As last year Hedy's Raceday was taking part in Kreuzlingen. This time the weather was bad and the rain was falling most of the time. All the guests could follow Sebastian Vettel do the qualifying for the German GP outside on TV:s. The margin was 0,002 sec and everybody was happy to see the local hero on Pole Position for the race. Tonight is dinner planned and some guests will have the joy to eat the food from the Hedy Crew. Enjoy the evening! /Mattias

Last weekend I was for the first time in my life visiting Heppenheim. That is the hometown of Sebastian Vettel and I guess normally it lives 20 000 people there. This weekend it was 120 000 people there as Sebastian Vettel Homerun was taking place. The main happening was Sebastian driving his F1 car there and signing autographs. Then it was Chris Pfeiffer, Smudo and me to do some show beetween his runs. It was a nice feeling and I am still impressed on the event. This weekend it is F1 in Hockenheim and I wish Sebastian all the luck. /Mattias

Last weekend in Falkenberg on the west coast Kevin Engman took the first win for my Mattias Ekström Junior Team in the S-Line/ Red Bull Audi A3. I was really proud of Kevin on the first race of the weekend as he did a fantastic overtaking manouver. On the Saturday in the main race he collected his first win and is now 2nd in the championship jus 8 points behind the leader. Next race is in Karlskoga 13-14th August. /Mattias

This Sunday all F1 fans can come and visit Heppenheim for something special. Sebastian, Smudo, Chris Pfeifer and myself will be there and do a show event. More details I will not say. If you want to know more just come there. Sunday the 18th July in Hepenheim.

The highlight race of the year have always been and will always be the NOrisring track in Nürnberg. I have tried to win that race every time I go there. Last year I was very close and finished 3rd. This year I felt we were on a good way and then in QF it eneded with P5. That was a great dissapointment as I know from P5 it is difficult to win. As the race was running I was having the pace I wanted. The position to the front came easy as Ralf Fruestartmacher had to do a drive through and Martin Stallaczyk didn't come off the startline. Now it was Bruno Spengler and Jaime Green still infront. Bruno I manage to pass during the rounds off first pitstops due to good pace on used tyres and a quick pitstop from my Team Abt Sportlsline. To pass Jaime would have been the dream but after the first pitstop I was app. 5 sec behind and I got as close to him but could never make a fair try to pass him as he did no misstakes. P2 in the end was good pints but still no victory! /Matttias

One og the season highlights for me is to go to Norisring. Last year it was one of the most exciting races in history and it was nice being a part o it. The winner was Jaime Green and I will never forget the last laps. This year everybody starts new and is getting ready for a new challange to stay on the top of the podium. On Tuesday this week I was with Katharine Legge and Tom Kristensen together with some journalist in Hamburg cocking some food. It was a nice evening. Now the aim is mainly to prepare myself for the raceweekend and the goal is clear. Win on Norisring for the first time! Keep watching www.dtm.com for results. /Mattias

On Saturday I planned to have a nice day with some practice and the K&N race. Practice went Ok and the K&N race was only 11 laps until the I had a problem with the steering after hitting a curb and it ended up in the wall. That was not so nice but at least I had one chance to try a start and do some laps. In the evening I went to do a rollercoaster ride with Scott, Amanda and sure my girlfriend Heidi. I had a nice time and felt ill already after one time. Scott thought I was a ……. Sunday was the day with the Cup race. Everything started off very well in the morning when I can to the track. My crew chief Jimmy, data expert Tim and simulation Matt got to hear some ideas from me and it made them change the car quite a bit. As soon as the race started I felt the changes very positive and it was the best car of the weekend. In the long run it was fantastic and in the short run a bit tight. It made me have a nice race as I could overtake others and come slowly and gently to the front. After some laps I was leading. Yes, leading the race. My first NASCAR race. Guess if I was proud when Jimmy told me this? As the race went on it looked good until I tried to overtake one car. I forgot the number and name of the driver…. NOT! What comes around goes around your f…… After I was into the pits and the team repaired the car I went back on track fighting for some positions. I took it a bit easy and ended on P21. For me the race was running very good and the only things that would have been even better: * to be a bit quicker on the short runs = less tight * better re-starts from the driver * no crash * better driving on pitroad As a summary I am really happy with my NASCAR experience with Red Bull Racing and I would like to say thanks to everybody. Team chef Jay, Jimmy, "Hillbilly" Chris, the K&N team, the guys in the shop that prepared the car, the pitstop crew and the team that took care of my during test and the race. You felt me feel like a princess as soon as I understood you language. Now it’s time for some recovery of JETLEG. See yah, Mattias

06:30 the alarm was ringing and I wa starting to get ready for tests and qualifying for K&N and Sprint CUP. To beginn I felt the reduced power in the K&N car but this was clear as it was about 300 Hp less. In the test I ended in the top 10. In qualifying after have being in the Cup car for a test I drove really bad and got P11. Again jump out of this car and into the Cup car for qualifying. We had a bad balanced car in practise 1 and make some changes to qualifying. The car was better but stil I had no confidence and ended P38. Yes P38 but I made one of the worst misstakes in my carrer. In my timed lap I lifted the gas before start finish line. The reason was I thought I passed the timing line already. Afterwards we found out that the timeloss were about 0,5 sec. Would have around for P25. After a hard day in the garage we found an Italian restaurant together with Scott Speed and his wife Amanda. Nice food but I have never seen so much food on a plate since I did Vasaloppet 2009. The next thing was bed and some sleeping pills. What happen next you get in Part 3

Now my first race of NASCAR is done. I have had a great experience and enjoyed it all the time. It started off to fly to the team on Tuesday to get the seat and some smaller things ready for the weekend. On thursday morning the whole team was boarding a private plane and we were flying towards San Fransisco. Landing there I went to the track for a quick seatfitting in the other car I was going to race on the weekend. The #84 K&N car that had the same nice Red Bull design as my #83. After this Heidi, me and some freinds was going on a turist trip. It started off with PIXAR studios were we could see how thoose movies are done and we got to meet John Lasseter. What a great guy and what he have done for the movie industrie. We could go and look everywere as my freind Jim had a freind there. Really interesting too see and I can't wait too see when Cars 2 is coming out. When this was to an end we went down town San Fransisci and had dinner. The houses were a bit bigger there than in Salenstein and it was a bit more people as well as when I walk with my dogs at home... What I have seen on a film as child I wanted to see that special and famous road Lombard Street. We were only allowed to drive it downwards but still a nice experience. Time was runningand I wanted to get back to the hotel for a sleep. On the way back we to the famous Golden Gate brigde. Nice!!! Finally after eating some sleeping pills we could fall a sleep. What happen than I will write you in Part 2. See yah, Mattias

Life is back to normal again. Audi have won Le Mans 24h after a very interesting race against Peugeot. In practise and QF it look like Peugeot was having the upper hand on Audi in laptimes. Once the race started the whole Audi Sport team was doing like normal. Concentrate on there own business and see what it will be good for. This time it was to have the top 3 overall places and have an all Audi podium after 24 hours. This time it was not Tom Kristensen that won. Why? To old? To slow? Hmmm maybe due to the accident with a BMW that was making there race more difficult... :-) Allan, Tom and Dindo are all fighters and they were my favorites before the race. They will fight back again. This time it was Timo, Romain and Rocky that got the pleasure to get the biggest trophys and step up on the top of the podium. A big congratulations from me and I am really happy for the drivers, the teams that run the cars and once again life is back to normal for Audi Sport chef Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich... Winnning Le Mans for the 9th time says it all. All the best and I hope the luck comes with us to DTM at the Norisring. /Mattias

Finally all the details are done and I get the chance to do my first NASCAR race with Red Bull Racing at Infineon Raceway 20th June. Now all the focus is on getting prepared for the race and get as much time as possible with the team to get used to it until the race starts. I really look forward to jump on the flight next week Tuesday to USA. Hopefully get back with a fantastic experience and fully motivated to go to Norisring and give my DTM car a ride to the top of the podium the 4th July. Until later Mattias

Normally when I go to Eurospeedway I have been going home with a trophy. In total 7 times I have been visiting the podium but this time it was the shortest race of my carrer on the Eurospeedway. I had a bad start from P3 and after the first corner I was P5. Everything felt ok and I was entering corner 4 and got a hit on the rear left corner and spun around. I saw later on TV pictures that it was Alex Premat and after talking to him I am sure it was a misstake and he felt really sorry. To make the accident even worse was that when I spun I hit my teammate Timo Scheider and he also spun. So finally the last was when I got the car turned into driving direction again David Coulthard came and took a hit on the rear left again so the car was completely destoyed and the race was over. As I have been in the sport for long once in a while things happen. This was bad timing as the championship leader got the victory after a "little" trubble in the pitstop for Paul Di Resta . Now I am P4 in the championship and will go to Norisring with full attack on doing a good job to score valueble points. I will stay focused and keep pushing until the end. Go Hard or Go Home Mattias

Hi there, Today P3 in QF. Tomorrow we will give Di Resta and spengler a run for the victory. :-) /Mattias

Every Nascar team have a pitcrew that is training nearly every day. Team Red Bull had practise today and I got to drive the car for them to feel how that is. I got very impressed on how the whole crew is preparing and the professionalism. In Nascar there are 6 people and many more wheel nuts in DTM but it is to be seen live to understand.The times are around 11-14 seconds for 4 tires. I learne something new every day here as in the evening I was with on driver watching a gokart race on gravel oval. Yes, Gokart on gravel on an oval track. 100hp and it looked very very quick. On thursday it is time to get to Charlotte Motorspeedway for practise and QF for the Coca Cola 600. Take care, Mattias

Today I had a my first laps in a NASCAR Sprint Cup Car at Virginia International Speedway with Team Red Bull. I got the chance to drive the #83 car that normally Brian Vickers drives. I am really happy and appriciate the chance I got from Team Red Bull to do the test. On the other side I am feeling really for Brian Vickers as he can't do the rest of the season due to health reasons. In total I did 102 laps. Once I had a little visit in the grass in the last corner. Typical rookie misstake but I was a rookie today so for me it was fine as long as the car only got a bit dirty. Otherwise I felt I was getting slowly used to the 900hp under the bottet. It was powerful the first runs but after a while I got used to it. The engine mechanic asked me before I jumped in if I wanted to run full power or if I wanted 7 cylinders....? For me it was a great experience to drive the car but even more to work with the whole #83 team. I had a really good feeling and we all had a lot of fun together during the day. Tomorrow I will go to the team and do some debreifing and analyse what I did great, good or bad during the test. Until later! /Mattias

Yesterday I finally got win number 14 and the first of the year in DTM after waiting a very long time. My last victory was in Le Mans 2008. It was a great feeling to be on top of the podium again and I really enjoyed it every second. Now the championship is looking better and I am one of the front runners that I scored point on the first two races. My teammates had a weekend to forget but I still want ti mention that I was happy to hae hard internal competition during the weekend. So now I have having a day off and then I will.... /Mattias

On the famous Nürburgring Nordleife was the yearly 24 hour race happening this weekend. As last year I was taking part with my Team Abt-Sportsline in a Audi R8 LMS. The car was developed from last year and we were all looking good for a top result. My teammates on the car were Timo Scheider, Oliver Jarvis and Marco Werner. Marco started the weekend in a perfect way for us with doing the fastest lap in qualifying that putted us on pole position. The race itself was not going to be as good as the qualifying. The famous Manthey Porsche that have won the last 4 years have played down there performence during the early VLN races of the year. That ment they were in a class for them selves and the rest were just hunting them as good as possible. After approximatelly 6 hours Marco was in the car doing good laptimes in position 2. Then there was an accident made with a slow BMW in the Pfanzgarten corner and we had to retire. I can just say I was really dissapointed that we could not fight for a good result but on the other side I am happy we were running strong as long as we did race. Big thanks to the whole ABT team for putting together a strong team, a good setup on the car and all the motivation you guys gave to me. Now it is some time to prepare for DTM in Valencia were I will try to... Guess what? Win! /Mattias

Last night me and my girlfreind was in Zurich Hallenstadion watching the concert from Black Eyed Peas. I really think it was a nice show and to end the evening with "Tonight is gonna be a good night" as a flashback to when I won the Race of Champions in the Birds Nest in China. If you wanna have a good night then buy tickets and go to the concert. Until later Mattias

Last weekend the first race of the year for the JTCC was taking place on Ring Knutstorp in south of Sweden. The team was taking part with 3 cars in the JTCC. The best position on the weekend was Kevin Engman in the Audi A3 in JTCC that finished on the podium in the second race after having a close figt with the two other front runners. Next race is in 2 weeks in Karlskoga and the drivers are already thinking of winning the first race of the season. Racing regards Mattias

The DTM season started last weekend in Hockenheim as every year. For me the goal of the weekend was to win or be on the podium. After the first test on Friday we felt the car was like last year and the confidence was good. In qualifying the balance was getting perfect for Q2 and I was feeling it possible to go for pole position. It ended with P5 after a small mistake in the hairpin. For me to qualify P5 is not bad and not good. I would say it is just OK. For the race I had a OK start but ehn the rest of the first lap was full of action. When the first lap was ended I was in P5. During the race I made some progress and due to the puncture of my teammate Martin I was up to second place. Everything looked good until I got the news over radio that we have neen doing our first pitstop one lap to early. That was bad news as we had to do one more pitstop. In the end I finished P6 and got 3 points. Not is not what I wished but here we go and 3 is more then 0. Next race is now 24H Nürburgring in the Audi R8 LMS. Until later Mattias

It make a difference if profesionall people do films...

As a part of my trip to Beijing we were a group that visited the Great Wall. Enloy the landscape.

27 August it was the first ever Mattias Ekström Challange taking place at Järfälla gokart track. Many partners and freinds from the racinglife and some other guests was taking part to try and win the 2h 30min gokart race for teams with 4-5 members. The winner was finally TOKO Racing. For more info check the photo album and the news section.

To have a new haircut is always nice!