Uwe Alzen (born 18 August 1967) is a German

racing driver 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 ...

specialised in

touring car racing Touring car racing is a motorsport road racing competition with heavily modified road-going cars. It has both similarities to and significant differences from stock car racing, which is popular in the United States. While the cars do not move ...

and

sports car racing Sports car racing is a form of motorsport road racing which utilises sports cars that have two seats and enclosed wheels. They may be purpose-built prototypes or grand tourers based on road-going models. Broadly speaking, sports car racing is ...

Biography

He won the 1992

Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland The Porsche Carrera Cup Germany, also known as Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland, between 1986-1989 as Porsche 944 Turbo Cup; is a One-Design, one-make racing series by Porsche based in Germany. Champions References Auto Motor und Sport Externa ...

, the 1994

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 ...

and the 1995

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 ...

privateer ''B-Class'' championship. In 1996 he raced in the full

''International Touring Car Championship'', driving an

Opel Calibra The Opel Calibra is a coupé, engineered and produced by the Germany, German automaker Opel between 1989 and 1997. In the United Kingdom, where it remained on sale until 1999, it was marketed under the Vauxhall Motors, Vauxhall brand as the Vaux ...

V6. When this series was discontinued, he raced for

Opel Opel Automobile GmbH (), usually shortened to Opel, is a German automobile manufacturer which has been a subsidiary of Stellantis since 16 January 2021. It was owned by the American automaker General Motors from 1929 until 2017 and the PSA Grou ...

in the German

Super Tourenwagen Cup The Super Tourenwagen Cup, or German Supertouring Championship, was a touring car racing series held between 1994 and 1999 in Germany. The championship was established when BMW and Audi both left the Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft (DTM) in 19 ...

. Alzen celebrated an apparent championship win in 1999 for Opel under controversial circumstances after a last corner incident involving his teammate

Roland Asch Roland Asch (born 12 October 1950 in Altingen, West Germany) is a race car driver from Ammerbuch, near Stuttgart. Asch was a distinctive figure on the German motor racing scene in the 1990s. Racing career Asch's career started in 1973 with s ...

and his main rival for the championship

Christian Abt Christian Abt (born 8 May 1967) is a race car driver born in Kempten, Germany, into a family of amateur race drivers and car dealers. His elder brother Hans-Jürgen Abt runs the Abt Sportsline Audi racing teams as well as their tuning company f ...

. Alzen, who was leading the race at the time, barely limped to 2nd place after crashing with Abt's teammate

Kris Nissen The kris, or ''keris'' in the Indonesian language, is an asymmetrical dagger with distinctive blade-patterning achieved through alternating laminations of iron and nickelous iron (''pamor''). Of Javanese origin, the kris is famous for its dist ...

, whom he was trying to lap seconds earlier at the chicane. Weeks later though, his Championship win was stripped and was given to his rival,

, after an amateur video proved that Asch had deliberately crashed into Abt. Alzen continued with Opel in 2000 in the new

Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters The Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM, German Touring Car Masters) is a grand touring car series sanctioned by ITR e.V. who have been affiliated to the DMSB-FIA since 1984. The series is based in Germany, with rounds elsewhere in Europe. The ser ...

, but was released after colliding with his teammate

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 Inte ...

. He left the

AMG-Mercedes Mercedes-AMG GmbH, commonly known as AMG, is the high-performance subsidiary of Mercedes-Benz, Mercedes-Benz AG. AMG independently hires engineers and contracts with manufacturers to customize Mercedes-Benz AMG vehicles. The company has its head ...

team in 2003 under similar circumstances. Alzen won the GT1 category of the 1998 24 Hours of Daytona in a Rohr Motorsport Porsche 911 GT1 Evo. Alzen was also a competitor in the 1998 FIA GT Championship season and 1998 24 Hours of Le Mans race in a

Porsche 911 GT1 The Porsche 911 GT1 is a car designed and developed by German automobile manufacturer Porsche AG to compete in the GT1 class of sportscar racing, which also required a street-legal version for homologation (motorsport), homologation purposes. The ...

, finishing 2nd overall. In 2004 he also competed in FIA GT, with

Michael Bartels Michael Bartels (born 8 March 1968) is a German professional racing driver. He is a multiple FIA GT champion and former Grand Prix driver who attempted to qualify for four races in with Lotus. Career Bartels was the 1985 German karting champi ...

on a Vitaphone-sponsored

Saleen S7 Saleen Automotive, Inc., commonly known as Saleen (/səˈliːn/), is an American manufacturer of specialty high-performance sports cars and high-performance automotive parts. Saleen is headquartered in Corona, California, US. On June 26, 2013 Sal ...

. Uwe Alzen and his elder brother

Jürgen Alzen Jürgen Alzen (born 26 November 1962 in Kirchen, Rhineland-Palatinate) is a race car driver from Germany. He drove one race in both the FIA GT Championship and the American Le Mans Series of 2001 for his own Alzen Porsche team. He has also raced ...

were also driving at the

Nürburgring The is a 150,000 person capacity motorsports complex located in the town of Nürburg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It features a Formula One, Grand Prix race track built in 1984, and a long "North loop" track, built in the 1920s, around t ...

''Nordschleife'' VLN Endurance racing series and

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 smallest c ...

in their privately built

Porsche 996 The Porsche 996 is the internal designation for the 911 model manufactured by the German automaker Porsche from 1997 until 2006. It was replaced by the 997 in 2004, but the high performance Turbo S, GT2 and GT3 variants remained in production un ...

GT2 Turbo 4WD from 2003 to 2005. Uwe Alzen set th
lap record there with this Turbo at 8:09
about 10 seconds faster than the factory cars of

and

Audi Audi AG () is a German automotive manufacturer of luxury vehicles headquartered in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Germany. As a subsidiary of its parent company, the Volkswagen Group, Audi produces vehicles in nine production facilities worldwide. Th ...

from the DTM, as well as the

BMW M3 The BMW M3 is a high-performance version of the BMW 3 Series, developed by BMW's in-house motorsport division, BMW M GmbH. M3 models have been produced for every generation of 3 Series since the E30 M3 was introduced in 1986. The initial model ...

V8 GTR of

Schnitzer Motorsport Schnitzer Motorsport was a motorsport team based in Freilassing near Munich, Germany. From the early days of its establishment, the team has operated an automobile racing squad for BMW, and has remarkable results in touring car and sports car rac ...

. He also has beaten them for the pole positions, yet his car failed at the start of the 2005 wet race due to electronic problems, prompting another very emotional interview.

-Fans voted him ''Driver of the Year 2004''. Due to rule changes for 2006, also the Alzen brothers discontinued their use of a turbo engine in favor of a normally aspirated

Porsche 997 GT3 The Porsche 911 GT3 is a high-performance homologation model of the Porsche 911 sports car. It is a line of high-performance models, which began with the 1973 911 Carrera RS. The GT3 has had a successful racing career in the one-make national ...

. But they chose to run a standard H pattern manual gearbox in the 2006 24h race, convinced that the Porsche sequential gearbox would not last. They finished in second place, after the Manthey Porsche which has a sequential gearbox that saves several seconds per lap. Uwe was quite upset with the disadvantages of having a manual gearbox during the post race press conference. In 2008 Uwe Alzen entered the Speedcar International Series, racing for Phoenix Racing, winning two races and finishing third overall. In January 2012 Alzen is confirmed for a full season driving a BMW in the American Le Mans Series sharing a car with

Jörg Müller Jörg Müller (, ; born 3 September 1969) is a Dutch-born German BMW factory driver. Racing career Born in Kerkrade, Netherlands, Müller won the titles in 1989 German Formula Opel Lotus Challenge and in 1989 European Formula Ford 1600. The 199 ...

Racing record

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results

Complete Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft/Masters results

(

key Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (map ...

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

Complete International Touring Car Championship results

(

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

Partial Porsche Supercup results

(

) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap) † — Did not finish the race, but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance. ‡ — Not eligible for points.

References

External links

Uwe Alzen

Jürgen Alzen Motorsport

Nürburgring Fan Site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alzen 1967 births Living people People from Kirchen Racing drivers from Rhineland-Palatinate German racing drivers FIA GT Championship drivers Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters drivers 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers Speedcar Series drivers American Le Mans Series drivers European Le Mans Series drivers Porsche Supercup drivers Blancpain Endurance Series drivers ADAC GT Masters drivers 24 Hours of Spa drivers HWA Team drivers Porsche Motorsports drivers BMW M drivers Mercedes-AMG Motorsport drivers Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing drivers Phoenix Racing drivers Schnitzer Motorsport drivers Nürburgring 24 Hours drivers