“Class One” details set through Steering Committee talks

Representatives of the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM) rights holders ITR e.V, Japan’s GTA and IMSA, who are still planning an American version of the DTM, met for the first time in 2015.

The day after the conclusion of the 43rd running of the 24 Hours of Nürburgring, ongoing discussions amongst the Steering Committee resulted in more decisions being made, which will determine the uniformity between the series’ regulations in years to come.

Having determined the basic structure of the forthcoming “Class One regulations back in September. Early this week, the conformity regarding both the engines and aerodynamics that will be used from 2017 have now been finalised through mutual agreement.

All cars will be very similar in the way that they look, with all engines now switching to turbo power from 2017 onwards.

All the power plants that all six current manufacturers will be set as a two-litre in-line four cylinder configuration, producing in the region of 600bhp, which is over a fifth more powerful than we currently see in the DTM.

ITR e.V. Chairman, Hans Werner Aufrecht, was pleased with the steps forward that have been made in the discussions,saying there was much mutual agreement over the topics under review.

“We made a major step to realising our joint goal,” he explained. “I’m looking forward to the day when the ‘Class One’ vehicles from different continents will compete with one another for the first time.”

It had been rumoured that there would be some international bouts between the two series, but no details had been officially announced until today. The first encounter between Super GT and the DTM will take place in Japan at the end of 2017, with the next bout happening in Germany early the following year.

GTA rights holder Massaki Bandoh also expressed his happiness about how the meeting proceeded, where all three parties are targeting the same goal through co-operation.

“I believe that the agreement will mutually further the development of us, SUPER GT, DTM and IMSA on and from 2017,” he said. “Since we started to advance concrete discussions on Final Race Event, I am very excited that we are moving a step closer to one of our major reasons to establish the cooperative relations with DTM and IMSA.”