DTMTouring Cars

“Steering Committee” Says Unified Regulations In Use For 2017

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Just before the race weekend at Norisring, the Steering Committee, which is in charge of developing the joint regulations for DTM, Super GT and “DTM America,” stated that all three continents would be staging their own series to identical technical regulations from 2017 onwards, according to the official statement by the ITR.

This follows on from the two public meetings that the ITR had with both Super GT in the autumn of last year, with GRAND-AM following suit this March, with all looking to abide by the same set of rules to ensure fairness and competitiveness, as well as generic cost reduction through stable regulation changes.

This was the first meeting of the committee, which will meet again at the famed Daytona 24 Hours race next January, as announced by Ed Bennet, GRAND-AM President, who said about the tracks set to stage the new series: “In the new United SportsCar Racing series, we have some great tracks like Daytona, Sebring or the Circuit of the Americas in Austin. We will be racing at some great tracks.”

He is still heavily involved in getting a generic structure in place ready for the beginning of the North American-based series, which will be a part of the United SportsCar Racing series. The committee will reconvene every six months in one of the three different continents, with the 1000km of Suzuka race being the third scheduled meeting in the summer of next year.

As well as the Steering Committee, a Technical Working Group was also created at an executive level. Dr. Gerd Ennser, the automotive board member on the DMSB, said that there were some difference of opinions, but the goal for all is still the same: “The Technical Working Group will assist the Steering Committee and will be made up of technicians who will find these solutions.”

ITR Chairman Hans Werner Aufrecht hosted the inaugural and historic meeting between all three organizations that had representatives from within all three categories, including the current Heads of Motorsport that are heavily involved with the DTM.

We have agreed upon the goal that in 2017, all manufacturers will be racing to absolutely identical regulations. That is a very important step. Moreover, we agreed that the Steering Committee will be governing the regulations and developing them in this spirit,” stated Aufrecht, who is a big part of the management infrastructure that is leading the way in a revolution for racing in years to come.

The American variant of DTM was set to originally commence in 2016, but as the DTM announced that it was to implement further engine downsizing and regulation amendments in a 2 to 3 year timespan, to fall in line with Super GT, this may have made it easier for all to fall in line, and make it easier to go ahead in a mutually agreed period, where no compromises would have to be made by any of the three organizations, in terms of immediate regulation changes.

TheCheckeredFlag.co.uk was able to ask BMW Motorsport Director, Jens Marquardt earlier this year at Brands Hatch, as to whether the downsizing of the engines and the implementation of turbocharging would impact the power delivery and characteristics of DTM for the future. He pointed out that this is the way the racing world is having to make changes for the better, especially in such an economic downturn, considering that it shares a parallel with the road car aspect of BMW’s core business, which shows how future trends are progressing. However, he said that this would have no real impact in terms of performance from a delivery aspect, with engines being optimized to produce the desired results.

For now the path is clearly shown for all to follow, as the start of what should be a new chapter, that will bring exciting times for the drivers and teams, as well as those faithful fans that flock to the track on race weekend, whatever the weather.

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