Pics from day 3
Stages 11-Malwald
Saturday's stages were based to the South East of Trier on the Baumholder military complex that is normally used as a Tank proving ground for the Army. This is a bit like Salisbury plain and not usually open to the public. The tarmac is the roughest ever seen on the WRC, with huge potholes and concrete blocks at the edges of the road to catch out the unwary. First though, we had to get there! Upon joining the queue on the exit from the Autobahn it started raining and the low-fuel light came on in the car! Mark assured us that we had ¼ of a tank the day before, but we all really started bricking it at this point because the nearest services were about 25 km away. We didn't have any breakdown cover and it is probably illegal to run out of fuel on the Autobahn. We made a command decision to try and limp to the nearest services, which were near Ramstein USAF base, so we dived out of the queue, crossed just about everything and went for it. We reached salvation and decided to take a break for a strong coffee and cakes. Amazingly, the motorway services had a bar and were selling alcohol (including spirits) to drivers even at 8am!
We left the services and returned to the Autobahn exit for Baumholder. Here we joined a massive traffic queue, which was to be our 'home' for the next hour and a half. The major problem was that there was a single major access road for all the day's spectator points, which only branched off near to their final destination. Several fans gave up and left their vehicles on the roadside. We stuck with it and were directed to park up along a concrete access road. By this time it was nearly 11am and it had stopped raining, so in being stuck in the car we avoided getting wet, bonus. We had a fair hike of about 20mins to find the crossroads where the shuttle buses were operating. It was as busy as Piccadilly Circus in the rush hour with vehicles strewn all over the place. We flagged down the first bus we could and rolled up for the magical mystery tour that was the panzerplatte. We didn't know where we were going or where we were and by now did not care! At this stage I began to realise just how bad the spectator maps we had been provided with were. This may have been by design rather than an oversight, so that spectators were given limited information to ensure they did not stray from designated areas. OS style maps would have been more welcome to seasoned rally fans like us.
The bus stopped right next to a dejected looking Phillipe
Bugalski standing by his Citroen Xsara,
with a rather crushed rear end. Exit stage left. We were only on the bus for
about five minutes before arriving at the spectator point. This was the hub
of a huge complex from where you could view no less that 5 different stage
runs in a single day. We had missed the first 2 runs
SS 9 Maiwald 1 and SS10 Panzerplatte 1
but were treated to SS11 Maiwald 2, SS12
Hahlkreutz and SS14 Panzerplatte 2. There
was simply so much open space for spectators that you could pick several locations
to stand and view large sections of each stage. The jewel in the crown of
the complex was the Gina Crest. This was a fairly
innocuous looking piece of tarmac that launched the rally cars for some distance.
Seeing the cumbersome Skoda Octavias getting
some air was worth the trip alone. The atmosphere was electric with media
helicopters and camera crews much in evidence for this section. We even managed
to get the backs of our heads in Autosport magazine
and on the TV coverage.
Once the day's stages were over, by about 6pm, we had another Bratwurst (parp)
and decided not to catch the bus back to the drop off point, because we already
had to walk 20 minutes from there anyway. It didn't seem to take long and
the weather was warm and sunny by now. On the route back to the campsite we
were given several of the now customary funny looks regarding "TROLL"
and even had a bit of 'car banter' and flag waving with some locals in a VW
Golf. We also spotted a new Ford RS Focus,
but Mark had his camera put away by then - doh! They are not released in the
UK yet, but are only built a stones throw away from Trier,
in Saarlouis, so not a real shock to see them there first.
After freshening up at base camp we hit Trier
for the evening. Mark had spotted a Pizza restaurant that was run by Italians
on Thursday night. I have to say (having been to Italy)
that it was probably the worst 'Italian' pizza Mark and I had ever had (worse
even that pizza hut). John got away lightly by having pasta. The beer was
great though, I had my favourite "Weitzenbier Kristall"
which has a slightly 'burnt matches' taste. We then decided to 'cruise' Trier
by night so we cranked up the volume on the EMINEM
CD and took the Trollmobile for a spin. More strange looks. The pedestrian
areas are opened up to cars by night (we think). When we reached the Rally
Start Ramp at Porta Nigra we parked the car in
the middle of the street and jumped the wall to take the obligatory group
photo. On return to the car, "TROLL" was attracting a lot of attention
from the patrons of the adjacent bar. One fraulein even took a really close
look to read the web site address, she may even be reading this. Sad people.
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Stage 12 - Hahlkreuz
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Stage 14 - Panzerplatte
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