As the British DTM driver, Jamie Green sat on the grid at last weekend's Norisring race, he probably didn't fancy his chance of winning the race. He had only qualified in 7th position and surrounded by so many similar cars, victory wasn't exactly within his grasp… But win the race he did!

 Here pole sitter and reigning DTM champion Timo Scheider leads the field into the first turn. Green follows on in the background.

This is a classic motorsports photo isn't it? Although the cars are
new, very little has changed in this view since racing started inside
Nuremberg's city center in the late 1940s. The annual Norisrennen street race is the most famous important
event in the DTM calendar and is often referred to as Germany's version
of the Monaco Grand Prix.

The field barrels into the Grundigkehre hairpin…. The track used to be much longer until the Mexican racing driver Pedro Rodriguez lost his life on a high speed turn just past this corner in 1971. So the hairpin was moved to it's current position to cut racing speeds, all in the name of safety.

Running third into turn one was Canadian Bruno Spengler. Behind him Jamie Green is losing a spot to his fellow Mercedes team mate Gary Paffett.

 Ralf Schumacher got his paws on a 2009 spec Mercedes this season and seems to be slowly getting the hang of the DTM cars… Norisring was his best result yet with a 6th place finish.

Audi celebrated their 100 year birthday at the Norisring race with several exibitions showcasing the company's rich history. Tom Kristensen's car also carried this theme with its "100 Jahre" livery.

The Norising is the only race track I know of that has its racing line on a sidewalk!

The driver of this Mercedes, Maro Engel had a rotten weekend, with poor race pace compared to his team mate Gary Paffett. To make matters worse, he stalled in his second pitstop and his car refused to start, resulting in a DNF.

Here's the Red Bull Cola Audi A4 from Team Abt Sportsline as piloted by Martin Tomczyk. The DTM photos are pretty amazing aren't they?

A total 132,000 spectators showed up to watch Sunday's race… and here is me getting excited to see 15,000 people show up at a drift event!… DTM is big news on the European continent and is second only to Formula One with its motorsports fanbase.

Martin Tomczyk get's real close to the famous wall at the exit of the S-Kurven. He only managed 11th place with his 2009 spec car; a poor showing.

 Katherine Legge must be a little frustrated right now. She managed to qualify fifth -her best grid position yet, but had a terrible start and dropped to fourteen by the first turn. Her only consolation is that she clocked the fastest lap of the race at 48.620 seconds. Hopefully she can carry this speed to the next round at Zandvoort in Holland.

Tom Kristensen announced earlier this year he's retiring from the DTM, at the end of the 2009 racing season, to return to sports cars full time… As the world's most successful Le Mans racer, I suppose this is his true home isn't it?

So back to Green.. how did he win the race? Well a super long first stint allowed him to make up a huge amount of ground on his rivals. Going into the last few laps, some jostling and out-braking maneuvers between the French Canadian Bruno Spengler and Timo Scheider resulted in Green inheriting second place…. He was then able to muscle past Scheider with a decisive pass to take a well deserved victory. Check this youtube video to see the final laps.

This was the
second win at the Norisring in a row for the Brit, and he's further
extended Mercedes' winning streak at the famous street track. The
Stuttgart based company has now won every race held at Nuremberg’s
street circuit
since 2003.

Ok guys have a great weekend! I'm out.

:Rod

 DTM website