Y’all know what they say ‘bout Co-eansy-dences… As I sat down to take a break last night. I watched my first entire Grand Am race of the season, which was being contested at Watkins Glen. And the action was fairly entertaining… Although the Grand Am and the ALMS seem to suffer a similar fait as do Champ Car and the IRL.
Immediately afterwards, there was the Nurburgring staring’ back at me via the telescreen. As SPEED was showing an entertaining half hour snippet of the World’s LONGEST race track.
The Nordschleife took four years to build, between the years of 1923 to 1927. And although I’ve written it has over 175 corners, these numbers vary depending upon how their counted. As the announcer claimed there’s only 72 corners.
And I’d seen the latter half of the show previously, but missed the beginning. Interestingly while there’s been a big fuss made over Audi’s winning of Le Mans with a diesel. As well as Peugeot’s diesel powered contender this year. A BMW 320D won the Nurburgring 24 Hours race in 1998. Becoming the very first diesel powered vehicle to win a 24hr event…
And while the “Wee Scot” was never a fan of the track. Due to his relentless safety demands. Jackie Stewart won a Formula 1 race in the rain, beating the second place car by over 4 minutes! But the track was withdrawn from the F1 calendar after Niki Lauda’s fiery crash in 1976.
Also I was unaware that it was Stewart who nicknamed it the Green Hell. And prices have gone up slightly, as it will now cost you 16 Euros per lap to reconnoiter this truly epic circuit…
