On the Winner’s Podium at Hockenheimring

Hockenheimring is one of Germany’s Older Race Tracks:

Ferrari Challenge Champagne

When our Uniworld River Queen docked in Speyer, one of the land options was a visit to the Hockenheimring, one of Germany’s older race tracks.

A Grand Stand View

We were met by our Hockenheimring guide who took us on a comprehensive tour of the complex, starting at the grand stand. You’d normally have to pay a few hundred Euros to get into the grand stand, but as there was no race on today we got in for free.

There was however plenty of action on the track. When there’s no races on, the track is rented out to racing teams and today was Porsche’s training day.

At Hockenheimring trackside

The Ferrari Challenge

Our very enthusiastic guide noted that I was a keen Ferrari fan as I had my Ferrari top on. She took the group to the winner’s podium and got us to wait there.

Then she surprised us with an original Ferrari Challenge champagne bottle. We all took turns on the winner’s podium.

Tony, the winner, even got to drink champagne out of his shoe!

Drinking champagne from his shoe

Porsche’s Training Day

Apologies to Porsche for hijacking attention away from their training day. We did eventually manage to get into the control room where Porsche officials were monitoring the race.

Hockenheimring Control Room Monitors

Although it was only a training day, we saw live action with two Porsche cars colliding into each other. Ouch, that’s going to cost a few Euros in repairs! We were quickly ushered out of the room so as not to distract the officials from their tasks.

Porsches collided at training

A Memorable Experience

In spite of not having experienced a real F1 race, the highlight of the trip for us was getting on the winner’s platform with an original champagne bottle from the Ferrari Challenge. It’s not everyday that one gets to be a Ferrari Challenge champion!

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