Sunday 15th May

Keen for an early start up to the entrance, we woke at 7am and had our traditional breakfast at Eddy's, complete with donuts. We unpacked into one of his garages and it began to rain, i could have cried. My first ever track experience...my first ever time at the ring and it was raining!!. It was quite quiet with not too much in the car park, so James and Ed bought tickets and went for a 'slow' lap in the rain. Rack went out in traditional 4 up style and soon left the Megane behind. In fact, James was only passed by a 5 series and a rather twitchy Scooby! James is a true ring hero. The lap was so funny and that rallye gets some stick!!!!

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Deciding the rain was getting heavier, we next headed to the visitor centre, parking the cars in German flag formation, as we had done the Belgian flag for Spa. At this point Mark thought it would be a safe bet to purchase a rain coat as he'd left his at home...boy was it needed!

For the next round, James left his car in the car park and joined me in the Clio. This made me feel so much calmer about going out. It was so nice having someone telling you where the corners are etc etc. We flew round! All this time we were getting nice clear laps and it made the experience even better. A dry line soon emerged and it was time to take the Rallye for a real lap Four up, with a full tank of fuel. This time James overtook a Speedster (VX220) and only got passed by the 'taxi' Aston Vantage and a GT3RS. Epic 8v win! Me and Ed decided we'd go out for another lap now the track was dry. This time James joined Ed in the Megane and it sooned disappeared from my sights. Having someone that knows the track with you is such a help! I gave the clio stick and put in what i thought was another good lap. Gutted there is no photos though

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We returned to Adenau and had our Pinocchios before loading up our kit from Eddy's garage and finished our time at the 'Ring with some viewing from Hatzenbach.

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Once again James managed to find some dutch Rallye owner who he'd met at Pugfest previously and showed him an epic picture he had taken of the Rallye on track.

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At 3pm, after the heavens opened, we then pressed on as we had four and half hours to our hotel for the night just over the border in France. We made our first stop two hours later at Hockenheim, where after been told we couldn't go into the paddock by an angry German, we decided on the open grandstands instead.

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We watched a little bit of motorbikes on track and then headed on again... Into torrential rain, standing water and roadworks. An hour after leaving Hockenheim, we had done around 15 miles.

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So, after roadworks, more roadworks, some more rain and standing water and more roadworks (avoid the A5 at all costs!) we checked in at 9:30pm local time and spent the rest of the evening in our rooms planning tomorrow.

After a quick check of the webcams it seemed there had been significant snowfall in the alps that afternoon which could disrupt us, though we are headed to Andermatt to attempt the Furka and the Gottard or even the Lukmanier.