Racing was with GT cars powered by Fox-I motors and Dickel/Orthman/Wiesel tires. I can't say that I have much experience with such tires in preparing as well as racing them.
In preparation for this race Tamar and I spent, like in the good ol' days, a whole night at the workshop. After some body, paint, and decal work and tire preparation the refurbished car left the cellar at 6am for a couple of hours rest.
Traffic towards Düsseldorf was light and with the very well working GPS I arrived in no time.
Usual ritual taking place - like sniffing dogs, establishing who is who, hello's, familiar faces and so on. Then respectfully approaching the track, observe some racers and their cars, take in some lap times, check out the corners, watch and learn.
After a couple of minutes it's time to put herself onto the track and feel how she's holding up. I've mounted my training tires, saving the good ones for qualification and race. Feeling the track surface revealed a slightly rough finish - any sliding is not advised as it will grind up the rubber in no time and you can kiss grip good bye.
Times are acceptable at just under 9 seconds. Get acquainted with all lanes - yes, this wasn't a team race, no hustling who likes and races which lanes. This time it's me, myself and I, all lanes, whether you like it or not.
After one hour of practice it's time to check the setup, new braids, racing tires, lube and shine. Oh NO
rookie error, duh, dumb *rse - never checked if the wow tires actually fit within rules of 83mm width. With
the S24 SLP I couldn't get them narrower than 84mm. Oh man - good thing I got the Aston with me. Borrowed her shoes, a couple of laps on the
qualification lane and into parc ferm. No idea if what my times were but she felt good.Technical inspection didn't find any issues and we're all ready to get this party started.
18 racers with varying experience are setting their time on the record. I'm up toward the end of the session. She runs smooth yet I feel uneasy. These sharp corners are my tire's grave. The whole 1 minute I feel like I'm not making one decent lap. But then to everyones surprise - POLE POSITION at 8.501 seconds - wow. Gabe's the man, yeah right
As we all know, it ain't over until the you know who sings...
I get to keep pole and the first heat is underway. During the second heat, I joined Patrick and Andrea for a quick bite - eine Currywurst mit Pommes
- the right meal before taking a nap...Just in time back at the track it's time for the fastest 6 racers to battle out positions. 3, 2, 1 go, and she goes pretty well, staying in front for about 2 laps. But then
what's happening to the grip - yeah yeah, the
qualification tires were... qualification tires. They peaked during qualification so that they could completely decay during racing, at the beginning
that is. Panic looking around the corner, what to do. Let's start fiddling with the controller knobs, no help. Try keeping her straight, well to late
is to late - grip was gone and there was nothing to improve the situation. Where are my team mates when I need them... 
Well well, I certainly got a good whooping but the experience was nevertheless a good one. There are lessons learned as well of course: always check everything, never assume anything...
cheerio,
-g
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