The 1996 International Touring Car Championship was the thirteenth season of premier German touring car championship and also only first and final season under the moniker of
International Touring Car Championship
International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations".
International may also refer to:
Music Albums
* ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011
* ''International'' (New Order album), 2002
* ''International'' (The T ...
. It was for
FIA Class 1 Touring Cars and it was contested by
Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz (), commonly referred to as Mercedes and sometimes as Benz, is a German luxury and commercial vehicle automotive brand established in 1926. Mercedes-Benz AG (a Mercedes-Benz Group subsidiary established in 2019) is headquartere ...
,
Alfa Romeo
Alfa Romeo Automobiles S.p.A. () is an Italian luxury car manufacturer and a subsidiary of Stellantis. The company was founded on 24 June 1910, in Milan, Italy. "Alfa" is an acronym of its founding name, "Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili." "A ...
and
Opel. It was formed of the
Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft
The Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft (DTM) was a touring car racing series held from 1984 to 1996. Originally based in Germany, it held additional rounds elsewhere in Europe and later worldwide.
The original DTM had resumed racing with producti ...
series that ran both a short German & International-based series in
1995
File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...
. These were fused together to form the International Touring Car Championship (abbreviated to ITC). The eventual champion was
Manuel Reuter
Manuel Reuter (born 6 December 1961 in Mainz) is a German former race car driver.
He has won the 24 Hours of Le Mans twice:
*in 1989 24 Hours of Le Mans for Sauber-Mercedes
*in 1996 24 Hours of Le Mans for Joest Racing
He also won the Interse ...
driving an
Opel Calibra
The Opel Calibra is a coupé, engineered and produced by the German automaker Opel between 1989 and 1997. In the United Kingdom, where it remained on sale until 1999, it was marketed under the Vauxhall brand as the Vauxhall Calibra. It was also ...
, and
Opel won the manufacturer's championship.
Season summary
![Alfa 155 DTM](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/14/Alfa_155_DTM.jpg)
All three manufacturers were relatively equally-matched and competitive all season, with Opel's other winning drivers besides Reuter being the experienced
Hans-Joachim Stuck, who took a double victory in Helsinki, and
1994
File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson ...
champion
Klaus Ludwig
Klaus Karl Ludwig (born 5 October 1949) is a German racing driver.
Biography
He also known as ''König Ludwig'' ("King Ludwig") for his success in touring cars and in sports car racing.
In the 1970s, Ludwig drove for Ford in the Deutsche ...
who repeated the feat at
Norisring
The Norisring is a street circuit in Nuremberg, Bavaria, Germany. Originally established as a motorcycle racing venue in 1947 and named in a 1950 competition to win a light motorcycle, the track became known as a sports car racing venue in the ...
. Alfa Romeo came second to Opel in the standings, with former
Benetton Formula One driver
Alessandro Nannini
Alessandro "Sandro" Nannini (born 7 July 1959) is a former racing driver from Italy. He is the younger brother of singer Gianna Nannini. His five-year F1 career resulted in his one and only win at the 1989 Japanese Grand Prix but ended less than ...
taking a convincing seven victories, including four-in-a-row midseason, to place third in the championship. Team-mate and compatriot
Nicola Larini
Nicola Larini (born 19 March 1964) is an Italian racing driver. He participated in 75 Formula One Grands Prix, debuting on 6 September 1987. He finished second in the tragic 1994 San Marino Grand Prix on a substitute outing for Ferrari, but only s ...
could manage just two wins late in a season blighted with retirements, meaning the
Ferrari test driver would not be a feature in the title battle.
Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz (), commonly referred to as Mercedes and sometimes as Benz, is a German luxury and commercial vehicle automotive brand established in 1926. Mercedes-Benz AG (a Mercedes-Benz Group subsidiary established in 2019) is headquartere ...
may have finished third and last in the constructors standings, but were every bit as competitive as their two rivals. Reigning DTM & ITC champion
Bernd Schneider racked up four wins, including a double at Diepholz, en route to second in the championship, though 1995's DTM runner-up
Jörg van Ommen
Jörg Van Ommen (born 27 September 1962 in Moers, North Rhine-Westphalia) is a former German racing driver. He drove for Mercedes-AMG in the DTM in 1995 and 1996, finishing in second place in 1995 in a Mercedes C-Class. He also is the nephew o ...
scored a solitary win in a lacklustre campaign. Their junior team-mates – future
Stewart driver
Jan Magnussen
Jan Ellegaard Magnussen (born 4 July 1973) is a Danish professional racing driver and was a factory driver for General Motors until the end of the 2020 season. He has competed in Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART), NASCAR, the FIA Formula O ...
and
IndyCar Series
The IndyCar Series, currently known as the NTT IndyCar Series under sponsorship, is the highest class of regional North American open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars in the United States, which has been conducted under the auspices o ...
star to-be
Dario Franchitti – also scored a win apiece in the first and last rounds of the series respectively. This meant the Scot placed a creditable fourth in the standings, whilst the Dane's mid-season defection to
CART along with a number of retirements served to prevent him from challenging for the title. Others who impressed but failed to win a race included sometime Benetton and
Sauber
Sauber Motorsport AG is a Swiss motorsport engineering company. It was founded in 1970 (as PP Sauber AG) by Peter Sauber, who progressed through hillclimbing and the World Sportscar Championship to reach Formula One in . After operating it un ...
driver
JJ Lehto
Jyrki Juhani Järvilehto (; born 31 January 1966), better known as "JJ Lehto", is a Finnish racing driver. He won the 24 Hours of Le Mans twice, in 1995 and 2005. He is also a former Formula One driver.
He was a protégé of Finnish 1982 Formula ...
for Opel, young Italian
Giancarlo Fisichella, who combined an assured sophomore tin-top season for Alfa Romeo with a part-season for the
Minardi F1 team, and former
Porsche Supercup
The Porsche Supercup (officially known as Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup, known as Porsche Michelin Supercup prior to 2007) is an international one-make sports car racing series supporting the FIA Formula One World Championship organized by Porsche ...
champion
Uwe Alzen
Uwe Alzen (born 18 August 1967) is a German Auto racing, racing driver specialised in touring car racing and sports car racing.
Biography
He won the 1992 Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland, the 1994 Porsche Supercup and the 1995 Deutsche Tourenwage ...
who completed the championship top ten by finishing in eighth for Opel.
Looking further down the field, ex-
Tyrrell and
Jordan
Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...
F1 driver
Stefano Modena
Stefano Modena (born 12 May 1963) is a former racing driver from Italy. He participated in 81 Formula One Grands Prix, debuting on November 15, 1987. He achieved 2 podiums, and scored a total of 17 championship points.
Career
Modena was born in ...
endured an average season with Alfa Romeo, whilst fellow Alfa Romeo driver and former
BTCC
The Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship is a touring car racing series held each year in the United Kingdom, currently organised and administered by TOCA. It was established in 1958 as the British Saloon Car Championship and was renamed as ...
champion
Gabriele Tarquini
Gabriele Tarquini (born 2 March 1962) is an Italian racing driver. He participated in 78 Formula One Grands Prix, debuting on May 3, 1987. He scored a single championship point, and holds the record for the most failed attempts to qualify. He h ...
suffered from appalling luck which severely hampered his title tilt despite taking a convincing victory at Silverstone.
Christian Danner
Christian Josef Danner (born 4 April 1958) is a former racing driver from Germany.
Career Formula Two and Formula 3000
The son of car safety expert Max Danner, Danner started his motor racing career immediately after leaving school in 1977. Aft ...
also disappointed for Alfa Romeo, whilst the respective team-mates of Reuter and Schnieder –
Le Mans winner
Yannick Dalmas
Yannick Dalmas (born 28 July 1961) is a former racing driver from France. He won the 24 Hours of Le Mans four times (in 1992, 1994, 1995 and 1999), each with different teams. Prior to this, he participated in 49 Formula One Grands Prix, debuting ...
and former DTM champion
Kurt Thiim
Kurt Thiim (born 3 August 1956 in Vojens) is a Danish race car driver. After his karting career he raced in single-seaters from 1978 to 1984 before moving to the DTM.
He won the championship in his debut year in 1986 driving a Rover Vitesse, and ...
– curiously also had torrid seasons. The latter was replaced at the end of the season, along with future F1 driver
Alexander Wurz
Alexander Georg Wurz (born 15 February 1974) is an Austrian former professional racing driver, driver training expert and businessman. He competed in Formula One from until , and is also a two-time winner of the Le Mans 24 Hours.
He is current ...
and
Jason Watt
Jason Watt (born 24 February 1970) is a Danish racing driver. Watt enjoyed a fruitful karting career before moving into Formula Ford in 1992. He graduated to the British Formula Vauxhall Lotus Winter Series in 1993, winning the championship, as ...
, as all three manufacturers elected to enter a local driver each during the last two events at Interlagos and Suzuka. Among these,
German F3 regular
Max Wilson
Max Wilson (born August 22, 1972 in Hamburg, West Germany) is a racing driver of Brazilian parentage.
Racing career
Junior formulae
Wilson started his motor racing career in 1985 in go-karts. He moved into single-seaters in 1993, when he was o ...
was the most impressive, the Brazilian finishing second on home turf at Interlagos.
In the end, it was consistency that gifted Reuter the title – he scored points during the first fifteen races of the season, and only failed to do so six times all season. In comparison, Schneider failed to score nine times and Nannini twelve, despite both taking more wins with four and seven respectively as opposed to Reuter's three.
Despite boasting a tremendously strong driver line-up, consisting largely of former F1 drivers, and ostensibly robust manufacturer support, the series suffered from poor media exposure and television coverage, which along with lacklustre spectator attendance figures meant there was comparatively little money coming into the series in comparison to the huge cost of running a 'Class 1' touring car. This was exacerbated by two long journeys to Interlagos, and Suzuka, circuits located in countries where some the competing cars weren't actually sold. This meant that
Alfa Romeo
Alfa Romeo Automobiles S.p.A. () is an Italian luxury car manufacturer and a subsidiary of Stellantis. The company was founded on 24 June 1910, in Milan, Italy. "Alfa" is an acronym of its founding name, "Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili." "A ...
and
Opel announced in September they would pull out at the end of the series, despite having hitherto committed themselves to compete until the end of 1997. With Mercedes-Benz the only remaining manufacturer committed for 1997, the series was cancelled. It wouldn't be until 2000 that the championship was resurrected, albeit as the
DTM which was based firmly in Germany.
Teams and drivers
Schedule and results
Drivers Championship standings
† Drivers did not finish the race, but were classified as they completed over 90% of the race distance.
Note: bold signifies pole position, ''italics'' signifies fastest lap. Grid order for race 2 was decided by the finishing order in race 1.
Notes
* Points System: 20–15–12–10–8–6–4–3–2–1 for the Top 10 drivers in each race. No extra points awarded.
Manufacturers Championship Standings
Final placings in the 1996 FIA Touring Car International Championship for Manufacturers were:
1996 FIA Touring Car International Championship for Manufacturers results
Retrieved from web.archive.org on 24 December
References
External links
1996 International Touring Car Championship standings from motorsport.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:1996 International Touring Car Championship Season
Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters seasons
Int
1996 International Touring Car Championship season