April 14, 2007
Saturday was a new day; I slept until 10 and really woke up feeling like a new man. I went down to the lobby and met the rest of the group for some brunch. Everyone was feeling better and looking forward to a full day. First on the list of things to do was watch F1 at the lobby bar, go out for another walk and find lunch, then back to the hotel to meet with the rest of the teams and have the opening day ceremony. To that plan, I added a 45 min run through Hanu and on a great path by the Mine River. The run was hard, but by far one of the nicest I’ve done this year. It reminded me, just a little bit, of running by the Huron River in the spring time, just after a good soaking rain.
We watched the F1 boy’s mix it up in qualifying and then walked to the Am Markt where there was a farmers market going on. There was fresh fruit, eggs and all types of vegetables.
While we were there, Dunlop De started their setup for the opening ceremonies. I was lucky enough to catch Picasso giving a nod of approval to the Dunlop Motorsports truck.
Next, they started bringing in all of the vehicles that we would use over the course of the event. They were almost all silver, but there was one orange and one black one. I think the orange ones are faster.
Back at the hotel, we were all asked to put on our new driving suits for the official welcome to the city, introduction of all the teams and the key ceremony where we were introduced to our cars.
The Director of Dunlop and the Mayor of Hanu were on hand for the introductions and the key dispensing as well as a bit of twirling around our heads like a helicopter…
We got car number 14, much to our surprise, it was the orange car. Some people also call this color gold, so we nicknamed our car “Goldie.” We can only hope that it’s a sign of things to come.
There we are:
At one point Egon and I weren’t listed on the Dunlop.de website as attending the world finals, so I threatened with Pirate flag stickers to put over the American flags, but they are really harder to find than you might think.
The 350Z that they gave to us for the trip is the top of the line model. Nice interior of course, 6 speed trans and a sports clutch along with the big Brembo brakes, but most importantly, we got wide 19in wheels with the newly developed and released Dunlop Sport Maxx GT series 235’s front and 285’s in the back. This should stick like glue both on the road and during our two track events and almost 2000 rally miles on the street.
Here is team USA in the front row, we had a good day.
Behind us are teams from Germany, France, Switzerland and Nissan.
After the greeting ceremony and the dispersing of the keys, we got an escort by the police to the Dunlop factory where we left the cars in a park ferme or impound over night.
Tomorrow is the kick off where we get our route books and the rules for the road. We will compete for starting order on the transit to the Hockenheim Ring for our Sunday night’s stay and competition on Monday. It looks like there will be a team event where Egon and I will race against the other competing pairs for initial position on the road. The track is an improvised affair setup on the patio outside of one of the manufacturing buildings. I took this photo as we were waiting for the shuttle back to the restraint for dinner.
Saturday was a new day; I slept until 10 and really woke up feeling like a new man. I went down to the lobby and met the rest of the group for some brunch. Everyone was feeling better and looking forward to a full day. First on the list of things to do was watch F1 at the lobby bar, go out for another walk and find lunch, then back to the hotel to meet with the rest of the teams and have the opening day ceremony. To that plan, I added a 45 min run through Hanu and on a great path by the Mine River. The run was hard, but by far one of the nicest I’ve done this year. It reminded me, just a little bit, of running by the Huron River in the spring time, just after a good soaking rain.
We watched the F1 boy’s mix it up in qualifying and then walked to the Am Markt where there was a farmers market going on. There was fresh fruit, eggs and all types of vegetables.
While we were there, Dunlop De started their setup for the opening ceremonies. I was lucky enough to catch Picasso giving a nod of approval to the Dunlop Motorsports truck.
Next, they started bringing in all of the vehicles that we would use over the course of the event. They were almost all silver, but there was one orange and one black one. I think the orange ones are faster.
Back at the hotel, we were all asked to put on our new driving suits for the official welcome to the city, introduction of all the teams and the key ceremony where we were introduced to our cars.
The Director of Dunlop and the Mayor of Hanu were on hand for the introductions and the key dispensing as well as a bit of twirling around our heads like a helicopter…
We got car number 14, much to our surprise, it was the orange car. Some people also call this color gold, so we nicknamed our car “Goldie.” We can only hope that it’s a sign of things to come.
There we are:
At one point Egon and I weren’t listed on the Dunlop.de website as attending the world finals, so I threatened with Pirate flag stickers to put over the American flags, but they are really harder to find than you might think.
The 350Z that they gave to us for the trip is the top of the line model. Nice interior of course, 6 speed trans and a sports clutch along with the big Brembo brakes, but most importantly, we got wide 19in wheels with the newly developed and released Dunlop Sport Maxx GT series 235’s front and 285’s in the back. This should stick like glue both on the road and during our two track events and almost 2000 rally miles on the street.
Here is team USA in the front row, we had a good day.
Behind us are teams from Germany, France, Switzerland and Nissan.
After the greeting ceremony and the dispersing of the keys, we got an escort by the police to the Dunlop factory where we left the cars in a park ferme or impound over night.
Tomorrow is the kick off where we get our route books and the rules for the road. We will compete for starting order on the transit to the Hockenheim Ring for our Sunday night’s stay and competition on Monday. It looks like there will be a team event where Egon and I will race against the other competing pairs for initial position on the road. The track is an improvised affair setup on the patio outside of one of the manufacturing buildings. I took this photo as we were waiting for the shuttle back to the restraint for dinner.
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