Old Timer Grand Prix

[Peter Mallett]

Includes Formula Junior, Masters Grand Prix etc.

[retrognome]

Looking forward to reporting this three day event. It's taken me three years to establish the best vantage points around the long Nordschleife circuit and the combination of changing weather and scenery makes for terrific pictures.

[MartinH]

Hi there ; I will be there with the Cortina doing the U2TC type race on the Nordschleife, Friday, then the other pre66 touring car race Sat & Sun.

Yesterday I looked into the entry lists for the event on the AvD website & there are VERY FEW entries for most of the races !!!!!!!! Considering this is THE big historic event of the year in Germany, it's very dissapointing to see so few cars entered - less than 100 in total for all 3 N'schleife catagories & thin grids for Sat & Sun races.

There were many problems with the way the AvD wanted to use an online entry form that never worked, so they went back to a paper type, all be it very late on in the day, so this may have put people off.

I hope the meeting will still be a good event & look forward to meeting any tenthers that are around !!

[terence]

See you there,not sure what we'll be using yet though.

[kickstart]

We will be out in the Marathon with a Grantura so really looking forward to it.
It has taken several attempts with our Marcos to get it to survive the ring so we have fingers crossed for the TVR on it's first attempt
Entries certainly seem way down on a few years ago but this is a nasty recession and perhaps this is an event that many competitors are have to cut as it costs quite a tidy sum to run at this event

[Rudernst]

I posted this on Facebook first, but I thought You might want to know....

"ohh allmighty Gods of Rain, Fog and Thunderstorm, I am racing a powerful Eff One car at the Nurburgring next weekend, I have a fresh sset of rain tires for it, yees, but can You purleeeeese go somewhere else that weekend ? South of Spain for instance, very nice at this time of the year and you will really be appreciated there... deal ?"

I have entered

March 721 in GPM
Brabham BT2 in the Lurani, my first race in the thing
aaand we wrangled our way into the sports car race wit the Kieft

Rudolf

[Peter Mallett]

With the Gold Cup, Goodwood and Spa in fairly close order, coupled with the recession, I guess the entry levels are not surprising sadly. Good luck to you all.

[Rudernst]

The online entry form for the OGP was a loony idea,
I nearly apologised for it here in this forum on behalf of the German Historic Community.

Amazing that they would not listen at first when it was pointed out to them that entries would suffer from the online crap.
very high handed behaviour

And what good was the online entry system anyway when You had to still had to put a signed form and a copy of Your HTP into the post.

BTW: the online form worked, provided YOU NEVER EVER presses Return, just used the mouse, took me an hour though...

On the other hand, they manged to get the class structure and class allocation of the entry wrong for GPM who did not have to use the online form.....

I think that the OGP is run by some old hands who fail to grasp that the OGP was THE top event decades ago but times have changed and now it has to compete against other Historic events that just did not exist 20 years ago,
think Goodwood, LMC, Monaco
They dont realise that nowadays historic racers have a wide choice and need to be wooed to a certain extent

The Germans themselves seem to drift more towards exhibtion runs,regularity runs and suchlike, less and less outright racing

Anyway I am going, wheather promises to be ok.

And not all races are undersubscribed
- Lurani is oversubscribed
- Grand Prix Masters 18 entries seems average
- Sports car race, 44 entries seems ok
They turned my Kieft down first (wanted to get D-Type Jaguars and suchlike, dream on, 44 cars of that calibre) but in the end accepted it

I know why I commute to England to race....

Rudolf

[grantp]

Interesting comments Rudolf. It occured to me (again) last week that we are rather lucky in the UK for the number of race circuits that are still available even though many have been lost. Also Hill climb venues but I am aware that much more spectacular Hill Climb venues are used in parts of Europe.

I was talking to some people whilst 'oop north' at the weekend and the subject of travel to races came up a few times. There are not so many full time circuits in the north of the country as there are further south.

But living as I do in the middle of the country there is quite a wide choice. So I wondered just how far each of the circuits was frmm where I live. The AA route planner seemed a reasonable way to get some idea although I am fairly sure that some of the routes could have a few miles shaved off them.

Here's a list of all of the realistically vaguely usable circuits I can think of. I have added the distances (Miles) I would need to travel. Can anyone add any that I have missed?

 
Donington            2
Mallory Park        23
Rockingham          48
Silverstone         64
Oulton Park         73
Cadwell Park        80
Croft              136
Castle Combe       140
Snetterton         142
Brands Hatch       150
Thruxton           151
Llandow            166
Goodwood           173
Anglesey           174
Lydden Hill        195
Pembrey            205
Knockhill          322

How do other countries compare?

[MGDavid]

there's a very strong argument in favour of quality not quantity; how many of those circuits have an all-tarmac paddock with water and hook-up freely available to all?
How many more circuits per country does one need beyond Nordschleife, Spa, Zandvoort, Dijon, Monza?

[delta]

Well Im looking forward to all the free food.. And the beer, and the apple strudle.

[Mike Bell]

Originally Posted by delta

Well Im looking forward to all the free food.. And the beer, and the apple strudle.

What more is there to life.......

Grant- you need to get out more!

[Peter Mallett]

Merged into calendar thread.

[john ruston]

We were asked but its last weekend of Olympics!

Got to put things in order of priority.

[midgetman]

Originally Posted by MGDavid

there's a very strong argument in favour of quality not quantity; how many of those circuits have an all-tarmac paddock with water and hook-up freely available to all?
How many more circuits per country does one need beyond Nordschleife, Spa, Zandvoort, Dijon, Monza?

there has to be an entry level, a training element. It's thanks to the wide diversity of circuits that we in the UK can have e.g. MGCC events where you got your five signatures before heading to Europe. Without the wide choice of tracks the MGCC would find it harder to put on race meetings, they would be shouldered aside for the bigger events. Think of the way the MG Live date is never fixed until Bernie sorts himself out.

Most race tracks have got a kart track, they encourage the next generation of racers to keep the industry working. Local race tracks inspire local racers to start. The more the merrier!

Electric hookup? Pah, a few years ago you would have called it namby pamby. Buy a generator!

[MGDavid]

Originally Posted by midgetman

......

Electric hookup? Pah, a few years ago you would have called it namby pamby. Buy a generator!

I do have a genny - last used a couple of weeks ago at C Combe - but I was conscious of the racket it makes. It seems silly (and anti-social) to have a ban on running race car engines before 0830 and after 6.30 pm when you have gennys pounding away til midnight and beyond!

[retrognome]

Weather looks good.

[retrognome]

Why did so few cars start the Friday Marathon, a lot less than those shown on the entry list?

[john ruston]

Probably sensible and stayed in UK to watch Olympics?

You can do this Historic Car stuff any time,it's not that big a deal.

[delta]

Not the event it used to be.In the early days there were full grids,motor bikes, auto jumble ect ect. Now its loads of goody tents, Laural and Hardy with a few straw bails slung around.
The Apple pie was still as good as ever.

[MartinH]

Agree with retro & Ian ; the whole event suffered a lack of entries & a bit too much of corporate stuff in the center paddock area forcing the real competitors into the background.

Gave Ian a quick wave as I sped by him on the way to the collecting area on Friday, but otherwise didn't see (knowingly) any other TTers, as we were tucked away in the far end of the paddock.

Ref the Marathon, yes there were only 82 cars for the race, in all categories, some way off the near 200 of several years ago. It was our first, running in the U2TC type grid, where there were all of 15 cars ! We had water loss due to suspected h/gasket, all w/e & qualified 38th, thought started 80th due to a quick pit visit before the off. Managed to climb to 19th o/all before running out of fool on the last 1/2 lap !!!!!!!!!

For the Saturday race, managed to blow a sparkplug out of the head on the warm up lap so non-started, but got it repaired for Sunday & went from 38th to 10th o/all in 30min race, so well pleased.

Got called to the directors office on Saturday for crossing the pit exit line in practice, then got another b*ll*ck**g from him for daring to pick up & read a piece of paper from his desk top while waiting alone in his office for him to arrive (it was the marathon results we'd not yet seen) , but after that he was really pleasant & waived my potential eur200 fine after I bribed him with a melting Mars bar that I found in my race overall pocket !!

Try that one next time, Mr. Hamillton !!!!

[delta]

Forget Lewis Im going to try that trick as well.

[retrognome]

Trying to catch up but thought Martin might recognise this image.

[Moosehead]

The now imposed ban on open cars competing on the Nordschleife has probably taken away a number of Marathon entries.

I noticed the Eifelrennen entries were down this year too - certainly not helped by them running to AppK only whereas in previous years they allowed us 'hotrods' and had a full grid.

[pedro917]

My pictures of the 40th Nürburgring Oldtimer GP are now uploaded.
You can find them here :
http://jalbum.net/nl/browse/user/album/1220705/