Those of you who know me are aware that I spent a good portion of my adult life living in the UK. During this time I was lucky enough to attend many Touring, Sports, GT and Classic car races at Silverstone, Donington, Estoril, Spa-Francorchamps, Hockenheim and of course Le Mans. I never did manage to make it to a DTM race though. Bit of a shame really as the year after we moved back to Canada the DTM started going to Brands Hatch.
So I'm going to need to fix this gap in my racing superfan CV ASAP! Some patient will be needed though as I've just missed the most important DTM race on the calendar this past weekend; the famous race at the Norisring. This is one of Europe's oldest street races; the first event taking place in 1947. You could consider the Norisring to be the Daytona 500 of DTM?… Or perhaps the Irwindale for Formula Drift?…..
This shot shows what DTM Norisring is all about. High tech, screaming German racing machines being thrashed within an inch of their lives. Awesome in the true sense of the word.
Let's look at that wall from another angle. Remember: this car is driving on the sidewalk (pavement for you English types) in this shot!
Am I am the only Canadian who follows the fortunes of fellow compatriot Bruno Spengler? We should start a facebook group to help this guy get more recognition in North America!
Bruno doesn't seem to be having quite as stellar season as he did last year where he remained in contention for the DTM title up to the final round at Hockenheim. This past weekend Bruno did have a great qualifying session and took pole position. Congrats Bruno!
Check out the special aero wheels Ralf Schumacher is running on his 2007 spec Merc during the qualifying session. Nice.
So far this year Ralf has had a bit of an uneasy transition to the rigors of the DTM but had a pretty good race at the Norisring…. After a poor start he fought his way from 17th all the way to 9th. Perhaps his first championship points are just around the corner.
Off the start Bruno Spengler was jumped by Jamie Green, who simply drove away from the field to take the race victory. Bruno was able to close up in the later stages of the race but Green was able to hold him at bay to take his 2nd race win.
This camera angle is one of the most famous shots in German racing BTW.
Some first corner action. You like the err "murdered out" style on Paul Di Resta's car?
Fresh from his record 8th victory at Le Mans, Denmark's Tom Kristensen was back to his regular DTM day job. Although Tom is one of Audi's lead drivers in the DTM he is often overshadowed by his younger team mates, who more often than not have just an ever so small advantage on him over the course of a championship season. That said he was the front running Audi in the early part of the race, but fell down the order with some scrappy race incidents. Tom was eventually classified as seventh overall.
Fantastic shot of Mike Rockenfeller frame dragging his Audi. I'm still trying to convince Antonio to shoot some slow shutter shots like this of drift action :> I think it would be stellar. Anyone agree with me?
You can tell these DTM cars spend a lot of time in the wind tunnel. Note the football painted on the wing endplate.
Norisring 2008 will be a weekend to forget for ex DTM champ Gary Paffett. His car was found to be underweight after the race and the Mclaren F1 tester was excluded from the results.
At the Norisring if you aren't rubbing the barriers and walls you aren't trying hard enough! With Audi and Mercedes footing the repair bills, DTM drivers really have no fear about roughing their cars up.
Mercedes racers Jamie Green and Bruno Spenger are shadowed by one of the Red Bull sponsored Audis. Note the huge crowds which line the very short 1.4 mile (2.4 km) circuit.
Low and mean.
One day that will be me in the middle of the corner…. well.. maybe!
Matthias Lauda at speed.
Think about where this photographer is standing in this shot. He is on the outside of the racing line with the cars wheel spinning and sliding right out to the edge of the barrier…. a whisker from where he is standing…. Intense.
And I leave you with this incredible photograph. Shouldn't all cars look like this?
:Rod Chong
Photos: Mercedes, DTM, Audi
OFFICIAL SPEEDHUNTERS SUPPLIERS
they definitely should
DTM is the shiz! I just wish BMW would get back into the mix. I HAVE to see one of these events in person.
hmmm, with all that sophisticated aero, it'll make you wonder what series got faster cars: Super GT or DTM. now thats something i want to see
OMG sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo DOPE! Rod, you and I need to go to this race next year!!! Let's GOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
Too bad the cars are rather fragile and the complex aero kits are very sensitive to dirty air and damage, making most races (Norisring excluded) a boring pain in the bum to watch since positions hardly ever change outside of the pits (F1 anybody?).
The ITR (= DTM officials) really should sit down with the Super GT guys and come up with regulations applying for both championships, giving Japanese manufacturers the chance to race their incredible machines over here in Germany.
What freezer said.
freezer I see your point although I do think that DTM races do usually have more passing that F1!
This year the new pit stop rules (they are running pit windows where the teams HAVE to stop) have made the races a lot more predictable than last year unfortunately. At least to me they are.
AHHHHHHHHHHHHH. ever since you guys made a post about dtm, ive been completely obsessed!
the body kits on those cars arethe most advance and complicated ones i have ever seen.
the question is: do they work? because you dont see aero kits like those on le mans cars
The second and third picture are really intense, you can almost smell the rubber and hear the carbon break.
Matt they must work otherwise they wouldn't be on the cars right? The DTM cars have nothing to do with production cars, They are ground up race machines which feature pretty complex under floor aero. Something I don't think could be done on a production based car without cutting out the entire floorplan. Don't think this is allowed on the FIA GT cars.