DTM, SUPER GT and IMSA steering committee holds second meeting

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Surrounded by the atmosphere of the 52nd Rolex 24 At Daytona, the season kick-off of the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship, the steering committee of DTM, SUPER GT and IMSA, held its second collaborative meeting. The first meeting was held July 2013 at the Norisring DTM round and included the same representatives. In this meeting, the committee members from the three nations involved began to work – inter alia – on planning first joint events.

In 2012, representatives of the DTM and SUPER GT signed a cooperation arrangement for the adoption of technical regulations which was followed in March 2013 by the addition of IMSA. Since then, the joint steering committee and technical working group has been pursuing the goal to establish common technical regulations to make it possible to use the same cars for contesting touring car races on the highest level in Europe, Japan and North America.

The committee is considering holding a first joint event of DTM and SUPER GT in 2015 in Japan or China. Furthermore, the committee also discussed a stand-alone American event in 2016 as a precursor to a potential launch of a new touring car series in 2017 based on the same technical regulations.

In addition, the representatives of the three series plan to establish a new joint name for the technical regulations used by the three regions. This name will take into consideration the three different markets and cultures. Following DTM, the SUPER GT also will adopt these regulations to a large extent, this year. The next steering committee meeting will be held in sequential rotation in Japan on August 29, 2014. Super GT will host the meeting in conjunction with its race at Suzuka.

“We continue to have good dialogue between the parties and consider this a future opportunity for the North American motorsports landscape, though we’re still very much in the educational process,” said Ed Bennett, Chief Executive Officer of IMSA and host of the meeting in Daytona Beach. “As our stakeholders would expect, our primary focus at IMSA for the past 18 months has been on the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship and this weekend’s 52nd running of the Rolex 24 At Daytona.

We believe the opportunity to compete on three different continents using the same race cars under common technical regulations is an attractive opportunity for automotive manufacturers, both domestic and foreign, from this market. The steering committee will continue to work together toward that goal.”

“Witnessing the intense cooperation of series organizers, associations and car manufacturers from three different continents and cultures on a joint project feels just great,” said Hans Werner Aufrecht, Chairman of DTM rights holder and promoter ITR e.V. “With the planned first joint on-track appearances, the first results of this constructive collaboration also will become palpable for the fans.”

“At this Steering Committee, we could confirm, that this cooperation has moved to a new level, due to a further deepened intercultural communication we managed to install between our three regions,” said Masaaki Bandoh, chairman of Super GT promoter GT Association. “A complete commonization of the technical regulations between these three series with their great successes in each region, will go down as a groundbreaking event in the history of world’s motor sports. We want to further strengthen cooperation between ITR, GTA and IMSA towards a world-class interleague championship of our three series, not at least for all our motor sport fans.”

IMSA