British Duo To Contest German Touring Car Masters For Audi

British duo Oliver Jarvis and Katherine Legge will contest the German Touring Car Masters (DTM) for Audi this year.

Jarvis (24), from Burwell near Newmarket, Cambridgeshire, and Legge (27), from Haslemere, Surrey, will drive for the “factory” Audi Sport Team Phoenix and “customer” Futurecome TME teams respectively in the world’s most popular international touring car racing series.

Jarvis and Legge will make their Audi race debuts in the DTM opener at Hockenheim on 13 Apr while the 11-race series, which features events in France, Italy and the Netherlands as well as Germany, heads for Brands Hatch in Britain on 31 August.

"Switching from Formula Three to DTM is a step up and is an extremely good career path,” commented Jarvis. “A DTM car is basically a single-seater with a roof. It handles in a similar way to that of a single-seater.

“I will start every race trying to win but driving a one-year-old car, will be a big challenge. I will be extremely happy with podiums and regular points finishes and of course helping Audi to retain the DTM title."

Jarvis contested the Japanese Formula 3 Championship last year and has also represented Great Britain in the A1GP World Cup. He won the 2007 Macau Formula 3 Grand Prix last November.

Legge has raced predominantly in North America for the past four years and in the high-calibre Champcar category for the past three seasons. The Guildford-born driver has also tested a Minardi Formula One car.

"I believe the DTM series is one of the best championships in the World and certainly one of the most competitive,” confirmed Legge who follows fellow lady drivers Michèle Mouton (F), Tamara Vidali (I) and Vanina Ickx (B) at Audi. “The level of support and professionalism is astounding. The racing is very close and great for spectators and is staged at some fantastic venues.

“The cars are certainly a challenge to drive and very different to the single-seaters I am used to. Audi are very well known all over the world nowadays for their success in DTM and sportscar racing. My aim for the season is to learn as much as possible, do the best job that I can, hopefully finish every race and ideally score points."

Jarvis and Legge, who were acquainted with their Audi team-mates recently at the annual Audi Sport winter training camp in Germany, follow in the wheeltracks of fellow “Brits” James Thompson (Yorkshire), Allan McNish (Dumfries) and Adam Carroll (Portadown) who have all raced for Audi in the ultra-competitive DTM.

Audi has won the DTM title five times (1990/1, 2002/4/7) and starts the 2008 DTM season as defending champions. The well-proven partner teams of Abt Sportsline, Phoenix and Rosberg enter a total of eight “factory” cars for Audi. The “customer” team, Futurecom TME, brings two additional A4 cars to the grid.

Defending DTM champion Mattias Ekstr?m, Tom Kristensen, Timo Scheider and Martin Tomczyk will drive the latest generation Audi A4 DTM cars, which are entered by Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline. Mike Rockenfeller and Markus Winkelhock compete for Audi Sport Team Rosberg, with Jarvis joining Alexandre Prémat for Audi Sport Team Phoenix. Legge’s team-mate will soon be decided by Futurecome TME.

The first public test days for the 2008 DTM season are held at Mugello, Italy (10-12 Mar) then at the Motorsport Arena Oschersleben, Germany (31 Mar-2 Apr). The official DTM presentation is staged in Düsseldorf on 6 April.