In this week's column, Ann celebrates the first Monaco Grand Prix win in 20 years of her favourite Formula One team and recalls all the anecdotes from the Nurburgring 24-hour race, a 210-car event full of flag-waving, beer-drinking, rear wing-licking fans...

I make no bones about it. I shall always consider WilliamsF1 as my team in the sport and the result at the weekend was just wonderful. I love seeing the sheer delight on Juan Pablo's face when he is going well and, although he is not quite as demonstrative with his emotions, the look of deep satisfaction on the face of Patrick Head when one of his cars wins. Winning Monaco is special. WilliamsF1 knows how if feels, but the memory must have been fading as it was 20 years ago on the 15th May since the last victory there. In fact, for such a successful team its Monaco record is quite dismal. Two wins - in 1980 and 1983 - in 25 years of racing which has netted the team 109 victories. Although I never 'bonded' as well with Ralf as I did with Juan Pablo, I admired the way he took pole on Saturday. His driving showed guts and commitment and when I saw BMW Motorsport Director, Mario Theissen, later that day - I shall explain more about this later - he still had a big grin on his face. While talking about this again here are some facts. This is the team's seventh Monaco pole in a total of 120.

Monaco is often referred to as the jewel in the crown of Formula One. It is the sport's showpiece. It is where speed and danger meet glamour with a capital G. A pitlane pass for this one race is worth more than the rest of the season put together. It is not only the true motor sport fans who covet these passes. The beautiful people also want to be part of it. Michael Douglas, Cher, Hugh Grant, Elizabeth Hurley, Naomi Campbell - the list is endless of people who are stars in their own right but still want to rub shoulders with the Schumachers, Coulthards and Montoyas.

While all this glitz and glamour was going on in the principality of Monaco I was not that far away in terms of distance, but in terms of what was happening on the track I was light years away. I had been lucky enough to be asked by BMW to be press officer for the Nurburgring 24 Hours, in which they had two works entries for the M3 GTRs they used to race in the American Le Mans series. The German manufacturer had decided to dust the cars off and enter them for Germany's own jewel in its motor racing crown and so it was here that I met up with Mario Theissen as he flew in on Saturday night to watch some of our race before helicoptering back to Monaco on Sunday morning.

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I now want to explain a little more about my weekend's event. For a start this event is run on the infamous Nordschleife track. This is where the Grands Prix used to be run until the accident that so nearly claimed the life of Niki Lauda in 1976. The track is 25 kilometres long and as scary as they come. When I agreed to go to the race I had no idea what I was letting myself in for. I had not been told by our Team Manager, Charly Lamm, about what to the Germans is the equivalent of the Sebring 12 Hours or the Daytona 24 Hours. It is a race held on a holiday weekend, to which the fans come in their tens of thousands. They camp at the track situated in the beautiful Eifel mountains and spend a weekend drinking beer and eating bratwurst. Sorry I forgot they can also watch a motor race.

When I arrived in Germany on Thursday and drove from Cologne airport to the track I expected a clear run, but as I completed the first half of the 100 km journey and came off the autobahn I was in for a complete surprise. The road was going at a snail's pace. There in front of me as well as cars full of families and camping equipment were many of the famous Eifelland caravans - this company used to sponsor Formula One - and more bikers than I have seen at a MotoGP race. Some families had brought their dogs along and lots of the cars had small trailers attached that were obviously carrying supplies of our sponsor Hasseroder's brew.

Once the serious track action got underway on the Friday morning I was in for a greater shock as the Nordschleife resembled the road I had been driving on the previous day. The organisers had accepted 218 entries so the track was jammed with all sorts of machinery. There were the works cars from BMW, Opel, Audi and Porsche but there were also Minis, Morgans and a variety of saloon cars belonging to keen amateurs. I was watching this in the company of BMW North America's affable PR man, Bill Cobb. I explained to him that in the UK this was like going round the M25 in the rush hour and he said it was like any road in Southern California in the rush hour. I was, therefore, not too worried about how our American driver, Boris Said, would cope with this new phenomenon as he comes from LA.

Having watched the first session I was quite impressed with how the drivers were coping with the traffic, but it was not until I was taken for a drive round the whole 25 kilometres in a course car that I got a true impression of what my seven drivers were experiencing. It was awe inspiring. Out there was a small tented town and on the track some of the most difficult corners imaginable. There was the spot where Niki Lauda had his accident - miles from anywhere - and two of the corners were steeply banked rough concrete. It was also obvious that the fans had been on the track as it was covered with messages painted in all the colours of the rainbow. Some of these were to their favourite drivers and others to their loved ones.

On the Wednesday all the cars had taken part in a concurs round the track. This lap had lasted over an hour and a half due to the number of fans stopping the cars about every hundred yards. BMW driver, Jorg Muller, is not usually fazed but he could not believe the antics of some of the fans. He was expecting to sign the odd autograph or two, expected some fans to even want to touch his car, but was not expecting the fans kneeling on the track to pay homage to the car or the man who was so passionate that he licked the rear wing.

These fans are something special and perhaps the nearest I have come across this dual devotion to having a good time while watching motor racing is at Sebring. When I ventured out into the camp sites during one of the support races on Friday afternoon I found some amazing scenes. There were small blow up swimming pools with scantily clad, rotund Germans drinking beer while splashing about in a few inches of water. There was the 30-feet high platform that the constructors had rigged up with a pulley system attached to the cut off rear of a car. This meant they did not even have to come to earth to collect their next beer as long as their girlfriends were happy to keep filling up the basket when it was sent back to them. Then there was the group that had already drunk enough beer to be able to form the name of what was presumably their home town of Koln in the grass. No doubt by Sunday they would have enough bottles in case one of their number came from Monchengladbach!

The one real surprise for me in all of this was the absence of the famous red Michael Schumacher caps. They were nowhere to be seen. It was obvious this was not Schumi country, and these fans were loyal to cars not drivers. There were hundreds of flags and banners for BMW, Opel, Audi, Ford, VW, Mercedes and even one for Seat. Strangely enough the few driver caps I saw were for Michael's baby brother, Ralf. I still find it amazing that a crowd which by the start of the race was conservatively estimated to be well into six figures strong showed a total lack of any support for the person I presumed to be Germany's favourite motor racing son.

My guide to the camp sites, German journalist and friend of many years, Gustav Busing, told me a great story from the previous weekend when the German DTM series had a race at the Nurburgring Formula One track. This series is well supported by Mercedes, Audi and Opel and the head of Mercedes Motorsport, Norbert Haug, who has driven the 24-hour race on many occasions, was there to see the race. I can only guess Norbert wanted to show his current DTM driver, Jean Alesi, just how well he knew the Norfdschleife as he had a wager with Jean that if he didn't get pole then he would have to sit beside Norbert as he drove a lap of the old circuit. Sadly for Jean he didn't get pole and so had to sit with Norbert as he threw a Mercedes round the track. Jean, it seems, was unimpressed with his boss' driving style! Having been lucky enough to be taken round the circuit in one of the course cars I can sympathise with Jean as this is a very scary place.

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While on the subject of scary places, it is obvious that Jenson Button is one very lucky driver after his big accident in Monaco. He suffered an almost identical accident to the one of Karl Wendlinger. It says an awful lot for how safety has improved on the cars that, not only was Jenson chatting with the medical staff on his way to the hospital, but he was also given the all clear to race by Prof Watkins. I was relieved to see the team did not let him punish his body any more over the weekend. An unfit driver at Monaco would not have proved anything and most probably he would have been capable of a few places higher than the back of the grid, but why risk it. Sport can be cruel but thankfully he has escaped with nothing worse than a very sore body.

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Sorry I digress. Briefly back to my weekend in Germany. Sadly Team BMW Motorsport could not match the F1 team. We had dramas from the first lap thanks to a mishap with dry ice that did its job a little too well and froze some oil pipes. Despite this both cars battled back up the field and both looked certain to finish in the top six - not bad when I am sure one car was last, ie 210th, after the first lap and looked capable of finishing in the top six. Thinking about the result brings back memories of my initial impression of the race being like a busy motorway in the rush hour. Both cars retired due to collisions with slower machinery, one just over 12 hours and the other just under 23 hours into the event.

I am now looking forward to a few weeks of rest and relaxation as my next two motorsport events - an F1 test this week and an ETCC race at the end of the month - are in the UK. I shall not have any language problems at these races and this made me think about how a word in one language can have a very different meaning when used in another. With this in mind I had a laugh at the weekend over the entry in the 24-hour race for Team Bonk. Perhaps they are taking the BMW message 'Freude am Fahren' that is written on a bridge over the Nurburgring literally as it translates into 'Sheer Driving Pleasure'!

About the author:
Ann Bradshaw - Annie - began her motor racing career as a teenager, helping out her brother in local rally races in England, where she grew up. In the 1970s she organised motor racing events in England, and was later the press officer for the RAC MSA - the motorsport governing body in Britain. In mid 1980s, she became press officer to team Lotus, where she worked with Ayrton Senna. Shortly after, she moved to the Williams team and was working there for several years, when once again she found herself working with Senna. She worked with Damon Hill after the Brazilian's death, and moved with the British Champion to Arrows. She also worked with the Panoz team in the United States, before becoming a freelance press officer, now working with Compaq and BAR among others. Annie joined Atlas F1 as a regular columnist in April 2002.