Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft
Right Man, Wrong Man - 1987 index
The
1987 season was not one of "heavy" discussions or disqualifications.
But there were new cars and larger fields; slowly but surely it bacame
Germany's prime championship, though not all the stars took part; we
still had to wait for Ludwig, Hahne or Stuck to tackle a whole season.
BMW
had another "Junior Team", after a shootout between iup and coming
young drivers, Van de Poele and Hessel were chosen; they raced the new
BMW M3 for the Zakspeed team, a surprise after all those Ford years.
Many other BMW teams used the M3 as well, but Ford stuck to the Sierra
XR4; the Cosworth would be too heavy, though at the end of the season
the Cossies were more than able to challenge for the lead. The season
had a little Ford domination, but if they loaded ballast there tires
were the weak spot, so all in all Ford and BMW were matched. Not so for
Mercedes; the cars were too slow, just like the brave Alfa Romeo 75
Turbo of Thiim. Like
before, the points system favored consistancy rather than outright
wins, and so again we had a champion with no race wins at all: Eric Van
de Poele from Belgium, after a tumultuous last race. And in the final
of the season, a double-header non-championship with '88 rules, young
Van de Poele won overall; but alas, the two heats were won by someone
else...