DTM

Audi feature - What you should know about Martin Tomczyk

Audi press release

Edited: Oct 3, 2011, 11:09 AM

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• At age 29, is already one of the most seasoned campaigners in the field
• Excursion into weightlessness planned after the season
• DTM Champion instead of nursery school teacher or office worker

The sensation has been achieved: Martin Tomczyk is the 2011 DTM Champion. Despite his age of 29 the man from Rosenheim, Bavaria, with eleven DTM years and 112 races under his belt, is one of the most experienced racers in the entire driver field. This is not the only unusual fact about the Audi factory driver you may not have been aware of so far. For example, that …

Martin Tomczyk, Audi Sport Team Phoenix Audi A4 DTM

Photo by: xpb.cc

• Martin Tomczyk, on April 22, 2001, as the then youngest driver in history made his racing debut in the DTM. The season opener at Hockenheim in the Abt-Audi TT-R of the private team Abt Sportsline was his first ever touring car race.

• Martin Tomczyk has contested exactly 112 races since then, clinching 7 victories, 8 pole positions and 6 fastest laps, and mounting the podium 23 times.

• He does not attach any importance at all to numbers and statistics like these and, unlike many other racers, does not believe in superstitions and good luck charms.

• He follows a firm ritual nevertheless: Before the crucial laps in qualifying Martin Tomczyk withdraws into himself and, sitting in the cockpit, covers the track meter by meter with his eyes closed.

• Martin Tomczyk after a decade with Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline switched to Audi Sport Team Phoenix for the 2011 season and thus to a so-called "year-old" car.

• He achieved his so far best position at the end of a season - a third-place finish - in 2007. At the finale in that year three drivers - the subsequent champion, Mattias Ekström, Mercedes driver Bruno Spengler and Martin Tomczyk - still had title chances.

• Martin Tomczyk, with a height of 1.88 meters, is the tallest racer in the DTM driver field.

• He completed a clerical apprenticeship but his secrete wish had always been to become a nursery school teacher.

• Martin Tomczyk would like to see Nicolas Cage as the actor to play his part if his career should ever inspire a movie.

• Martin Tomczyk not only enjoys close ties of friendship with his brother: Tobias is also the DTM racer’s manager.

Martin Tomczyk, Audi Sport Team Phoenix Audi A4 DTM

Photo by: xpb.cc

• The DTM triumph already marks Martin Tomczyk’s second motorsport title: In 1999 he won the Portuguese Formel ADAC Championship.

• Martin Tomczyk is an ardent fan of the movie character "Rocky" and is able to recite major portions of the multi-part classic starring Sylvester Stallone from memory.

• He contested his first kart races at the age of eleven - at a parking lot marked by traffic cones. In 1994 Martin Tomczyk became German Kart Champion.

• Martin Tomczyk and his brother Tobias gave their father, Hermann Tomczyk, a Zero-G flight as a joint birthday gift. The three family members are planning to take the excursion into weightlessness together after the season.

• Martin Tomczyk is an avid techie and considered by his team-mates and friends alike the first person to turn to for questions about lap tops, cell phones and flat screen TVs.

• Martin Tomczyk and his partner Christina Surer live near Basel, Switzerland.

• Martin Tomczyk enjoys spending time with plenty of horsepower off the track as well: He has a passion, among other things, for carefully tuned Harley Davidson motorcycles - albeit for cruising instead of riding at high speeds.

• Martin Tomczyk had the opportunity to make an appearance on the catwalk a few years ago with super models like Karen Mulder.

• Martin Tomczyk can be a serious "gambler" who always prefers a game of poker with friends to visiting a noisy disco.

• Martin Tomczyk is a soccer fan in general and a supporter of FC Bayern München in particular. The DTM Champion has fought a few duels here and there at the PlayStation with Bastian Schweinsteiger.

• Martin Tomczyk for the first time this year since 2004 has not raced in a car sporting the colors of Red Bull. Nevertheless, he is still part of the company’s line-up and on the road as an ambassador for its "Wings for Life" foundation, among other things.

• With the title win he gave the long-standing partner "Schaeffler" a dream start as an Audi vehicle sponsor.

• Martin Tomczyk loves to cook in his free time and sometimes buys women’s magazines with appropriate recipes.

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