In the evening after the second DTM round of the season in front of 75.000 spectators at the EuroSpeedway Lausitz Susie Stoddart was very frustrated: "Having such a fast race car and going home with nothing in your hands really is a shame!"
Already in qualifying the 14th Starting position wasn’t exactly what might have been possible. As it had started to rain the Scot went out early enough to easily make it into the second session. "But in Q2 I never got a clean lap. Several times I slowed down to make up a gap in front of me – and promptly other cars closed up from behind and I was stuck in traffic again."
Immediately after the start of the race the 26 year old found herself in the middle of heavy fighting for positions and had to take several hits. "Some of the guys were very determined", Susie reported. "But nevertheless it didn’t take me long to realize that I had a fantastic race car." Unfortunately this didn’t last until the finish. "Right before the first of the two mandatory pit stops my braking pedal started to fall down. From then on I had to pump it constantly to get braking pressure for the next corner. We thought about stopping for safety reasons but as my lap times still were quite okay, I decided to continue."
In the end the Persson pilot brought her TV Spielfilm AMG-Mercedes C class home in 11th position.
But shortly after that the frustration was worked up and the focus pointed at the upcoming season highlight at the Norisring in Nuremberg on June 28th. Stoddart: "It is a fantastic event on a challenging city circuit where anything can happen during the race. At the Lausitzring we clearly saw that we can be fully competitive if we sort out our set up well. Now we only need a bit of luck – and then the first points will finally come!"
