We all love the Nürburgring.
A typical visit to the Eifel consists of a carefully planned trip, with time booked off work and careful negotiations with partners who may not be able or willing to join you. Budgets for fuel, travel, hotels, lap tickets, food and lastly, beer are all considered, for driving the Nordschleife is never a cheap excursion.
All too often, our Nurburgring trip is only as long as it takes to get one or two days of driving in the bag before we have to make the long journey back to our regular lives, ready to plan the next driving trip back to the Green Hell.
The focus is all about the driving. There, round (and round) before heading home again.
But sometimes, if you can make time, it’s cool to take a tour of the Nurburgring track by different means. Sometimes, it’s cool to walk the track.
Now, I don’t pretend to try and tell you it’s an easy expedition. You will need to allow a full morning or afternoon, you will have to have a good level of fitness and you must give at least some thought to what you’re going to take with you.
But if you do decide to do it, armed with some water and some sturdy walking shoes/boots, you will surely be rewarded with a perspective of the Nürburgring that only a few lucky people get to experience. It is only when we power ourselves around the track that we truly appreciate the scale of the gradients, hills, cambers and sheer drops that lie behind the guard rails amongst the trees. It is quite something to experience!
Jochen (Frozenspeed) and I decided to walk a lap in March last month. I’ll be honest with you, I was a little apprehensive, as I’ve underestimated this effort before and managed to injure myself but, on this occasion everything was good and the weather was really kind. We started in Adenau and Jochen completed the half lap he wanted to do, finishing at Galgenkopf.
I always planned to do the full lap returning back to Adenau, and after a beautiful hike into sunset finally arrived back at the car, weary but happy, about five hours after I started.
So, a challenge. Next time you visit the Nürburgring, for a track day or otherwise, make some time to experience life on the other side of the fence. Plan some time for a track walk.
It’s well worth it!
