‘Class One’ is born after regulations are finally defined

The Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters’ promoter, ITR e.V., together with the Japanese GTA and the American IMSA yesterday finalised the regulatory technical framework for the new ‘Class One’, the global super touring car category encompassing the three championships, in a meeting held at the Nürburgring.

Back in September, the three organisations set the scene for the technical regulations. In yesterday’s meeting, the full engine specifications were agreed, as well as the aerodynamic details, which will now be tested.

The ‘Class One’ cars will have four-cylinder, turbo charged, 600 BHP engines and their body work will be based in current specifications for DTM and GTA vehicles. These technical regulations will come into effect from the 2017 season, having been agreed by all six manufacturers currently involved in the DTM (BMW, Audi and Mercedes- Benz) and the GTA (Honda, Nissan and Lexus). It is expected that American manufacturers will adopt the new regulations once the series is started in the USA.

The first joint event will take place at the end of 2017 in Japan, with a “revenge” taking place in Europe in the beginning of 2018.

Hans Werner Aufrecht, Chairman of ITR rights holder and promoter ITR e.V., was happy with yesterday’s outcome: “We struck agreements in many areas, and made a major step to realising our joint goal. I’m looking forward to the day when the ‘Class One’ vehicles from different continents will compete with one another for the first time.”

Masaaki Bandoh, Chairman of GTA rights holder and promoter of SUPER GT was also happy to reach the agreements regarding basic features of Class One regulations: “I believe that the agreement will mutually further the development of us, SUPER GT, DTM and IMSA on and from 2017. Since we started to advance concrete discussions on Final Race Event, I am very excited that we are moving a step closer to one of our major reasons to establish the cooperative relations with DTM and IMSA.”