Three Audi factory teams, namely Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline, Rosberg and Phoenix, have entered the 2007 DTM season, which is scheduled to start on April 22 in Hockenheim with strong partners. And for the first time the new models of Audi A4 DTM cars can be seen in public at the DTM test days at the Motorsport Oschersleben arena, from Tuesday to Friday this week. The official presentation for the opening of the season will take place on Sunday on Kö in Dusseldorf.
Racing debut of the new Audi RS 5 DTM
Audi Sport has gained the support of four global players due to its involvement in the most popular international series of passenger car races and these are Red Bull, Philips, Schaeffler Group and Siemens. Volkswagen’s luxury Audi unit, the maker of the quality VW Scirocco, has also won two major media partners – AutoBild and Playboy. There are also several subsidiary brands of Audi AG that have used the popularity of DTM to promote their products and services, such as Audi Bank, Audi Gebrauchtwagen: plus, Audi Top Service and Quattro GmbH.
The two Audi A4 DTM cars of Mattias Ekstrom (Sweden) and Martin Tomczyk (Germany) have been competing since 2004 in the colors of Red Bull, the market leader in the energy drinks sector. And because this year’s blue is much darker than in previous years, according to global sports programmer Red Bull.
Last season’s most successful Audi driver in the DTM and Le Mans record winner Tom Kirstensen of Denmark again drove an Audi A4 DTM with the Siemens logo in 2006. The color for this year of the car is silver instead of white, which was used previously.
Audi travels as leader to DTM at Budapest
German Lucas Luhr drives a white Audi A4 DTM and will advertise Philips, which is a world-class technology. Luhr will advertise Philip’s flat-screen TV equipped with Ambilight flashes. Another German driver Christian Abt will drive a now black A4 DTM with two sponsors, namely the Playboy men’s lifestyle magazine and the Audi AG Gebrauchtwagen: plus program.
Timo Scheider, again from Germany, will drive an Audi sports car that was unveiled at the Audi Motorsport Launch & Lounge in Munich in early March and also painted black and will advertise the Audi Gebrauchtwagen: plus and Audi Top Service brands. New DTM boy Mike Rockenfeller will be driving a red DTM A4. Audi’s youngest factory driver also receives support from Quattro GmbH and its S line sports kits and also from Europe’s largest car magazine, AutoBIld.
Frenchman Alexandre Premat, like Luhr and Rockenfeller, will exhibit Audi Bank on a silver-gold A4. The Schaeffler Group for this year will use DTM as a platform for three of their brands, namely LuK, INA and GAG. The Schaeffler Group is a development partner and production supplier for Audi. He will be present on the cars of Matthias Ekstrom and Mike Rockenfeller. Audi Sport’s other partners for the 2007 DTM are Eibach Springs, OZ Racing (wheels) and PTC (Software Solutions).
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Benjamin Hudson works as a supervisor at one of the largest engineering firms in the Louisiana business district. He is also a freelance journalist and has a passion for any automobile.