GTR2 - my career as a tin-top racer

[Cheeveer]

Loaning this idea from Antonov, here's my "career" in GTR2 as a tin-top racer. The idea is to run through every year 1973 until ca 2011. This will revolve around the German touring car championship, but with some detours through Britain, France, America, Australia, and back home in Sweden also of course.

1973

Ran just Le Mans this year, but without prototypes. Was an easy win in the powerful BMW CSL.



1974

A full season in the Deutsche Rennsport Meisterschaft beckoned, in a private CSL 3.0. Finished 3rd behind the works Ford Capri of Dieter Glemser and the works CSL of Hans-Joachim Stuck (you will hear of him)

1975

Another year of the DRM, running in the famous Art Car:





This car was closer to the works' teams cars, and since the level of the entire championship had taken a down-turn, this resulted in a fine championship victory, with 4 wins in 10 races.

1976

As the DRM elected not to adapt the new group 5 regulations immediately in 1976, a season in the World Endurance Championship beckoned, now in a full group 5 CSL.





While the CSL did not have the power of the new Porsche 935, the BMW cars were at least fuel efficient enough to score 3 wins, 2 for me in the naturally aspirated #23, and 1 for Gunnar Nilsson in the turbo CSL.

Also on the menu was some IMSA races in the older CSL, where I won at Mid-Ohio:

[Cheeveer]

1977. Back to the DRM, division 2, and what really was a super touring car formula. 2 litre touring cars with massive wins and wide tyres, about 300bhp normally aspirated machines, or some really wild turbo cars. My Swedish Mer 320 brought me 2 wins, but crashed out while chasing Manfred Winkelhock at the Leipziger Stadtparkrennen (3rd pic):















In the end, the Schnitzer 2002 Turbo of Peter Hennige won the title on pure horsepower, with me and Stuck following up. Jacky Ickx was also a contender in the Baby 935.

Also did the Norising Geldrennen in a turbo 320 in division 1, but the BMW's still didn't have the horsepower to match the Porsches.

[Cheeveer]

1978, time to for a new challenge, DRM division 1 in the Schnitzer Toyota Celica turbo. First time in a turbo car, and this one had some really bad lag! And not as powerful as the Porsches either. Still me and teammate Rolf Stommelen were competitive, I took 2 more wins but eventually fell short in the championship to Jacky Ickx in Moby Dick. Bob Wollek came 3rd in the championship in the Kremer Porsche #2, had some epic battles with the two of them.









Back at Le Mans, in a 320 turbo, but unsurprisingly blew up just after a handful of laps.

[Cheeveer]

Back to DRM division 2, 1979: lowliner Schnitzer BMW 320 vs Zakspeed Capri.



Mansfred Winkelhock in the 320 was dominant. I was an also-ran in the normal #45 BMW, scoring 2 wins, at Salzburgring and Schleizer Dreieck, but was nowhere in the championship.

[Cheeveer]

Halfway through 1980, it looks set to be a hard-fought battle between myself and Hans-Joachim Stuck. I got my own lowliner 320 now, but Stuck has a newer works car with more power. Still, I have taken 3 wins to his lone victory at the Nordschleife but it is still neck-and-neck.



I had to evade some wrecks en route to winning at Hockenheim:



And at Nürburgring I had to battle through the privateer cars to score points.



Not forgetting the Lancias either, real world champ Hans Heyer also has two wins, including at Norisring and is shadowing us in the championship.





More to come.

[erwin greven]

A great mod btw. Ran this mod on rF1. Great cars, using the BMW many times.

[Cheeveer]

A great mod btw. Ran this mod on rF1. Great cars, using the BMW many times.

You might be thinking of the DRM Revival mod? This is not that, this a bunch of mod specifically for GTR2/GTL that I've pieced together. Only the Lancia is from DRM Revival, but with completely new physics.

[erwin greven]

I think only the BMW 320 is different, but most of the other cars are there.

[Cheeveer]

With one race to go of the 1980 DRM season, I have a small margin on Hans Stuck, despite him only winning once to my 4 race wins. Rostock was a classic, with the two of us changing leads a handful of times until I could inch out a margin.





Heyer in the Lancia was there also for a while, but moments after this he crashed out of the race and the championship battle!

[Cheeveer]

Final race was a disaster! Way of the pace in qualifying at Schottenring (a fictional track based on a real-life proposal from 1972), and so was buried way down in the pack the first few laps of the 20 lap race. Tried too hard and eventually spun, got t-boned in the process and DNF's. Harald Grohs won the race, but Stuck was 2nd, and so won the championship.





Very disappointing, but already looking forward to new challenges for 1981:

[DoubleFart]

Any update?

[Cheeveer]

Not right now, but should be over the winter. Waiting for mods to appear.

[Cheeveer]

4 races into the 1981 DRM season, and Hans-Joachim Stuck's BMW M1 Turbo is on a clean sweep. At Mantorp, Bob Wollek took the lead at the start, but was bumped out of the way at the last corner on lap 1. The Porsches are still competitive, but the M1 has a slight edge in all departments except weight: better weight distribution, downforce, drag, power, etc.





I'm holding on in 2nd in the standings, 26 points behind (20 for a win).

[Cheeveer]

Back at it!

Mainz-Finthen was a disappointment, spun early in the race but could salvage 6th in the end.



But Norisring was a disaster. The 935J I am driving does not like bumpy surfaces and I crashed out without ever being competitive. At least Stuck's winning streak was broken, with John Paul Jr winning the Geldrennen in the Zakspeed Mustang.





Back to form at Rostock! Concentrated on race setup meaning I qualified well down, but climbed up to 2nd at the end, including some great (with GTR2 AI standards) battles with John Paul, Claude Haldi, and Jurgen Lässig.



Beat Stuck's M1 Turbo fair and square for the first time also, as Wollek in the Jägermeister Kremer 935 won the race. Still, Stuck is already champion with 2 races left.

[Antonov]

Oh man, that looks brilliant. Thank you for sharing the screens!