Well, that was a baptism of fire - my first race in DTM certainly started with a bang. Luckily, I was okay, although Alex Premat and Tom Kristensen had to go to hospital.
I have heard from both since and we had a talk about what happened. The first I knew was when I saw all the smoke. I could see something had happened in front of me but, all of a sudden, I was in a cloud of smoke and everything was black. I tried to move away from the smoke and get some vision - and then I hit someone hard. I got out and spoke to Alex, who was lying at the side of the circuit, and I switched off his car, which was still running.
It’s easy to say after the event, but I actually think I could have had a good race. I made a decent move into turn two and would have got past a few people. But, then, it was game over.
Now, I cannot wait to be back in action at Oschersleben. Hopefully, I’ll get a better chance to show what I can do in the race. I have tested there before and it went quite well, so I am looking forward to it.
Obviously, my team had to rebuild the car – the front end of it was damaged, but it was mostly bodywork. All the main bits - the engine and chassis - were fine.
The circuit is fun to drive. It will be a busy lap, as the corners come up on you quite quickly, so it will be tricky to overtake, but I like the track as there is a bit of everything.
When I think back to Hockenheim, I am amazed at how professional the series is. The only thing which comes close is
Formula One. It is actually a very busy weekend for the drivers – we have so much PR and other activities to do - but I was quite shocked by the support I had from the fans. They all knew my racing history, what I had done before, and they were happy I had come to race in DTM. It was quite overwhelming.
Now I would just like to give them and my team something to cheer about!
![Adam Carroll - Futurecom TME Audi [pic credit: DTM Media]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/312816.jpg)
