Our first time at Salzburgring!
Pre Track Day
Our Salzburgring Track Day back in September was kind of a premier. Not only was it the furthest we ever had to travel for one of our Track Days (around 800kms), it was also the first time we ever hosted an event at this magnificent circuit!
As it was quite a long trip from the GP-HQ in Essen and the area around Salzburg is arguably one of the most beautiful in Europe, we opted to head down South two days before the actual event. When I say we I mean Leyla, Dennis and Myself. The three of us in one car always means mayhem – but at least it doesn’t get boring!
Against all odds, we had a decent ride without much traffic, which is pretty rare! Getting to Salzburg early in the afternoon also meant, that we made it on time to the restaurant I booked a couple of weeks earlier. Though it wasn’t the most traditional Austrian food, it was great and the perfect kick-off to our Salzburgring-Adventure.
The next day we had lots of time on our hands as Salzburgring was hosting a BMW event which prevented us from heading over to the track to set up our equipment. After exploring Fuschl am See and quickly noticing that during the off-season there is not much to do, we made our way to the beautiful city of Salzburg.
After strolling around the old-town of Salzburg and exploring many of its beautiful alleys, we decided to experience a couple of traditional Austrian dishes up in the mountains.
Full of energy from all the good food, we headed over to our holiday apartment to finish some last-minute requests from our drivers and get everything ready for the Track Day.
The Day
With track time commencing at 8:30am, Friday meant an early start for us. Our alarms went of at 5:00am to ensure all of us would be ready to be at the circuit shortly after 6:00am. This would give us just enough time to set-up registration, have a brief chat with the circuit management about the day and everything else need to welcome our customers.
The first drivers arrived around 7:00am and after what started as a super smooth check-in, I noticed that we made a slight mistake by not assigning the pit boxes some participants booked earlier. The paddock at Salzburgring is not the most spacious so unfortunately, we had to tell some of the participants to repark their cars and reorganise the Paddock a bit (I guess that’s what happens if you host a Track Day for the first time at a track).
However, after we got the parking situation fixed, we resumed to our usual “smoothness” with most participants ready to hit the track at 8:30am.
Though everyone has been warned, it took around 5 minutes until the first driver found out how deep the gravel traps at Salzburgring are.
Luckily without any damage to the car and thanks to the great team of marshals not much time was lost for the other drivers.
Speaking of gravel traps: Salzburgring is an incredibly epic, old-school circuit. As the track is extremely fast it’s good to see that the circuit didn’t succumb to the trend of paving each and every run-off area. This means that if you have an off, you are not immediately hitting the barriers as the gravel traps will enable you to shave of a significant amount of speed in the little run-off there is.
Come lunchtime, another highlight awaits everyone visiting the Salzburgring. While most track restaurants aren’t famous for good food, especially the Schnitzel at the circuit’s restaurants makes the 1:30h lunch break as pleasant as it can be!
With the necessary Schnitzel-Energy to start the afternoon session, we headed back to the Paddock.
With all the drivers now being grooved in, we had quite an uneventful afternoon (which is great!) without any major incidents.
Around half an hour before the end of the day, there were just a couple of cars on track as most drivers have packed up after more than 7h of Open Pitlane track time.
Let me tell you, the evening sun made for a great atmosphere though!
At 6:00pm and with just two cars on track, the chequered flag came out. After we cleared our box and said our goodbyes to the last participants we headed back to our little holiday apartment – very tired but feeling great after such an incredible day!
Bottom Line
Though a ~10h drive is quite steep for a Track Day, Salzburgring is totally worth it. The participants, atmosphere, heritage and vibe the track offers is just great!
We cannot wait to be back for another one or two Track Days at Salzburgring in 2022.
For more pictures, check out the full gallery of this Trackday: LINK
