Oschersleben, home race for many

This weekend the eight round of the World Touring Car Championship will be held in Oschersleben, situated in the north east of Germany, near Magdeburg. It will be the home race for two German drivers and four German teams. The fourth team, Poulsen Motorsport, is actually known as a Danish team, but it is based in Flensburg, Germany. The teams and drivers look forward to their home race.

Kristian Poulsen, driver of Poulsen Motorsport, is happy to be back in the WTCC. “It is the third race for us in the World Touring Car Championship. We are still learning. Sadly Emmet O’Briens sponsor didn’t pay the money for the race, so he’s not here. With only one car it is difficult because you only have the info from one driver.” Despite O’Briens absence Poulsen is not affraid he has no chance of success this weekend. “We tested here so that could be an advantage for us. I won’t need time for learning the track like at Brands or Estoril!”

Poulsen will be battling against the Engstler cars, who are also German based. “This is our home race!”, driver and team boss Franz Engstler said. “Unfortunately we can’t use all our experience from the ProCar series here, because we use a BMW 320i E46 in that championship, and in the WTCC we’re driving a BMW 320si. But ofcourse the track is absolutely not new to us. So I’m hoping that we will have a good race here.”

The second driver that will be having a home race is Jörg Müller. Despite being born in Venlo, The Netherlands, Müller is a true German. Placed fifth in the championship, 22 points behind the leader, Müller is desperate for a good weekend. “It will be hard because I have maximum ballast on board!” But Müller is optimistic as always. “It’s quite easy. I have to drive faster and have to brake later than the others. 10 kilo’s of ballast is one tenths on this track. But the field is very close! The best drivers have ballast on board so I am quite confident!”

“To win a race like last year should be difficult so I have to be under the first eight after the first race! Important is which position I will have after qualifying!” BMW and the Schnitzer team tested at Oschersleben earlier this year. “But that doesn’t mean we have an advantage”, Müller said.

Müller’s team mate Augusto Farfus, also driving for BMW Team Germany, has less problems with the weight penalties, but is also further down the championship ranking. “In the past this was a BMW track”, Farfus said. “I don’t have much kilos on board so I should be able to score some points. But I don’t know if it is enough for fighting for the championship. The first races weren’t good for me so I lost a lot of points. I don’t think that I still have a chance to fight for the title!”