How Timo Glock’s DTM comeback happened

Former BMW star Timo Glock has defined how he secured a return to the DTM this yr after being out of motion for the final three seasons.

The German has been recruited by Dorr Motorsport to guide its sophomore marketing campaign within the DTM, the place it would area a pair of McLaren 720S GT3 Evos.

Glock made quite a few makes an attempt to return to the sequence he referred to as his house between 2013-21, following his departure from System 1, however solely went so far as making one visitor look at Imola in 2022 with Ceccato Motors.

However an impromptu journey to final yr’s Hockenheim finale in October set issues rolling, ultimately resulting in him getting the chance to switch the departing Clemens Schmid in Dorr’s DTM line-up this yr.

“Likelihood performed its half once more. I used to be visiting my mother and father with my daughter on the weekend and I solely realised three days beforehand that the DTM finale was at Hockenheim,” Glock advised Motorsport.com’s sister title Motorsport-Complete.com.

“So I drove previous my pal [and track’s managing director] Jochen Nerpel, was there for 2 hours and ran into my former GP2 race engineer Richard Selwin on the grid.

“Selwin and I all the time stayed in contact and saved saying we wanted to do one thing collectively.”

Timo Glock, BMW Group RMG, BMW M4 DTM

Photograph by: Daniel Reinhard

Glock had beforehand labored along with Selwin throughout his title-winning season with iSport in GP2 (now System 2) in 2007.

In the previous couple of years, Selwin acted as an engineer for the Mission 1 BMW crew in each the DTM and the World Endurance Championship, gaining expertise of operating GT equipment.

Mission 1 was speculated to run Dorr Motorsport’s new DTM programme final season, solely to go bankrupt and power Dorr to arrange its personal operation. This additionally opened the door for Selwin to straight be part of Dorr’s crew.

“I say: ‘Hey, what are you doing right here?'” Glock recalled.

“He replied: ‘I am right here for Rainer Dorr and I am trying within the background at how the crew is about up as a result of we would need to do one thing for this [new] season’.

“Then he requested me: ‘Would you prefer to get behind the wheel once more?’ I mentioned: ‘Would I prefer to? After all! I already spoke to them final yr’.”

Glock failed to search out Rainer Dorr on the Hockenheim grid, however was capable of pay money for him within the days following the occasion.

The five-time DTM race winner already knew the Dorr crew proprietor, having beforehand spoken about becoming a member of his crew for the 2024 season.

“I despatched him a message two days later saying that if he needed to speak once more about working collectively, we may discuss on the cellphone,” mentioned Glock.

“We did that – after which issues went fairly rapidly. We each had clear concepts in regards to the subject – he had his, I had mine.”

Following the dialog, Dorr organised a monitor day at Hockenheim at a brief discover to present Glock an opportunity to check out the McLaren 720S GT3.

“We made good use of the check day and on the finish he mentioned: ‘We want somebody who has expertise’. And for me it was essential that Richard Selwin was on board,” he mentioned.

The 2 events rapidly got here to an settlement, with the deal being made public earlier than Christmas in December.

This is able to be Glock’s first full programme since he raced within the Italian GT sequence in 2022. He was dropped from BMW’s manufacturing unit roster on the finish of the season and has solely accomplished in a handful of races since then, with a Nurburgring 24 Hour look with two-time DTM champion Timo Scheider, Le Mans 24 Hours class winner Jeroen Bleekemolen and Briton Peter Cate being the spotlight.

Clemens Schmid, Dörr Motorsport McLaren 720S GT3 Evo