Dominik Schwager (born 18 August 1976 in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

) is a German

auto racing Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. Auto racing has existed since the invention of the automobile. Races of various sorts were organise ...

driver.

Career

Schwager's racing career began with karting in Germany, participating in the national championship from 1989 to 1992 before moving to the Junior Karting World Championship in 1993. Schwager went on to win a driver search held by BMW and the

ADAC ADAC, officially the Allgemeiner Deutscher Automobil-Club (), is Europe's largest motoring association. ADAC is the largest club (Verein) in Germany with around 21 million members. It would be more aptly described today as an individual mo ...

in 1993, earning him an entry in the Formula Junior

open wheel An open-wheel single-seater (often known as formula car) is a car with the wheels outside the car's main body, and usually having only one seat. Open-wheel cars contrast with street cars, sports cars, stock cars, and touring cars, which have thei ...

series which he went on to win in 1995. Schwager progressed to the German Formula Three Championship, initially finishing second in the B-Cup category before taking on the top tier championship in 1997. Schwager was also selected to be part of the

Benetton Formula Benetton Formula Ltd., commonly referred to simply as Benetton, was a Formula One constructor that participated from to . The team was owned by the Benetton family who run a worldwide chain of clothing stores of the same name. In 2000, the t ...

junior team as part of a development program, aided by backing from BMW. This support landed him in the

International Formula 3000 The Formula 3000 International Championship was a motor racing series created by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) in 1985 to become the final preparatory step for drivers hoping to enter Formula One. Formula Two had become ...

series in

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

with French squad

Oreca ORECA (Organisation Exploitation Compétition Automobiles) is a French racing team and race car constructor, founded in 1973 and run by Hugues de Chaunac, former team manager of F1 team AGS. Oreca has had success in many areas of motorsport. ...

, but only earned points in one round of the series. For 1999, Schwager made a change to his racing career and moved from Europe to Japan, entering the

Formula Nippon The Japanese Super Formula Championship is a formula racing series. It is considered as being the top level of single-seater racing in Japan and regional motorsports in Asia. The series is sanctioned by the Japan Automobile Federation (JAF) and ...

series as well as having his first taste of

grand tourer A grand tourer (GT) is a type of car that is designed for high speed and long-distance driving, due to a combination of performance and luxury attributes. The most common format is a Front-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout, front-engine, rear-wh ...

racing by entering the

All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship All Japan Grand Touring Car Championship is a grand touring car racing series that began in 1993. Originally titled as the , generally referred to as either the JGTC the series was renamed to Super GT in 2005. It was the top level of sports car r ...

(JGTC) series in select rounds partnered with

Hideshi Matsuda is a Japanese car racer and TV reporter. He has raced in several 24-hour races, including Daytona and LeMans. He also raced 4 times in the Indianapolis 500, in 1994-1996 and 1999, usually for Beck Motorsports. He also drove in one CART Champi ...

driving a

Team Taisan Team Taisan (チーム・タイサン, stylized as Team TAISAN) is a Japanese auto racing team founded in 1983 by Yasutsune "Ricky" Chiba and owned by the Taisan Industrial Company. Most active in the Super GT Series, formerly known as the All ...

Porsche. Although Schwager scored only one point in the Formula Nippon season, he did earn two class wins in JGTC. This early success in JGTC led Schwager to concentrate solely on the series, moving to the top GT500 category and partnering Daisuke Ito at

Nakajima Racing Nakajima Planning Co.,Ltd, racing as Nakajima Racing, is a Super Formula and Super GT team organized and founded by Satoru Nakajima in 1983. The team has fielded four championship winners in the Formula Nippon racing series: Tom Coronel, Toranos ...

in the

Mobil 1 Mobil 1 is a brand of synthetic motor oil and other automotive lubrication products. Originally developed by the Mobil oil company, it is now globally marketed and sold by ExxonMobil. Mobil 1 engine oil was introduced in 1974. The brand range no ...

Honda NSX The Honda NSX, marketed in North America as the Acura NSX, is a two-seat, mid-engined coupe sports car manufactured by Honda. The origins of the NSX trace back to 1984, with the HP-X (Honda Pininfarina eXperimental) concept, which was a mid-eng ...

. Schwager and Ito won two races and finished fourth in the points standings, while a further win was earned in the 2001 season. Schwager remained with Honda into 2002 but turned to the

Mugen Motorsports Mugen Motorsports (無限), legally known as M-TEC Company, Ltd., is a Japanese company formed in 1973 by Hirotoshi Honda, the son of Honda Motor Company founder Soichiro Honda, and Masao Kimura. Mugen, meaning "without limit", "unlimited" ...

team before switching to the

Toyota Supra is a sports car and grand tourer manufactured by the Toyota Motor Corporation beginning in 1978. The name " supra" is derived from the Latin prefix, meaning "above", "to surpass" or "go beyond". The initial four generations of the Supra were ...

in 2003 with

SARD is a Japanese tuning company and racing team from Toyota, Aichi, mainly competing in the Super GT series and specialising in Toyota tuning parts. History The company was formed in 1972 as Sigma Automotive Co., Ltd by Shin Kato to develop and ...

. Schwager also made a return to Formula Nippon in 2003 with Kondo Racing but failed to score any points. Schwager returned to his Taisan team in 2004, earning another win in the now renamed Super GT series in 2005. Left without a contract for 2006, Schwager returned to Europe to drive in the

Porsche Carrera Cup Porsche Carrera Cup (sometimes abbreviated PCC) is a number of one-make racing by Porsche premier series competed with, initially Porsche 911 Carrera Cup, then later Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars. The cars are specifically built by Porsche for one- ...

before returning to Super GT once again in the Team Kunimitsu NSX. During the 2007 season, Schwager also participated in European races, driving in the Veranstaltergemeinschaft Langstreckenpokal Nürburgring (VLN) series as well as making his first start at the

24 Hours Nürburgring 4 (four) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is considered unlucky in many East Asian cultures. In mathematics Four is the smalle ...

. This expanded in 2008 when Schwager entered the new ADAC GT Masters series in a Callaway Corvette and won three races. Schwager became a development driver for

Alpina Alpina Burkard Bovensiepen GmbH & Co. KG is an automobile manufacturing company based in Buchloe, in the Ostallgäu district of Bavaria, Germany that develops and sells high-performance versions of BMW cars. Alpina works closely with BMW an ...

's GT3 program in 2009 while continuing in the VLN series before signing to drive with

Münnich Motorsport Münnich Motorsport GmbH, which also competes under the title All-Inkl.com Racing, is an auto racing team founded by German racing driver and entrepreneur René Münnich in 2006. The team has been built around three areas of motorsport since its ...

in the inaugural

FIA GT1 World Championship The FIA GT1 World Championship was a world championship sports car racing series, developed by the SRO Group and regulated by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), that was held from 2010 to 2012. It featured multiple grand ...

, driving Lamborghini.

Racing record

Despite earning points in only four races in the season, Schwager and teammate

Nicky Pastorelli Nicky Pastorelli (born 11 April 1983) is a Dutch professional racing driver. Motorsports career Euro Formula 3000 Born in The Hague, Pastorelli participated in Euro Formula 3000 for Scuderia Fama in 2003. He finished on the podium twice and pl ...

were retained by Münnich for 2011 where the duo earned two pole positions and one Championship Race win en route to finishing the season eighth in the standings. Schwager and Pastorelli also participated in select rounds of the

American Le Mans Series The American Le Mans Series (ALMS) was a sports car racing series based in the United States and Canada. It consisted of a series of endurance and sprint races, and was created in the spirit of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The American Le Mans' hea ...

for West Racing.

Complete International Formula 3000 results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

Complete JGTC/Super GT Results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Complete GT1 World Championship results

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Schwager, Dominik 1976 births Living people Sportspeople from Munich Racing drivers from Bavaria German racing drivers German Formula Three Championship drivers International Formula 3000 drivers Formula Nippon drivers Super GT drivers FIA GT1 World Championship drivers American Le Mans Series drivers ADAC GT Masters drivers International GT Open drivers Nismo drivers Nakajima Racing drivers Team Kunimitsu drivers Abt Sportsline drivers Nürburgring 24 Hours drivers Kondō Racing drivers Oreca drivers Rowe Racing drivers Team LeMans drivers