Hot hatch on the horizon

Germany’s premier tin-tops are returning to Kent

There is a 2018 date that every British motor sport fan should block out. It’s August 12, when the DTM will be visiting Brands Hatch. Or more pertinently the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit.

This will be a spectacle to behold. Forget about the DTM boreathons at Brands in 2006-13. They were on the Indy layout and Class 1 touring cars just didn’t work on such a short track, which presents few passing opportunities for such high-downforce cars. So much so there was even a scheme — which got as far a planning permission application — to modify Graham Hill Bend.

But 2.43 glorious miles of the full track will be different. There should be overtaking, but even if Brands doesn’t create amazing racing, the prospect of a DTM car charging through Hawthorn, Westfield or Clearways is too good to miss. And that’s without thinking about what’s going to be happening as cars barrel through the uphill Dingle Dell.

The DTM is presenting a rare opportunity to see super-quick machinery on the GP circuit. They don’t come along very often. In the recent past, the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport briefly offered that chance, as did the short-lived Superleague Formula big-banger single-seaters and circuit boss Jonathan Palmer’s Formula 2 series.
They are all now consigned to the dustbin of motor sport history, so make sure you don’t miss the DTM.