Page 14 - Decadence

WORDS CRAIG BLAKE-JONES
IMAGES CRAIG BLAKE-JONES / JENNIFER SCHAUERTE
As we get to the end of a long and exciting summer there were only two races left of the Blancpain GT series in Europe. The rst was the nal race weekend of the GT Sprint Cup at the Nurburgring in Germany and then two weeks later at the Circuit de Catalonia near Barcleona, for the nal round of the Endurance series.
We are nalising our travel plans the weekend before as the plan is to drive to Nurburgring so we can deliver magazines for the Lindner Congress and the Dorit Hotels on the circuit. It’s Sunday evening and I’ve left a message for Jenny to call, she’s racing in Boston in the last race for the downhill longboarding championships, so I gure I won’t get a reply until late as podium celebrations tend to be as hardcore as the races. I kind of knew something was not right when I heard nothing. We nally spoke Monday afternoon, in the last race the rider in front crashed out as Jenny was about to pass her sending both of them into the hay bales. As Jenny rolled to her feet to jump back on the board her right leg gave way and she was carried off the track – the impact with the hay bale had broken her right foot and she was out of the race. So having had to settle with third place in the world rankings (she was on track for second) Jenny was a bit upset when we spoke on the Monday, but still completely committed to working the GT weekend at the Nurburgring. So we stuck to our original plan – I would collect her at Gatwick on Thursday morning and we’d drive directly to the Lindner Hotel.
Our only deviation from our plan was our transport. Although the Range Rover is big and comfortable we decide I would take Jenny’s VW T5 camper so she could travel with her foot up in the back. Loaded with boxes of Paddock Life I collected my jet lagged and crutch bound creative director from Gatwick and we hit the road for the Eurotunnel. Pain killers, a 6.5 hour ight and a 5 hour time difference meant I didn’t hear much from Jenny until we pulled over for lunch. We arrived at the Lindner Hotel just in time to check in and meet downstairs for dinner, were we planned our Friday in the paddock.
Friday morning we drive out of the hotel, under the bridge and into the paddock and after a walk down to the press room I suggest my colleague takes a rest in the Blancpain business club and gets her foot up for a while watching the action on the screens whilst I do the leg work. It’s practise day so there’s plenty of action both on the circuit and in the paddock as European GT4, Porsche Cup, and Blancpain Sprint Cup cars ght for their grid places. By Sunday we are into our usual work ow, but crutches mean the grid and pitlane are not practical, so we decide Jenny should take advantage of the German hospital (she is German after all) to get her temporary American dressing looked at, whilst I do the grid and the start of the race. By the time the race is underway she’s back in the business club feeling much better.
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