The remarkable career of a 'classy' champion who rejected politics

Over two decades as a factory driver with Audi and BMW, Martin Tomczyk earned the respect of team-mates and rivals as a hard but fair racer. After calling time on his racing career, the 2011 DTM champion sat down with Autosport to look back

When 2011 DTM champion Martin Tomczyk announced in December that he was hanging up his helmet after two decades as a professional driver, the many tributes from former team-mates and rivals struck similar chords. They remarked how it had been a pleasure to work with the 40-year-old Bavarian, their respect obvious.

As Tomczyk’s regular GT co-driver Nicky Catsburg puts it: “If you are Jens Marquardt [the former BMW Motorsport boss] or Nicky Catsburg, he will be straight, whether he likes something or dislikes something.”

In this article

James Newbold

DTM

Martin Tomczyk

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Author James Newbold

James Newbold is Autosport's Plus Editor, responsible for coordinating website feature content.

In a sign of things to come, having completed his Politics and International Relations degree at the University of East Anglia in 2015, he left his graduation ceremony early to catch the last train to Brussels for the following day's Spa 24 Hours.

After a period as a freelancer, he joined the Autosport staff in 2018 and won the Motorsport UK young journalist of the year award. He initially edited Autosport magazine's Performance and Engineering supplements before joining the website team in his current role in 2020.

A keen enthusiast of anything that can be categorised unusual or niche, he enjoys unearthing little-known stories across all branches of motorsport, but has spent most of his career covering sportscars and is a regular part of the Le Mans 24 Hours reporting team.

He lives with his wife and children in Plymouth, England.