13 Jun 06
I was strapped into the Mercedes next to my taxi driver, Bruno Spengler. The door was closed and Spengler hit the throttle. After a brief glance to his left, he aimed the car into the flow of the traffic and nailed it again. My neck snapped back and the scenery blurred.
This was no ordinary taxi ride.
'Come to Brands Hatch,' they said. 'Take a taxi ride around the circuit,' they said.
OK, so admittedly I did know I was being taken around in a DTM racing car, but until I arrived at the circuit and heard the ear-splitting roar of the cars' V8 engines, I hadn't quite appreciated what I'd let myself in for.
DTM - Deutsche Tourenwagen-Meisterschaft, or German Touring Car Championship - is coming to the UK this summer with a race at Brands Hatch on July 2. Essentially a two-make series, it pitches 20 Mercedes C-Class AMG and Audi A4 touring cars against each other over a 10-round series of races that starts and finishes at Hockenheim, taking in the likes of the Nurburgring, Barcelona, Zandvoort and Le Mans on the way.
The drivers in the series are an enticing mix of fresh blood and highly experienced drivers, such as former F1 champion Mika Hakkinen, now racing a DTM Mercedes for the HWA team. After a few years away from racing, he's enjoying the new experience.
'In DTM, because we don't have as many races, we are not allowed to test so much - so we have much more time for ourselves, our family and our friends, and we are not flat-out all the time. It's more fun,' Hakkinen told a press conference at Brands Hatch's testing day.
