DTM seems a little of an oddity to us. Whilst the race series can regularly pull 100,000 fans to circuits in Germany the Brands Hatch round is the only UK outing for the series. They do also visit Spain, Italy the Netherlands and... China.

I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that the Germans are probably the biggest nation of motorsport fans out there. Everything I have been involved with recently that was anything remotely to do with them was so much bigger and better supported than anything I've seen elsewhere. They, as a nation, enjoy going to see racing and are equally fanatical to watch it on TV - I saw not one, but two different German TV crews covering the Brands round. In the UK we would be lucky if just one of our "normal" TV channels gives coverage to what is essentially a national championship.

DTM is a world apart from our BTCC. There is very little attempt to persuade you that their cars are anything other than the ultimate evolution of Audi and Mercedes road going offerings. From carbon fibre body kits, to extreme lightweight chasis and scarily loud exhausts there is not one road going part on a DTM car.

Whilst I personally initially marvel at the technology on display with DTM, I cannot end up but feeling that it doesn't offer the same excitement as BTCC. The German ultra-hightech machinery zooms around Brands rock steady, driven by some of the cream of world motorsport drivers, not putting a single wheel wrong to yield a display of German ultra-effeciency.

BTCC is not this and that makes it better and worse at the same time, however I guess I have a typically British hankering for the less than perfect and those who battle against the odds to maybe not even succeed but happy to support them in their failure to achieve victory. We Brits love the underdog, the fighter and the failure and that is why I think BTCC is not DTM and equally why Germans love DTM - its all about two very different national character traits.

However, the world would be a much duller place if we were all the same and I enjoyed a chance to be a part of another nations motorsport, but like every time you go away, its always nice to be home and I look forward to seeing BTCC back at Brands for the always epic season finale.

Andy K