Past Champions: Mattias Ekström

Sweden’s Mattias Ekström is the first, and to-date only, driver from outside of Germany to win two championship titles in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters.

The third part of the series profiling the past champions of the DTM sees us look into the career of Ekström, whose undoubted talent has already been demonstrated on many stages.

Heralding from the Swedish city of Falun, Ekström, as many others, began his motorsport career in karting.

However, his time in karting was short lived, by 1994 he made the move to tin-top racing in the Swedish Renault 5 Cup.

In 1995, his promising talent was clear for everyone to see, when he came second in the championship, before emerging victorious in 1996.

As well as wrapping up the title, Ekström was named the “Young Driver of the Year”.

A move to the Swedish Touring Car Championship in 1997 saw further progress in his driving. He finished the season second in the standings, and was named “Rookie of the Year”.

A drop down to eighth overall in 1998 was soon forgotten with a championship winning season in 1999.

Along with circuit racing, Ekström has competed in a number of rallying events including eight at World Championship level.

Six of those events have been in his home round of the WRC, with four of those competing at Group N level achieving a best place finish of 12th overall.

The last two times Ekström has taken part in Rally Sweden, he has done so at the wheel of a Skoda Fabia WRC, finishing 10th in 2005, but an accident during the first stage of the final day forced his retirement in 2006.

His other rally outings at WRC level were in the Rally Catalunya in 2004 in a Mitsubishi Lancer, and Rally Deutschland in 2006. at the wheel of the Skoda once more.

He moved to the DTM for the 2001 season, and since making his debut in the Audi TT-R, the popular Swede has been an ever-present in the series, and for Audi.

A promising first season saw him finish 8th in the championship standings, bolstered by a 3rd place finish at Lausitz.

2002 saw great improvement, with a maiden victory at Zandvoort, tied in with five other podium finishes which propelled the Swede to 3rd in the standings at the end of the season.

The 2003 season saw Ekström go all season without adding to his first victory, but another five podium finishes gave him fourth place in the championship.

To more than make up for a lack of victories in 2003, Ekström, at the wheel of the new Audi A4 DTM, delivered four in 2004.

This was alongside a finishing record which never saw him end a race lower than sixth, a feat which earned him his first DTM title.

Ekström lost out to Gary Paffett in 2005, despite taking three chequered flags and a total of seven podium finishes.

Retirements, finishes outside of the top-ten, and a disqualification saw Ekström drop to a disappointing eighth at the end of the 2006 season, but a fight back as on the cards for the following season.

In a relatively low scoring season, Ekström claimed his second championship trophy in 2007 with only one race victory to his name.

Six other podium finishes bolstered his points score, despite a non-points scoring finish at Lausitz and retirement in Spain.

In winning the championship title, Ekström became the first non-German driver to achieve this in the DTM.

Three victories were enough to get Ekström to third in the championship standings, but a number of lower places compared to that of Timo Scheider and Paul di Resta saw Ekström lose out to both come the season end.

For the first time since 2003, Ekström failed to record a win in 2009. Heartbreak in the first race at Hockenheim, when a puncture cruelly cost him victory, set the pathway for the rest of the season. Despite a consistent run of strong finishes, victory eluded him, and he finished 5th overall.

For a number of years motorsport’s, now traditional season ending Race of Champions has featured Ekström, competing both in the individual and teams trophies.

The ROC pits drivers, and riders, from many racing disciplines around the globe, and Ekström can boast a phenomenal record in the event.

He is a three time winner of the individual trophy, the Race of Champions, taking the title in 2006, ’07 and ’09, defeating Michael Schumacher in the final on two separate occasions.

In 2005, he teamed up with Tom Kristensen to represent “Team Scandinavia”. The duo claimed victory in the Race of Champions Nations Cup.

A hugely impressive run of results in the Race of Champions, include 3 event wins, along with victory in the Nations Cup, representing Team Scandinavia.

In February, Audi announced their driver line-up for the 2010 DTM season. It listed Ekström as, once again, piloting one of the current specification Audi A4 DTM machines.

He will certainly be hoping to secure a victory early on, to make up for the disappointment of last season.

Next in the Past Champions series: Gary Paffett