ITR and GTA confirmed the first joint races between Japan's most popular Grand Touring championship Super GT and Germany's most popular Touring Car championship DTM will be held in Europe and Asia later this year.
Toyota, Nissan and Honda from GT500 class will join Audi, BMW and Aston Martin on DTM grid at Hockenheim for season finale early in October, with a non-championship race at Fuji late in November as DTM grid will join Super GT.
The joint races between the two series are taking place for several months, after both the governing bodies of the series confirmed a set of regulations to be adapted by both Super GT and DTM to increase the cohesion between the series. DTM will adopt the Class One regulations this year while Super GT will adopt the same regulations in 2020.
Masaaki Bandoh, chairman of GTA (Grand Touring Association) thanked ITR president Gerhard Berger for his sincere efforts and welcomed the union.
“I would like to express my sincere thanks to ITR president Gerhard Berger and others for their efforts,” said Bandoh.
"Unfortunately, Mercedes, which was a member at the beginning of the plan, withdrew from the DTM series, but Aston Martin has announced its participation, and the general framework of six Japanese-German manufacturers will be maintained. I think that is good news.”
Gerhard Berger, who is the president of DTM series promoter ITR also made positive comments regarding the collaboration.
“We are happy to have taken a big step towards holding a joint event with Super GT and DTM,” said Berger.
“This is a milestone for the GTA-ITR partnership. I would like to thank Mr. Masaaki Bandoh, representative of GTA, and the people of Fuji Speedway for their hard work.”
The joint races will adapt the two races format without a driver change of DTM, unlike the usual endurance format of Super GT that requires 2 drivers in a race. All cars will run on tyres supplied by Hankook, who also supplies the tyres to DTM.
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