My own personal view on the Hungarian WTCC was that it was superb. Good crowds, good weather, good racing and good to see the Lada boys back in action. I remember when Lada turned up at their first WTCC race. They have evolved in their skills and appearance and it only helps strengthen the importance of this championship.
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| Accident damaged wheel and tyre |
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| Packing up on Sunday. |
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With the sound of the crowd still making our ears "ring", we load up the truck. We decide to move it away from the main paddock area to somewhere a little quieter. We want to leave early on Monday morning and do not want to find the truck has been blocked in causing us an unnecessary delay.
Next stop for us will be the Salzburgring, Austria. When we arrive at the circuit, 3 security men are waiting by the circuit entrance, they confirm who we are and we drive up to where we left the truck. Some poor guy has been on security duty all night and is sat on a plastic chair, right by our trucks. He is awake but is looking a bit cold and definitely tired. If the circuit security told him to stay by the trucks all night, I would like to say thank you for their vigilance. Two trucks set off at 0600 hours and we try to get back around the Budapest motorway system before too much traffic appears. Spots of rain start to appear on the windscreen and the sky is very grey. Such a contrast to the 2 weeks of brilliant sunshine that we have had.
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| Packing up at the front of the garages |
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Climbing up the hill and through the roadworks, we leave Budapest behind and set off for the border of Austria and Hungary. As we get close, we can just make out, in the distance, the hills that surround Bratislava, Slovakia. We have travelled a full circle through these countries but before we can leave Hungary, we are stopped at the border and have to keep the border guards happy by giving them a team cap each.
"Koszonom" they shout as we are set free to cross into Austria. The drive through Austria, towards Salzburg, is trouble free, apart from a 12km section of roadworks. The mountain tops are still snow covered but not as much as when we drove past on the way to Slovakia. SUMMER IS COMING !
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| LET ME IN........please. |
Find junction 274 on the autobahn and follow the signs for "Salzburgring". Head on up to the first roundabout, turn right and we drive slowly through Gitzen. The road starts leading towards the forests and if you have never been here before, it looks like you could be heading into dangerous territory, whilst driving a 16 metre long truck. Down the hill and out of the village, we cross a small bridge and a sign says turn left for LKW Salburgring traffic. The road gets very narrow here and after 1 km, we have to turn left again. This left turn is almost 180 degrees and takes some caution to get around it. Now you really do look like you are going for a drive through the forest !!!!
Meandering our way along this very small road, we are careful not to catch the overhanging tree branches against the side of the truck. Some time ago, they actually moved a whole house, several metres to one side, because it was so close to this road. As race trucks got bigger, it became ever more dangerous to squeeze past. They couldn't move the road, so the house was the easy option!
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| Public track day at the "Ring" |
The race track was first opened in 1968. It was built in a narrow, alpine valley, and has a rather simple layout, with two long straights plus the sweeping and fast "Fahrerlagerkurve" ("paddock turn") at the bottom, and the narrow "Nockstein-Kehre" on the top. In spite of its simple layout, it garnered a fearsome reputation for the high speeds reached on the straights and the "Fahrerlagerkurve".
But they didn,t have huge great trucks in 1968 and the access tunnel is not tall enough for us to use. So, we are forced to wait, while a track day is in progress. Once the cars have stopped and before the next session starts, Gate number 2 is opened for us, and we have to drive down and across the actual race track, before parking in the paddock. Whilst waiting at the gate, I had chance to have a close look at a small hydroplane speed boat. The owner was obviously using the parking facilities before possibly racing at the nearby Wolfgangsee lake.
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| I would love to have a go in one of these.... |
The truck will now stay here until it is needed in 2 weeks time. It saves us money by not driving back to our base and the positioning of the last few races has meant that we have not had to spend so much on diesel and manpower in the current economic climate.
I am hoping that the crowds will appear again at the Salzburgring. But the local population do alot of shooting in the forests here. So if the squirrels rabbits ,birds, deer and wild boar are due a weekend away from the guns, maybe the WTCC race could be the solution.
