This will be the thread for discussions regarding the 1988 season of the Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft. Other season will/should follow later.
Starting off with this season as it's quite well covered by Frank's site. Also there is a Video Review covering most of the action. This was the first season having 2 races per weekend, with the distance for both races being around 100km.
Round 01 - Zolder - April 3rd
Round 02 - Hockenheim Short (Querspange) - April 24th
Round 03 - Nürburgring GP - May 1st
Round 04 - Brno - May 22nd
Round 05 - AVUS - May 29th
Round 06 - Mainz-Finthen - June 5th
Round 07 - Nürburgring-Nordschleife - June 18th
Round 08 - Norisring - June 25th & 26th
Round 09 - Wunstorf - July 17th
Round 10 - Salzburgring - August 28th
Round 11 - Hungaroring - September 18th
Round 12 - Hockenheim GP - October 15th
Franks site lists the round 6 at Mainz held at May 31st, but that would be a Wednesday. Race was actually held on June 5th as seen on this program cover.
http://www.progcovers.com/motor/mainz88.jpg
Teams & Drivers
It should be noted that the DTM.de Database and the book "DTM - Die Story" do not include Drivers that did not qualify or not start a race, so there might be even more ...
Ford Sierras:
Ringshausen entered 2 RS500s for Klaus Niedzwiedz and Manuel Reuter. Steve Soper stood in for Niezdwiedz after his crash at the Nordschleife.
Grab had 2 RS500s for Klaus Ludwig and Frank Biela. Bernd Schneider drove Bielas car at the Norisring.
Grab also entered a year old Sierra XR4Ti for Beate Nodes.
Wolf usually had one RS500 for Armin Hahne and an additional car for Herbert Drexler later in the season.
Mercedes 190E:
For the 1988 season the Mercedes teams finally got full works support. AMG entered up to 4 Cars with Johnny Cecotto being the only regular. Other drivers for the team include Kurt Thiim, Marc Hessel, Heiner Weiss and Jean-Louis Schlesser.
French team Snobeck had 2 regular cars for teamboss Dany Snobeck and Alain Cudini plus an extra car for Jean-Pierre Malcher at the last round.
Austrian team Marko entered 2 cars for Franz Klammer and Joerg van Ommen.
IPS Racing switched from Volvo to Mercedes and entered 2 cars for Per Stureson and Siegfried Müller jr..
The Team BMK usually entered 3 cars for Roland Asch, Norbert Brenner and Ralf-Werner Müller plus an additional car for Bob Wollek at Brno.
Thomas von Loewis entered a car under the Schwaben Motorsport Name.
3 More 190E's were driven by Leopold Gallina, Ludwig Weber and Michael Roppes, but i have no clue about their teams/entrants.
BMW M3:
Works teams Zakspeed and Linder continued with 3 cars each, Zakspeed entering Frank Schmickler, Markus Oestreich and Annette Meeuvissen. Linder ran cars for Dieter Quester, Altfrid Heger and Mercedes Stermitz. Heger and Stermitz got replaced in the last round by last years champion Eric van de Poele and the late Winfried Vogt.
ETCC-regulars Schnitzer entered a car for Roberto Ravaglia in the chaotic Salzburgring round.
Alpina continued their DTM program with 2 cars driven by Christian Danner and Peter Oberndorfer.
Team Isert entered 2 cars for Walter Mertes and Olaf Manthey.
Team Vogelsang now entered 2 cars under the Valier name, for Harald Grohs and Arnold Mattschull.
Anton Goeser switched from his old 635 to an M3 in mid-season entering under the AC Schnitzer name.
The Auto Maass Kamei team had 2 cars for Kurt Koenig and Claus Dupre with John Lagodny replacing Dupre once.
MK-Motorsport entered 2 cars in the early season for Mario Ketterer and Kurt Thiim. Didier de Radigues failed to qualify the 2nd car at Round 2 and once Thiim switched to the AMG Mercedes the team remained as a one car operation.
Euro-Racing had a varying number of cars and drivers, including Rüdiger Schmitt, Prinz Leopold von Bayern and Hans Kalaschek.
Tauber Motorsport entered 2 cars for Gerhard Müller and Stefan Neuberger.
Herbert Lingmann entered at least 3 rounds using his ETCC car.
Team Gubin got rid of the old 635 and entered an M3 for 1984 champion Volker Strycek.
Harald Becker entered another M3 in the name of SWR-Motorsport.
There were various other M3s for Karl Baron(most likely his red ETCC car), Peter Cramer, Hebert Breiteneder and Wilfried Wiedner.
The odd cars:
BMW 635csi: Anton Goeser drove his black AC Schnitzer car for the first few rounds until his M3 was ready. Fritz Müller kept his car (and even used it in the next season).
Chevrolet Camaro: The American Car Service Team was back with a completely new Car for their old driver Peter John
Ford Mustang: Gerd Ruch entered the last 2 rounds, most likely as a test for the next season.
Opel Kadett: Tuner Kissling ran a one-car operation for Heinz-Friedrich Peil, while Irmscher entered a car for Josef "Sepp" Haider at the season final, most likely a test for the 1989 assault.
Toyota Supra: Volker Strycek drove most likely a Bemani car in the last round but did not start the race.