In a surprising turn of events, the ‘Ring management have announced the permanent closing of the famous Breidscheid entrance to the public. The second entrance to the Nordschleife has been a staple part of the touristenfahrten experience since the earliest days, with a sign clearly showing drivers that they could exit towards Koeln or Aachen just after the bridge. Hell, it was the birthplace of the seven-second ring king.
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The second entrance has officially been closed since early 2020, since the ‘contactless’ touristenfahrten model was introduced, allowing the Nordschleife to remain open even through extended periods of lockdown.
But the news will no doubt come as a blow to the retail and catering businesses that occupy that area. Two cafes, one ice-cream-shop and a souvenir store will all be at risk of reduced footfall.
The management state that the entrance and exit will still be available for official safety vehicles, but make no mention whether public cars with technical problems will be allowed to exit early. (Or if the often-ignored 50kmh limit will be removed)
Meanwhile, I’d love to tell you that the main Nordschleife entrance and exit has been improved, but I’d be lying. The queues at peak times can often reach nearly 1000mtrs in each direction of the Devil’s Diner roundabout, making entrance and egress of the Nordschleife time-consuming. On Saturday night’s 45-minute sessions, many drivers don’t even make it to the front of the queue for a single lap.
Less than 70 cars can officially park in the main entrance to the Nordschleife, now that the diner has expanded outdoor dining areas, and the ring-taxis alone take up over 20 spaces.
The entrance and exit of the dirty, bumpy, grassed ‘overspill’ parking has become even more dangerous, and the village of Nurburg is now often over-run with hundreds of parked cars, as petrol-heads look for alternatives to parking their low-slung #ringtools. On Sundays, on occasion, the ‘Ring have deployed their own marshalls to stop people parking in the village, but it’s a haphazard approach that hasn’t enjoyed much success
Are you affected by this decision? Let me know!
You can read the full release below or on the ‘Ring’s website. But I’ve not finished with this one yet.
In future, the Nordschleife access road in Breidscheid will only be open to emergency vehicles during tourist drives. This was decided by the circuit operators in the interest of safety. The closure of the so-called “second access road” is intended to avoid possible disruptions to tourist traffic. For a long time, it was also possible for tourist drivers to access the track in the Adenau district. In future, this will only be possible via the main access road near the village of Nürburg.
In April 2020, private drivers were able to do their laps on the legendary Nordschleife again for the first time after a short Corona break. The popular tourist rides were the first offer that the Nürburgring was able to make possible again under strict hygiene regulations. All car parks around the circuit were closed to minimise contact and the barrier at the second access road in the Adenau district of Breidscheid also remained down. Only the main access road near Nürburg could be used as part of the concept.
After the experience of the last two years, the Breidscheid access road will now remain permanently closed to tourist drivers and will only be used by emergency services. This step is intended to further increase safety for tourist drivers. Originally, vehicles had to merge into the ongoing traffic at this point halfway round.
For the rescue and emergency forces, the exclusive use of the Breidscheid access road means that they can get onto the route without additional traffic, can reach the scene of an incident more quickly and can leave the 20.8-kilometre route at this point if necessary. The safety of the emergency services and the traffic is additionally increased by a warning light. It indicates to approaching traffic that the entrance and exit are currently being used.
Seven Second Ring King:
