Women Drivers in the DTM: the "Meisterschaft" years

Race winner, Ellen Lohr, in 1992

The DTM (Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft) was (and remains) Germany's top-ranked touring car championship. It began in 1986, evolving from the Group A-based German Production Car Championship. Women drivers featured in it right from the start, with Beate Nodes, and especially Ellen Lohr, achieving success.

As time went on, budgets for the series became very high, as DTM cars only had to be based on production models. In 1996, it was run as an FIA touring car championship, but after that, it was retired in its current form. The new DTM (Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters) debuted in 2000. 

1986

Beate Nodes - Ford Sierra XR4Ti (Grab Motorsport) - 11th

1987

Beate Nodes - Ford Sierra XR4Ti (Ford/Grab Motorsport) - 21st

1988

Annette Meeuvissen - BMW M3 (Zakspeed/Linder BMW M-Team) - 31st

Mercedes Stermitz - BMW M3 (BMW M-Team Linder) - 37th

Beate Nodes - Ford Sierra XR4Ti (Grab Motorsport) - 42nd

             

1989

Annette Meeuvissen - BMW M3 (BMW M-Team Linder) - unplaced

1990

Annette Meeuvissen - BMW M3 (BMW M-Team Zakspeed) - unplaced

Ellen Lohr - Mercedes 190 E (AMG) - unplaced

1991

Annette Meeuvissen - BMW M3 (Linder M-Team) - unplaced

Ellen Lohr - Mercedes 190 E (AMG) - 26th 

1992

Ellen Lohr - Mercedes 190 E (AMG) - 11th (1 win)

1993

Ellen Lohr - Mercedes 190 E (AMG) - 10th

1994

Ellen Lohr - Mercedes C-Class (AMG) - 11th

1995

Ellen Lohr - AMG Mercedes C-Class (Zakspeed) - 17th

1996 

No championship held - FIA International Touring Car Championship held in its place

Ellen Lohr - AMG Mercedes C-Class (AMG Mercedes Team Persson) - 25th

(Image from http://www.dekra-motorsport.com/en/dtm/extnews/dekra-dtm-news/details/267)

Annette Meeuvissen

Annette was a German driver who raced in the 1980s and 1990s, in Europe mainly, but also further afield, as far as Bathurst in Australia. She began her motorsport career in 1980, when she was 18, and initially competed in slaloms. In 1982, she entered her first major championship, the Ford Fiesta Ladies’ Cup. She won the first race, at Wunstorf, and went on the win the Cup, after multiple wins. Throughout the season, Delia Stegemann matched her performances, and they were declared joint winners, the prize doubled. Despite her success, Annette was sometimes the target of disparaging comments from spectators, but she did not let this deter her. Despite her rivalry with Delia Stegemann, the two teamed up for the Nürburgring 24 Hours mid-season, in the Fiesta, with Peter Marx. They did not finish.

For the 1983 and 1984 seasons, she raced in the VLN long-distance series, at the Nürburgring. Apparently, she almost won her class at the 1984 Nürburgring 24 Hours, but was prevented from doing so by a mechanical problem. The complete starting and finishing lists for these races do not seem to be available.

In 1985, she stepped up to international competition, driving a Ford Escort for the Gerstmann team, in the European Touring Car Championship. Driving with Jörg van Ommen, she entered the championship in the third round, at Donington, and was 20th overall. After missing the Anderstorp round, she reappeared at Brno, with Arno Wester as a third driver. They did not finish. The trio were then fifteenth at Zeltweg. After another break, they entered the Spa 24 Hours, but do not appear to have finished. Back as a pair, Annette and Jörg van Ommen raced at the Silverstone Tourist Trophy, but were only 26th. Their last race of the season was at Zolder, but they did not qualify.

1986 was a quieter season for Annette. She raced a Porsche in the 944 Turbo-Cup, against her former team-mate, Jörg van Ommen, and the likes of winner Joachim Winkelhock, but was not among the front-runners. Mid-season, she was linked with another Gerstmann drive in the Spa 24 Hours, but this did not happen.

1987 was certainly not quiet. Annette was paired up with former beauty queen, Mercedes Stermitz, to drive the second Schnitzer Motorsport BMW M3 in the International Touring Car Championship (ITC), competing around the world. Their first race was the second round, at Jarama, and they qualified ninth. However, an accident put them out after eleven laps. Back in action after a short break, they did not finish at the Nürburgring either, driving as a trio with Altfrid Heger. For the Spa 24 Hours, they transferred to the satellite Linder team, still driving a works BMW, with assistance from Gerrit van Kouwen. Despite only qualifying 35th, they were seventh overall. Driving for the factory team, Annette and Mercedes were then fifteenth at Brno. They missed the Silverstone round, but then flew across the world for the Pacific-region races. The prestigious Bathurst 24–hour race in Australia ended in clutch failure, and third driver, Roland Ratzenberger, did not get a look-in. The second Australian race, at Calder Park, was more productive, and the two women were seventh again. Their last race was at Wellington, New Zealand, and it resulted in another crash. Annette was unplaced in the ITC standings.

Away from the ITC, the Schnitzer M3 was entered into the Zeltweg round of the ETCC, Mercedes Stermitz’s home race. They finished seventh, again. The team’s poor finishing record this season was blamed squarely on Stermitz, whose incautious and rather crash-happy style was ridiculed in the motoring press.

In 1988, Annette became one of the first women to race in the DTM, one of several at this time. She was driving another BMW M3, for the Zakspeed team. This year, she was very much a secondary driver, and at the AVUS race, had to give up her car to Markus Oestreich. That said, she participated in almost all of the other races, and finished a large majority of them. She appears to have had some degree of mechanical sympathy, unlike her previous team-mate. Although she was a reliable finisher, her results were not spectacular this year, with a twelfth at the Nürburgring being her best. Towards the end of the season, she was getting into the top twenty regularly, in large fields of about 35 cars. She was 31st in the championship.

 In 1989, she only managed a few DTM races, in a Linder-run BMW M3. She raced at the Hockenheim Rennsport-Festival, and was twelfth, 22nd and 21st in her three races. Later, at Hochenheim again, she was twelfth in a qualification race, but did not finish the race proper, after a rare accident. The rest of the year may well have been spent in the VLN once more, although results are hard to find.

The following year, she was back in the Zakspeed M3, and did the whole DTM season, apart from the fly-away season finale at Kyalami, South Africa. Her year started badly, with a double DNF at Zolder, but it soon picked up and settled down. Her qualifying performances were improving, and she often able to hold her position, just outside the top ten. Her best performance was at AVUS, where she was seventh in the qualification race, and converted it into eleventh in the first feature race. She was also eleventh in a feature race at Hockenheim, part of the Rennsport-Festival, after finishing eleventh in the preliminary qualifying race. That year, she was linked to a drive in a Rimstock M3 in the Spa 24 Hours, but it did not happen.

1990 saw her back in the DTM, driving for the satellite Linder team again. She was entered into the main championship, but not any of the extra races, some for privateers, put on that year. Her team-mates, usually Dieter Quester and Altfrid Heger, were not really on the pace, and Annette did not fare as well as she had in previous years, with a best result of fifteenth, achieved at the Diepholz airfield track. The Mercedes and Opels were more dominant that year, and she was getting left behind somewhat. This would be her last DTM season.

The Nürburgring was a happier hunting ground for her. She was fifth in the 24 Hour race, driving another BMW. During her career, she entered this classic event four times.

In 1992, she did less racing than in previous years. Her only big event was the Spa 24 Hours, in which she drove am M3, run by Bychl Euroracing. With her team-mates, Marc Gindorf and Heiner Weis, she was 17th overall.

Towards the end of her career, Annette became rather frustrated by motorsport and its vagaries. She retired in 1992, and for some time, worked as a performance driving instructor for BMW. In the mid-1990s, she travelled to Africa, where she ended up founding an animal sanctuary in Namibia. Later, she worked as airline cabin crew, and gave birth to a son. She was in the process of setting up her own kindergarten when she became ill with cancer. Sadly, she died a year later, in 2004.

(Image from http://www.carlosghys.be/html/autographs_meeuvissen.html)

Mercedes Stermitz

Austrian Mercedes Stermitz, born in 1958, pursued a career as an international beauty queen until 1984, and was a contestant in Miss World. Surprisingly, she managed to combine some Austrian club racing with her pageants, but it was not until she hung up her tiara, at the end of 1984, that she began to race seriously.

The Ford Fiesta Ladies' Cup was her first destination in 1985. She campaigned her Fiesta XR2 around Germany and its neighbouring countries for two seasons, before making the jump up to mixed competition in 1987.

Prior to start of this season, Mercedes formed a competitive partnership with the German driver Annette Meeuvissen. Together they entered the ITC World Touring Car championship, using a BMW M3 provided by the Schnitzer team. The season was not a huge success: they failed to finish at Jarama, the Nürburgring, Brno, or the Bathurst 24 Hours. In the second Australian race at Calder, they were seventh, showing that when they kept it on the track, they had the speed. Sadly, they could not follow the finish up and went out of the Wellington round as well. Certain sections of the media jumped on Mercedes's over-enthusiasm and high-profile crashes; one magazine printed the headline "Mercedes Bends BMW", which stuck in a lot of people's minds, and probably annoyed Mercedes a great deal.

The Schnitzer team also entered her into her home round of the European Touring Car championship too, at Zeltweg. The series was playing second fiddle to the ITC that year, but still attracted some decent drivers. Mercedes and Annette kept out of trouble to finish seventh again. Seven must have been their lucky number, because they were seventh once more in the Spa 24 Hours, driving another M3 for the Linder team, with Gerrit Kouwen.

Spa was not the only 24-hour race that Mercedes and Annette did that year. Later in the season, they entered the Nürburgring 24 Hours with fellow female racer Ellen Lohr. Away from saloon competition, Mercedes also took part in one German Formula Three race, for Mönninghof Racing. She finished, but was not in the points.

After a year of close competition with Anette at her side, Mercedes decided to go it alone in 1988, concentrating on single-driver events. Her main focus was that year's DTM championship. She was competing against Annette this time, as well as established stars such as Roland Asch and Johnny Cecotto. The season started unremarkably at Zolder; Mercedes steered her M3 to a 22nd and 17th place and managed to keep out of trouble. She kept up the momentum at Hockenheim, coming a steady 22nd and 18th. Her first retirement of the year occurred during lap five at the Nürburgring, but she made it back out for the second race and was 24th. At Brno in the Czech Republic she was 27th and then 16th, one behind her former team-mate, but at Avus failed to finish again, this time ruling herself out of the second race as well. Following damage to the car, she also sat out the next three meetings at Mainz, the Nürburgring and Norisring.

Her return, at the Wunstorf airport track, yielded the best DTM result of her career: a ninth overall, followed by a 15th. She was much more on the pace and was on the same lap as the winners both times.

Salzburg would have been her home race, and she had performed well in Austria before, but both races were halted early on due to a series of accidents. No points were awarded. She was a disappointing 24th at the Hungaroring and then did not attend the Hockenheim finale, for reasons unknown. She was 34th in the final points table, and although she had shown some flashes of promise, this was her only season in the DTM. Her only other race of the year was another one-off drive in German F3, this time for the Walter Lechner Racing School team.

In 1989 she took part in some more German F3 races, contesting the B class in a Dallara F388.The results have proved impossible to track down, but it is unlikely she made much impact, or it would have been commented on. Mercedes was a very newsworthy driver in her heyday, albeit usually for the wrong reasons. Her only other activity this year was a guest spot in the Rothmans Porsche Turbo Cup, driving a 944.

It was back to sportscars in 1990, although F3 had not been forgotten. Mercedes made a token appearance in a works Eufra, before getting down to business with endurance racing. Her racing programme was ambitious, taking in the Montreal round of the World Sportscar Championship with Team Davey. Their car was a Porsche 962, which unfortunately did not make it to the end of the race. Earlier in the season, she was set to drive a Spice-Ford for the British Chamberlain operation, but the car did not make the start at Silverstone.

Despite the team's poor showing at Montreal, Mercedes stayed with them in 199,1 for her most high-profile appearance yet: the Le Mans 24 Hours. In a stroke of poor luck, Mercedes, along with her team-mates Val Musetti and Katsunori Iketani, narrowly missed qualifying for the classic French race. The Austrian promptly jumped ship and joined the established Kremer Racing team for the next round, the Nürburgring 430km race. The move paid off, as she and Otto Rensing steered a different 962 to eighth place overall.

Single-seaters had not been abandoned completely in 1991. Mercedes moved up a formula to F3000 in the UK, driving a Lola T89/50 for McNeil Engineering. She was only entered for the Oulton Park race and the car's clutch gave up after only seven laps.

Incredibly, she made a switch to open-wheeled competition full-time in 1992. As well as bringing up the rear of nine German F3 races in her Dallara-Alfa Romeo, she took part in the Formula Three Masters race at Zandvoort. Driving for Jacques Isler Racing, she was 23rd overall. Later in the season she flew to Argentina for a non-championship F3000 race at Temporada. Her GJ Motorsport Reynard did not make the finish.

It is hard to say whether Mercedes's career would have picked up again after a decidedly disappointing 1992. In truth, she was denied the chance to redeem herself by a severe road-traffic accident in 1993, which she was lucky to survive. Although her racing career was well and truly over, she did make a full recovery. After concentrating on family life for a time, she has appeared as a guest on German-speaking TV occasionally.

(Image from www.m3-klassik.de)