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Racing Drivers Video

Drivers React to Germany’s Bilster Berg Resort

I love the idea of these driving resorts, and I hope that Bilster Berg is a huge success. There’s a lot of love in this video of racing drivers’ reactions to their initial experiences on the track. Directed by GT Racer’s Alexander Davidis, there’ll be some familiar faces here for fans of the series. But there’s also some tremendous vintage racing machinery in the form of E-Type Lightweights, 911s, Austin-Healeys.

One thing in particular stood out as drivers describe the difficulty in learning the track and the learning curve in coming to terms with its compact complexity. One driver says it requires many, many laps before you start to get it right; another driver says a couple of hundred laps would be necessary to learn it properly. That sounds about right for a track that has been described as a mini-Nürburgring.

Did you catch what Derek Bell said, though? “To come back on my own without other cars, just sort of do five or six laps to get it all together”.

A couple hundred laps vs. Five or six laps. That right there is the difference between even a highly skilled racing driver and Derek Bell.

0 replies on “Drivers React to Germany’s Bilster Berg Resort”

Be fair LordJim. He was a touch busy winning the World’s Sportscar Championship twice and the Le Mans 24 Hours five times. After all, Formula 1 ain’t the only game in town.

There are plenty of forgotten Formula 1 drivers. When Al Holbert was looking for a co-driver for the Lowenbrau 962, Bell was his go-to guy–at a rather advanced age. His comment about how long it would take to learn Bilster Berg seems to have more to do with a high-powered car on a clear track than suggesting that he could learn it at light-speed compared to weekend warriors.

What a proper road course! Just ran at Grattan in Michigan – but man does this place put most of our courses to shame.

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