The Norisring at Nuremberg traditionally is one of the season highlights. "The atmosphere on and around the only street circuit in the DTM calendar is unique", Susie Stoddart enthused. "Even if the track has only five corners it is very challenging, especially considering the high balance in DTM. The smallest mistake means you’re back in the grid."
That increased the meaning of Saturday’s qualifying session. Under difficult weather conditions Susie placed her TV Spielfilm AMG-Mercedes C class on tenth starting position. "I’m not unhappy even if more could have been possible“, the 26 year old reported. „As the track dryed up more and more in Q2 it was crucial to start into the last flying lap as close to the chequered flag as possible. I was a little too early, otherwise I could have made it into Q3 for the first time."
Race Sunday which she began with fourth position in the warm up session proved Susie right. Though she could easily keep the pace of the other drivers overtaking turned out to be almost impossible: "I was stuck behind Rockenfeller, but couldn’t get past him. Once I tried but he closed the door. It is so difficult to overtake in such a balanced field. At the Norisring the fastest lap times of all drivers were within four tenths of a second! All drivers are so good that you cannot really hope for a mistake of the guy in front of you. My pace in the first and second stint was good. Unfortunately it wasn’t in the third so I lost contact to Rockenfeller." In the end the Scot crossed the finish line in front of 132.000 spectators in tenth position.
"Not a bad result but also not a brillant one", Stoddart thought. "It would absolutely have been possible to score points here. By winning this race my Persson team mate Jamie Green proved that the Norisring probably is the best track for the old cars. The next race at Zandvoort for sure will be harder for us."
