MOTORSPORT: BMW back to its touring car roots

BMW is set to take on Mercedes-Benz and Audi in touring car racing from 2012, and Germany's DTM category is to expand into the US -- but no sign that V8 Supercars in Oz are on the agenda
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Munich manufacturer says production racing 'ideal stage'
BMW is to return to the world's premier touring car series, the DTM -- the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters, a category run predominantly in Germany but expanding -- now to America.

The DTM comeback is the cornerstone of BMW's strategy to compete in motorsport that has the most relevance to the development of road cars, rather than the much more costly Formula One -- which it quit last year -- or Le Mans-style sportscars.

One of the lures for the manufacturer to re-enter the DTM is that the category, already in six countries, will be "exported" to the US in 2013.

Just how that will work is still vague, but the DTM organisers have forged an alliance with Grand-Am, the road racing arm of NASCAR.

The organisers of Japan's Super GP series also have been in talks with the DTM about unified regulations.

On the Australian front, a BMW spokesman today confirmed the company recently had talks with V8 Supercar's Car of the Future project leader Mark Skaife.

That project is intended to open up Australia's national championship beyond Holden and Ford, although V8 engine eligibility rules for manufacturers that would not run pushrod motors, due by the end of June, still have not been announced.

The local BMW spokesman indicated that, while the talks with Skaife had been cordial, the company would only be interested in competing in Australia under DTM-type regulations.

It would not entertain campaigning cars peculiar to an Australian championship, he said.

It's not clear yet what BMW's new DTM love affair will mean for its 2-litre 320si's in the World Touring Car Championship, in which it finished third in a three-manufacturer contest this year -- behind Chevrolet and SEAT.

A BMW 635 CSi driven by Volker Strycek won the first DTM title in 1984 and Belgian Eric van de Poele and Italian Roberto Ravaglia followed up with titles in M3s in 1987 and '89.

The M3 will be BMW's racing missile again in its return to the high-tech DTM.

The comeback, flagged in April but only confirmed now after 16 years out of the DTM, will see BMW will go head-to-head with German rivals Mercedes-Benz and Audi.

"The return of BMW to the DTM is a fundamental part of the restructuring of our motorsport activities," said Dr Klaus Draeger, the BMW AG board member with responsibility for development. "With its increased commitment to production car racing, BMW is returning to its roots.

"The race track is the perfect place to demonstrate the impressive sporting characteristics of our vehicles against our core competitors in a high-powered environment. The DTM is the ideal stage on which to do this."

BMW's long-time motorsport director Dr Mario Theissen has vowed "absolute commitment" to the company's DTM project.

Cars in the series have 4-litre V8 engines housed in purpose-built chassis cloaked under silhouette coupe bodies.

Audi, which dominated the DTM in 2008 and '09, has said that BMW "suits the DTM perfectly".

"With four DTM titles since 2004, Audi is the most successful manufacturer in recent history (of the series) and the first manufacturer to win three titles in a row, (but) with BMW's commitment it will be even tougher from 2012," Audi motorsport head Dr Wolfgang Ullrich said.

Norbert Haug, of Mercedes-Benz, which is leading this year's DTM, called BMW's move "a good decision that confirms how important it was and how right we were to continuously commit to the DTM for more than 20 years -- longer than any other manufacturer".

"We are looking forward to the new and respected competitor from Munich," Haug said.

Although it will be 18 months before BMW's re-entry, next year's DTM calendar already has, apart from six championship rounds in Germany and a demonstration event at the Munich Olympic Stadium, races in Austria, Holland, Britain, Spain and Shanghai in China -- where V8 Supercars went once, in 2005.

But it was the long-term, further "internationalisation of the championship" that BMW's Dr Draeger said appealed to the company.

Grand-Am in the US plans to run a new championship from 2013 in which cars complying with the 2012 DTM regulations will be eligible to race.

"Sprint races are planned as part of the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series, as well as -- in certain cases -- the NASCAR Sprint Cup and the NASCAR Nationwide Series," BMW said.

Grand-Am president Tom Bledsoe said "the addition of a DTM-style sprint race will increase the attraction for our fans and help grow all Grand-Am series".

The mooted Sprint Cup/Nationwide Series connection surely would only be on road courses, as DTM cars would have to be specially-adapted for America's oval tracks.

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