Here writes the Race-Queen…
Liz Neville wife of Team Principle Bob Neville writes from Nurburgring on Friday 14th May at 5pm.
England was enjoying some rare sunshine when we left our native shores for the Eifel four days ago and found that “English weather” had got there ahead of us. Being tough Brits though, we tried not to be put off by the cold, wet and fog that cut short the night practice qualifying session last night. In fact the red flag was waved after 3 hours with one hour of the session to go, but by then our Nissan 370Z SP7 Close to Production class car* was back in the tent and being prepared for the next day. No, we didn’t have any problems, it was a decision by Team Boss Bob Neville that all four drivers should have a qualifying run and then to see how things had gone. After they had completed their laps and all were happy with the handling of the car, the weather was such that it seemed best not to be on the Nordschleife unless absolutely necessary so off we all went back to the relative comfort of our truck and awning. We stood at 40th overall with a fastest lap time of 10.33.170 which given the conditions was satisfactory.
Friday arrived and initially promised better weather and yes the rain did hold off for the second qualifying session, damp patches and the usual oil spills on the track did make parts very slippery and when the session began there was much entertainment as cars began to head towards the barriers or find themselves facing the oncoming traffic. Thankfully no such fate awaited our drivers and they all put in excellent times even with the traffic and yellow flags. The final grid position is 59th with fastest lap of 9.33.992.
Alex Buncombe said “It went very well and I am happy with the car and how it’s going. I am looking forward to the race and our pace is as we expected so just need to drive sensibly and get it to the flag”.
*Close to Production is a new ADAC category to encourage production based cars to race at the Nurburgring and in order to comply the car needs some series production components within the engine. This category links the showroom model to the race car.