British racers aim to copy Olympic successes

Leading British driver Paul di Resta is among the front runners as the 2008 series goes into the final stages, and is hoping for a boost from the home crowd at the next race to carry him across the line first.

Trackside’s Keith Collantine went for a spin with Britain’s top racers in the DTM.

View images of British drivers in the DTM

The Mercedes-Benz C Class darts forward. Paul di Resta jabs the brake pedal very firmly and pitches the car towards the corner.

The saloon lolls and swaggers into the corner much more lazily than its race-bred cousin – Paul’s usual racer – but with some urging from his right foot the car snaps into the bends with impressive speed.

It’s not difficult to see why so many rate Paul so highly. A couple of years ago he beat Sebastian Vettel in Formula Three. But while Vettel is taking David Coulthard’s place in F1 next year, Paul is racing saloons in the German Touring Car Championship.

But he’s far from unhappy with the outcome. He says: “A DTM car is like a Formula 1 car with a roof on top. It has carbon fibre brakes and lots of downforce from the wings. They’re very hard work to drive - I’m in training five days per week.”

The DTM cars are closer to ordinary road cars than F1 machines. As Mark Humphries of Mercedes oil supplier Mobil 1 explains: “Our DTM road product is much closer to what we use in road cars than our F1 product.”

Di Resta knows a good result in the DTM can be a ticket to F1. And his sights are set on getting a strong result in his home race at Brands Hatch next week.

Susie Stoddart is one of Paul’s team mates and she takes me on a few laps as well. Her style is much smoother than Paul’s – while he bullies the car into submission she urges it. But a glance at the speedometer at the end of the straight confirms the impression she’s going just as quickly.

This is also Susie’s only chance to race in Britain this year but, like Paul, she’s still a long way from home. She explains: “My home town is eight hours from Brands Hatch.”

So why not have a race at Knockhill, Scotland’s premier motor racing track (where the British Touring Car series raced yesterday)? Susie likes the idea.

She says: “We would get half of Scotland to Knockhill with me and Paul. I would love to go there.”

Susie lives even further away in Switzerland to ease the commute to the DTM races, most of which are in Germany. Another famous British racing expatriate in Switzerland is Lewis Hamilton, who will be showing off his F1 car at the Brands Hatch event.

Susie says: “I know Lewis pretty well through PR events that we’ve done for Mercedes. He’s a really nice guy, and the fame hasn’t changed him at all.”

Both Susie and Paul suffered poor luck at brands Hatch last year. Paul was eliminated in a crash on the first lap, and Susie picked up a penalty. She’s aiming for better this year, but has a lot of respect for the track.

She says: “82 laps of Brands Hatch is a long race. One of the toughest. It’s very easy to make a mistake.”

Paul adds: “Overtaking around there is very hard. If someone wants to let me know how to do it can they tell me?”

While Paul has the latest equipment Susie is one of several drivers racing a 2007-specification car. She explains: “There’s not a huge difference between the 2007 and 2008 cars. The development on the new cars is mainly in the aerodynamics. Our cars are a few tenths of a second off the pace.

“My aim is to be the best of the ’07 cars – but that means beating Gary Paffett, who’s won the championship before.”

Paffet, 2005 DTM champion, will be there along with fellow British Mercedes racer Jamie Green and their Audi rivals Oliver Jarvis and Katherine Legge.

View images of British drivers in the DTM