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DTM season finale in Hockenheim (11 posts)

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Girts said 1 year, 7 months ago:

The final race of the 2011 DTM season will traditionally take place in Hockenheim, on October 23. Audi driver Martin Tomczyk has already clinched the title. Nevertheless, the upcoming race is going to be special as it is the last race before the big changes that DTM is going to face in 2012.

This will be the last race for the current car models. There will be new technical regulations next year so Audi A4 DTM and the current Mercedes C-Class model will make way for new machines. Both manufacturer teams will be joined by BMW in 2012. It is expected that some drivers will change their teams (for instance, Bruno Spengler is leaving Mercedes to join BMW), some new ones (Andy Priaulx, Augusto Farfus) will make their DTM debuts and some of the existing ones will obviously have to leave the series.

Last year’s German finale (the season ended in Shanghai) was won by Paul di Resta. At the moment, the 2004 and 2007 champion Mattias Ekström seems to be the man to beat as he has won 3 of the last 4 races. He has good chances of getting the 2nd place in the championship.

The current standings:
Martin Tomczyk, Audi 64
Bruno Spengler, Mercedes 51
Mattias Ekström, Audi 49
Timo Scheider, Audi 34
Mike Rockenfeller, Audi 26

Are you going to watch the Hockenheim race? What are your thoughts and / or expectations ahead of it?

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Klon said 1 year, 7 months ago:

I for my part will be watching it and I can assure you so much: Spengler will be losing that second place.

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Keith Collantine said 1 year, 7 months ago:

Sad to say the DTM is falling further and further off my radar.

You need an ESPN subscription in the UK to watch it live. I tried watching one of Sky’s delayed highlights programmes but the commentary was so abysmal I had to turn it off.

I’ll make more of an effort to catch some of it next year but I have to say I miss the days when it was live on @motorstv

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Girts said 1 year, 7 months ago:

@Klon That is very likely, it looks like Spengler is on a losing streak. He might become the Stirling Moss of DTM after being so close to the title so many times but never won it. This is the 5th time he finishes either 2nd or 3rd in the championship.

@keithcollantine It’s a pity the UK viewers cannot watch DTM live for free, it’s a high quality racing with a lot of top drivers in it. I’ve noticed that DTM is often the second choice for those youngsters who have not been able to make it to F1 for some reason. There are also many strong British drivers and there is a race at Brands Hatch every year so it’s hard to understand why it’s not on some free-TV channel. I usually watch it live on the German ARD (via satellite TV).

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raymondu999 said 1 year, 7 months ago:

Finally! DTM has a thread!! :P

Eki is on massive form right now; with a Vettel-like streak in the 2nd half of the year. He has what, 3 wins and a 2nd from the last 4 races? Could have won the Munich show event too were it not for that idiotic penalty… Here’s to hoping he carries that across to next year.

He seems to have taken his sweet time to get used to the Hankooks, but boy has he adapted now.

I agree with @Klon – there is no way that Spengler is holding 2nd place, with the form Ekstrom is in.

@Girts @keithcollantine well there are always online *cough*streams!*cough* that you could rely on to watch. Albeit they aren’t usually “officially endorsed” :P

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Klon said 1 year, 6 months ago:

The race is done for and we can note the following three things:
* I was right and Spengler is only third
* Coulthard was really mediocre, at least Nakajima managed to actually hit his pit crew and not just ruin his stop :-P
* We have to hope that the new cars allow for just a little bit more overtaking

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raymondu999 said 1 year, 6 months ago:

@Girts @Klon – yep; it’s the new Bruno Moss. Or Spengler Moss :P

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Klon said 1 year, 6 months ago:

@raymundo999 – I think Stirling Spengler sounds good.

Oh, I forgot a fourth thing I noted:
* There really is nothing in a name – Wolff not much more successful than Stoddart.

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raymondu999 said 1 year, 6 months ago:

I didn’t manage to catch the race – did Susie start racing with WOL instead of STO as the naming diminutive?

Does this now, btw, mean that she owns part of Williams F1? :P

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Girts said 1 year, 6 months ago:

@Klon Totally agree about the lack of overtaking, it was a processional race. I’m not a fan of DRS and similar gimmicks but, as I understand, the new cars will be much less aero-dependant so that might increase the amount of overtaking.

@raymondu999 I didn’t pay attention to the diminutive but I think she was referred to as Wolff all the time. Hope the couple will live happily for ever and ever :) That said, I am not sure whether Susie should drive in DTM. I don’t think that women should get racing seats if that’s only for marketing reasons but I’m afraid that’s the case with Susie and Rahal Frey, too.

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raymondu999 said 1 year, 6 months ago:

@Girts – yes; women should get racing seats if they merit it; but not for marketing purposes. Tomczyk also said a lot about how he liked being teammate to Rahel; as in essence he had a “numpty” number 2 teammate who wasn’t taking points off him.

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