesday). I saw another BMW colleague, Frank Weishar, whom I met from BMW Driver Training a couple weeks ago, and asked for his autograph. He was also a driver of the 1-series Diesel (#195) that Jörg was also piloting. After that two more colleagues of theres, other established drivers, just wandered in and they got them to sign the map as well! I was getting a lot more than I was expecting. Hanging out in the Dörr Motorsport tent was really neat; there was a Z4 GT3 and a pallete with an M3 motor on it. Next to the pallete was a brand new white e92 M3....without a motor. Where they using this brandy new car as a parts car? the world may never know ;)
Unforunately, the 1 series diesel that was being driven encountered catastrophic failure on the rear axle so they were forced to retire.

After I said my goodbyes to the racers, I headed back to the Stands to see the last hour of the race. It was a clear beautiful day, a treat after the 3 days of drizzle and constant weather changes. The race ended with a Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (#18) winning first, BMW M3 GT2 (#1) winning second, and an Audi R8 LMS winning third. However, really everyone who finished claimed a victory for a successful 24hour race which challenged the drivers, the cars and the teams to work harder and longer encountering all types of weather conditions. It was a great race.... I was glad to have the opportunity to view it in person.

Dörr Motorsport tent with drivers Jörg Weidinger and Frank Weishar