The hefty Austrian crowds will be able to enjoy the fastest and most internationally recognized touring car series at the Red Bull Ring for the next three years, as the operators in Styria and the DTM rights holders, ITR e.V, announced the contract extension until and including 2016.
During the first race weekend of the season at Hockenheim, the circuit’s Head of Circuit & Facility, Markus Messner, was presented with the award for “Organizer of the Year 2012,” which was a major honour for those involved with the arranging of the event last year, with the fans showing their appreciation of the new deal being announced.
The former F1 track, based in the Styrian countryside, has had two short spells on the DTM calendar, firstly from 2001, where Audi Sport’s two-time Le Mans winner Marcel Fassler, then driving for the “Three-Pointed Star” won in 2001 and 2003, with DTM legend, Bernd Schneider, winning in 2002. The facility came then back onto the calendar after an eight-year hiatus, with multiple developments for renovation coming thick and fast as required to make it a welcoming return to the series just two years ago.
Audi were the dominant force at Spielberg in most recent times, with 2011 champion, Martin Tomczyk and Edo Mortara winning for Audi, before BMW Motorsport’s Bruno Spengler, along with DTM and Team MTEK rookies, Marco Wittmann and Timo Glock, made it a clean sweep on the podium for Munich just a few weeks ago.
Walter Kafits, who is charge of Marketing and Sales at the Austrian track, said that the award shows the fact that the entire Red Bull Ring team is proud of their achievement, as well as a great association with ITR: “We consider ourselves fortunate due to being able to provide our Austrian crowds races of the most popular touring-car series worldwide in the coming years, too.”
Hans Werner Aufrecht, Chairman of ITR e.V, was saying how at home the DTM actually is, as well as the fact that the mutual participation of the teams, drivers and the facility for the future is a welcoming factor in keeping the racing there: “Spielberg has got the advantage of being a circuit embedded in the environment, thus automatically making for great motor racing. That’s one of the reasons why we love to race at Spielberg. Another one is the great organization that is absolutely on the level it takes today for holding professional motor-sport events. At the same time, we also have the DTM fans in mind. We want to provide them an even better and nicer experience, during our coming race meetings at the Red Bull Ring. And to be able to do so, we wish for roofed grandstands and an improved parking-area situation.”
So the hills of the Styrian countryside will be alive with the sound of DTM for at least a few more years, especially as the action is non-stop, no matter where the DTM ends up, be it in either territories established or new-found…
