Manuel Reuter, today\u2018s
ITR board member
Walter Mertes and
Bernd Schneider (from
left) in the year1988

he DTM, Europe\u2019s most popular race series, looks back upon an eventful past, which be- gan in 1984 with production based cars and

After a three year pause, the DTM celebrated a successful comeback in the year 2000 with a ground breaking concept. Today it is considered as the \u201cTop Class\u201d of touring cars and is one of Europe\u2019s largest sporting events.

The \ufb01rst DTM race was held on 11th March 1984 at Zolder. Only a few of the people who were there could have possibly suspected that they had wit- nessed the birth of one of the most popular and spectacular race series in history \u2013 not even Volker

Strycek, who was the \ufb01rst DTM champion in 1984 with a self-prepared Gubin team BMW 635 CSi, and, as Opel motorsport chief, today is one of its greatest supporters.

In the meantime, almost 200 DTM events have been held. The list of manufacturers, who have been involved in the DTM, is long. The number of stars who lined up at the start and characterised the series is even longer \u2013 from Ellen Lohr to Nicola Larini, from Klaus Ludwig to Keke Rosberg, from Hans-Joachim Stuck to Kurt Thiim.

One thing connects them all: They remained DTM fans, even if they are no longer actively involved. They will however, always stay a part of the DTM history.