BMW Procar blasts back at the Norisring

BMW Procar action from 1980s

Race fans attending this summer’s DTM weekender at the Norisring will benefit from an additional shot of ‘fever’ following today’s announcement that all three supporting days of the event will showcase an exotic high-speed parade of BMW M1 Procars.

The BMW Procar Championship, which ran as a grand prix support program between 1979 and ’80 and featured many of the era’s top F1 talents, remains one of the most iconic and evocative race series ever created – and still brings a tingle to the spine nearly 40 years after it last ran competitively.

Perhaps most pertinently, the Procar Championship ran a 200-mile race as part of the 1980 Norisring Trophy, which was won by Hans-Joachim Stuck, meaning that this year’s DTM event – which takes place between July 5-7 – will symbolically mark the series’ 39th anniversary.

A forgotten era: when F1 stars jumped into touring cars

Today, it’s barely imaginable that the world’s top Formula 1 drivers would simply jump from their grand prix cars into the cockpit of BMW’s unique one-make series. But, for two glorious years, it became a mainstay of the Formula 1 support calendar, with champions past, present and future – such as Niki Lauda, Nelson Piquet and Alan Jones – all taking part.

The rules permitted the five fastest F1 qualifiers to contest the Procar race; this year, several of those same racers, including Switzerland’s Marc Surer, local hero Christian Danner and Dutchman Jan Lammers, will once more get behind the wheel of these iconic, wedge-shaped machines.

With each car now costing upwards of €1m, their owners will be hoping that the drivers exercise more caution this time around than they did back in the day…

Berger: “A unique experience for our fans"

1990s action

Gerhard Berger, Chairman of DTM’s umbrella organisation ITR, said: “I once had the chance of driving a racing M1 in a classic event. The sound of the six-cylinder engine is just stunning. Witnessing the M1 pack charging around the Norisring at racing speed will be an utterly unique experience for our fans."

In addition, the Norisring support program also features ‘Tourenwagen Classics’, the popular race series running classic DTM cars from the 1980s and ’90s, Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland and W Series, the new-for-2019 all-female single-seater series.

Advance ticket booking at DTM.com

Tickets for every DTM round can be booked online at the official website, www.DTM.com/tickets.