Audi Sport will continue unchanged in the 2020 DTM season. After several months of speculation about the team and their involvement in the series, they have confirmed that there are no changes regarding the 6 “works-seats”. It will once again be double DTM Champion Rene Rast, DTM Champion Mike Rockenfeller, FIA WEC World Champion Loic Duval plus Robin Frijns, Nico Müller and Jamie Green, who will race for Audi Sport Team Rosberg, Audi Sport Team Phoenix and Audi Sport Abt Sportsline. In addition to that, Audi Sport Team WRT will…
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R-Motorsport pulls the plug on DTM programme
R-Motorsport has chosen to end their DTM commitment, after only a single season. The Swiss team made a very swift entry to the German series, following the departure of Mercedes-AMG pulling out at the end of 2019. R-Motorsport struck a deal with HWA, who build and ran the Mercedes cars, but since they had close ties to Aston Martin, they got an AM body shell on the Dallara chassis, so it looked like a Vantage. The team had a lot of technical issues, with only a few highlights, where they…
Read MoreAutosport international Show 2020 and the big BTCC catch up.
The Autosport international show rolled in its traditional venue of the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham in the UK, once again providing fans the opportunity to get up close and personal with the cars, drivers and people behind many different championships. There were a number of headline events for fans to enjoy, from the Live Action Arena where a huge variety of cars would complete demonstrations in one of the largest indoor areas in Europe, to driver forums and team and driver announcements ahead of the start of the 2020…
Read MoreBMW announces 5 DTM drivers
BMW Motorsport has announced five out of their six drivers for the DTM 2020. Marco Wittmann, Timo Glock, Philipp Eng and Sheldon van der Linde will all be back in a BMW M4 DTM car. Lucas Auer is the new driver at BMW, after previously racing at Mercedes in the series. He went to Japan in 2019 but will be back on the Mid-European racing tracks again, after striking a deal with BMW Motorsport boss, Jens Marquardt. Auer managed seventy-three DTM starts for the three-pointed star, but he will have…
Read MoreBMW confirms IMSA drivers
BMW Team RLL has confirmed the 8 drivers, who are going to race for them in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship 2020. The majority of the drivers are well-known faces, but Bruno Spengler will be the new full-season driver in #25, saying goodbye to DTM after 15 seasons for BMW and Mercedes. Spengler will share BMW M8 GTE #25 with Connor De Phillippi throughout the season, with added help from Philipp Eng and Colton Herta i #25 during the Daytona 24 Hours. John Edwards and Jesse Krohn will continue working…
Read MoreJones and Scherer to DTM
WRT Team Audi Sport has announced their two drivers for DTM 2020. Ed Jones and Fabio Scherer will be the two drivers for the Audi RS5 DTM cars. Jones has raced in NTT IndyCar Series for the previous seasons, following the same path as Pietro Fittipaldi, who did the same in 2019. Jones is born in Dubai, but by British parents, and has lived in the USA for the last few years. He did some years for smaller teams, where he did quite well and got awarded with a seat…
Read MoreBMW invites Kubica and Yelloly
BMW has invited Robert Kubica and Nick Yelloly for a 4-day test in Spain. The two drivers will test one of the BMW DTM cars, at the traditional winter test, which usually is run in November or December. Jerez will host the test. The test runs a little later this year since the teams had to make their way home from Japan, where they did the common race with the Japanese Super GT series. Yelloly won the Chinese GT Championship for FIST-Team AAI, and got the DTM test as an…
Read MoreBTCC 2020 rule tweaks announced, changes to tyres, ballast & qualifying.
In preparation for the upcoming 2020 season TOCA, the governing body for the BTCC have announced a raft of rule changes and tweaks. The biggest change for 2020 will be the change from long standing tyre partner Dunlop over to Goodyear for the 2020 season. There are further changes relating to the tyre regulations for next year, teams will be required to run all 3 tyre compounds at Snetterton like in this years edition, but this will be replicated at Croft for the 2020 season. Additional changes include changes to…
Read MoreBTCC Brands Hatch finale, Turkington clinches title number four.
The final round of the 2019 BTCC season rolls back into Brands Hatch, this time on the fast sweeps of the full Grand Prix loop, the season will finish where it began and under similar conditions to the season opener, with sporadic rain and sunshine punctuating race day bringing mayhem. The saturday saw Colin Turkington clinch pole position for race 1 after a strong run in qualifying, putting him in good stead to defend his title. Sunday dawned to changeable weather conditions with rain & sunshine making tyre choice difficult…
Read MoreBTCC Silverstone, Ingram & Goff triumph in rain affected mayhem.
The penultimate round of the BTCC rolled into the flatland of Northamptonshire and the fabled tarmac of Silverstone, and with a weekend with a few stories breaking cover. Nicholas Hamilton will sit out the rest of the season due to Sponsorship issues, which sees his drive being taken over by Michael Caine for the remaining two rounds of the season. Earlier in the week, Sam Tordoff confirmed that he will not contest the remainder of the 2019 BTCC season, Mike Bushell will see out the season in the AMD Honda.…
Read MoreDTM ready with 2020 schedule
DTM has made quite a shake-up regarding their 2020 calendar. Two brand new tracks out of 10 race weekends, and it’s a long time since there has been that big changes to the schedule. Hockenheim has traditionally been the opening round, since the DTM series was “re-launched” in Year 2000 – but that won’t happen in 2020. Zolder will be hosting the opening round in April, before we go to Lausitzring. Race 3 is TBA so far, but the series hints at a big surprise – Kimmi Ring in Finland…
Read MoreBTCC Knockhill, the championship opens up.
The sole Scottish round of the BTCC took place over the weekend at the undulating, quick fire Knockhill circuit and saw a raceday of action with a splash of controversy to mix things up. The Saturday saw local lad Rory Butcher dominating practice and Qualifying in his FK2 Honda Civic. Mike Bushell is in this weekend covering for Sam Tordoff. Sam and his Wife Georgina grieving following the tragic loss of their week old son Arlo, a number of cars were carrying decals in memory of Arlo as the TOCA…
Read MoreBTCC Thruxton, Honda Hat-trick.
The BTCC on the weekend of August 17th & 18th makes its second trip to the high speed sweeps of Thruxton. Saturday saw a close qualifying which saw Sam Tordoff taking a surprise pole position in the FK2 generation Honda Civic Type R with Jason Plato lining up alongside, the Plato fire seemingly stoked after Snetterton. Race 1 on Sunday saw Tordoff make a strong start in his Civic, Jason Plato meanwhile came to grief before the race had even started, overshooting his grid spot alongside Tordoff earning himself a…
Read MoreAudi dominated Sunday at Brands Hatch
It was an Audi dominated Sunday, when round twelve of this year’s DTM season was run at British Brands Hatch. All eight Audi drivers were 1-8 on the starting grid, with Rene Rast fastest ahead of Loic Duval, Robin Frijns, Jamie Green, Mike Rockenfeller, Nico Müller, Pietro Fittipaldi and Jonathan Aberdein. Philipp Eng was the best BMW driver in P9, before Daniel Juncadella qualified R-Motorsport Aston Martin in P10. Loic Duval had the best start and came out first in Turn 1, in front of Rast and Green. Rast was…
Read MoreChangeable Saturday at Brands Hatch
DTM was back at the British track Brands Hatch, where the German touring car series used the long Grand Prix version, instead of the Indy version, which the series has previously used. Marco Wittmann had grabbed Pole Position, in a qualifying that started wet but slowly dried up. Rene Rast started in P2, ahead of Loic Duval, and the local surprise, Paul Di Resta. It was good to see BMW, Audi and R-Motorsports Aston Martin all in top four. Pietro Fittipaldi unfortunately wasn’t able to participate today, since he went…
Read MoreBTCC Snetterton 2019, Ingram, Turkington & Butcher claim victory, Plato penalised.
The British Touring Car Championship returned after the summer break to the high speed Snetterton circuit in Norfolk. During the off season, the proposed Hybrid regulations for BTCC were finally confirmed, with Cosworth Electronics named as the Hybrid Powertrain supplier. The interesting news coming out of this is that success ballast will be abolished, instead the performance of the cars will be balanced using the hybrid system, the hybrid system will also be a bolt on solution, a hybrid methodology that has been evaluated by several series recently but is…
Read MoreAudi dominance with a twist
The weather was the opposite of yesterday for the second DTM race in Assen, where the asphalt was bone dry for the tenth round of the season. Rene Rast led an Audi dominant qualifying, followed Jonathan Aberdein, Mike Rockenfeller, Nico Müller and Robin Frijns. Sheldon van der Linde squeezed a BMW in front of Loic Duval in another Audi. Daniel Juncadella was once again the best R-Motorsport Aston Martin driver, but like yesterday he was down to P14. Yesterday’s winner Marco Wittmann would start the race for the last place,…
Read MoreWet DTM race in Assen
It was a wet debut at the Dutch Assen track for DTM. Shortly before the race on Saturday, the heavens opened and water came pouring down on the spectators. Marco Wittmann had taken Pole Position in the dry, in front of the championship leader Rene Rast, Loic Duval, Pietro Fittipaldi, Timo Glock, Nico Müller, Sheldon van der Linde and Bruno Spengler. The best R-Motorsport Aston Martin driver was Daniel Juncadella in P14. Sadly the four new cars would again start from the back of the starting grid. Robin Frijns had…
Read MoreSurprising Sunday dominance at Norisring
It was yet another exciting race day, when the DTM series for the second day in a row drove at the classical Norisring. Audi had overtaken the qualifying, where the winner from yesterday, Rene Rast, was on Pole Position ahead of Nico Müller and Loic Duval. Philipp Eng, Bruno Spengler and Sheldon van der Linde were next, before Jamie Green in P7. In fact, Green was the second best in the quali, but he got a five-grid penalty for ignoring a red flag during qualifying. Mike Rockenfeller and Jake Dennis…
Read MoreTypical turbulent Norisring
The DTM series had come to Norisring, which almost guarantees a turbulent race. Nico Müller had secured Pole Position. But after that there was confusion. Philipp Eng had the second fastest time, but he got a three-grid penalty due to blocking another driver in qualifying. Loic Duval should’ve started third but the team broke the Parc Ferme rules after qualifying and hence he had to start second to last – right ahead of his Audi teammate Mike Rockenfeller who had the same fate after being qualified in P8. Thus the…
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