My love affair with the ‘Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters’
This is dedicated to all German petrol heads
The Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters is a German touring car racing series. Currently, the series consists of three manufacturers, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Audi. For times sake we will only discuss the modern DTM which began in 2000.
The series was reignited in 2000 when Mercedes and Opel decided to produce cars. Later down the road, Audi would decide to enter the series as a full team in 2004. The following years saw some setbacks which included one of the main entrants, Opel, leave the DTM. After this they continued with only Mercedes and Audi, the coming years were dominated by Audi. In 2012, the DTM finally saw the entrance of a new manufacturer, BMW. In just the first year BMW absolutely dominated.
So, now that the background of the series is done, why does it have a place in my heart? The love affair with German automakers is real. There is something about the design of a BMW 3 series that gives you the sense of pure performance and touring car luxury. So seeing some fierce race spec German cars is a pretty awesome sight. Not to mention the circuits they race on are legendary, the Nurburgring, Spielberg, Hockenheim, and Zandvoort are just a few. For some reason the simplicity of only three manufacturers is also very appealing.
Not only does it provide great action, some truly world class drivers come through the series. For example current Formula 1 driver Pascal Wehrlein. He raced in the DTM from 2013–2015 and won a championship in 2015. More recently, current DTM driver Paul Di Resta, who is a reserve driver for Williams F1, raced in the Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix. This is just a few examples of many outstanding drivers the DTM has to offer.
However, this year the series has seen another setback. BMW has left to pursue a team in Formula E. This felt like a back stabbing move but this happens all the time in motorsport. The DTM has seen manufacturers come and go before, so should fans be worried? Probably not, as far as financials go, the series is not as demanding as others. There are numerous manufacturers that would fit in perfectly, but not seeing the big three luxury German automakers will be a sad day. The series will always have a place in the motorsport world, at least I hope…so we should cherish the time we have with it.
