DTM Classic Cup: Drama in the closing stages – debut win for Schnitzer Classic

“To finish first, first you have to finish,” is an old adage in motorsport. That became clear once again during the season opener of the new DTM Classic Cup at Lausitzring Turn 1 powered by Autohero. Local hero Stefan Mücke held a commanding lead with the Opel Calibra V6 4x4, run by the BWT Mücke Motorsport team from Berlin, but with two laps remaining, the car ground to a halt on track. That paved the way to a 1-2 for the newly founded Schnitzer Classic team: after 16 laps, Yannick Trautwein (GER) took the chequered flag as the winner with his BMW E36 STW while teammate and ex-DTM driver Kris Nissen (DEN) came second with his BMW E30 M3 DTM to complete the success on the team’s debut. With Marc Hessel, another former DTM works driver came third with the BMW E30 BTCC run by the 2.0 Automotive team."We want to let the Schnitzer history live on and that is what we managed to do with this successful debut,” a buoyant winner Yannick Trautwein said at the finish. “Thanks to Kris Nissen for letting me overtake without any problems, it was all absolutely fair.” The Danish motorsport stalwart returned the compliment: “Yannick drove superbly. It is nice that Schnitzer lives on in DTM, even though Charly and Dieter Lamm are missed very much.” The debut of the DTM Classic Cup, new for this year, during the first DTM race weekend of the season in Germany was a huge success. Drivers had their pleasure, the numerous spectators in the grandstands and in the paddock were equally impressed by the lovingly prepared historic DTM race cars. At the start of the race, Stefan Mücke took the lead with the Opel Calibra, the DTM car raced by ex-Formula 1 world champion Keke Rosberg in 1995, but further down in the field, the Ford sierra RS 500 Cosworth of his teammate Ronny Scheer ground to a halt. Stefan Irmler’s Opel Astra spun off the track on fluid and Thomas Wandel’s Audi 200 quattro slid off as well. The race was red-flagged so that the cars could be recovered. Racing resumed after two laps behind the CUPRA safety car. At the restart, Mücke retained the lead and gradually extended his margin, until his Calibra came to a stop just before the scheduled race time had elapsed. That enabled Yannick Trautwein to take the lead and crossed the finish line as the overall winner while also claiming class 6 honours. Kris Nissen rounded out the 1-2 for the Schnitzer Classic team and won class 2. Third overall, Marc Hessel came out on top in class 3. Further class winners were Moritz Horn (class 4) and former DTM runner-up Olaf Manthey (classe 2), while Stefan Mücke was still classified seventh overall, winning class 1. The second DTM Classic Cup starts on Sunday at 5pm Uhr CEST (live at grid.dtm.com and servusTV.com).