DTM
Meet the racing drivers who aren’t content racing in just one motorsport series.
This weekend Mattias Ekström will take part in two very different motorsport disciplines when he competes in both the FIA World Rallycross Championship and the DTM series at Hockenheim during the same event.
Ekström is well known for his impressive CV, having won the Race of Champions three-times, the DTM championship twice as well as a winner in World Rallycross, it got us wondering about the drivers who have shown their skills in an array of different motorsport disciplines…
Mattias Ekström
Raced in: DTM, World Rallycross, WRC, V8 Supercars, NASCAR
We must start with the Swede, who is doing the double at Hockenheim this weekend.
Ekström has been racing in Germany’s top touring car series DTM since 2001 and has won the title twice, in 2004 and 2007. The Swede has finished in the top three of the championship eight times, making him one of DTM’s most successful drivers.
In 2014, Ekström raced in the World Rallycross Championship alongside the DTM series with his own team EKS RX and it took just two events before the Swede was victorious in the series, winning his home round in Sweden.
As well as DTM and Rallycross, he’s raced in the WRC eight times, made a guest appearance in V8 Supercars at Bathurst and driven two races for Red Bull’s NASCAR team back in 2010.
Juan Pablo Montoya
Raced in: F1, IndyCar, NASCAR, IMSA
Only one person in history has won all three legs of the motorsport triple crown, it was achieved when Graham Hill triumphed at Le Mans in 1972, having already won the Monaco Grand Prix and the Indianapolis 500.
The only realistic chance of anyone completing this feat again must surely be Juan-Pablo Montoya who won the Indy 500 as a rookie in 2000 and again in 2015, as well securing victory at the Monaco Grand Prix in 2003 for Williams.
The Colombian has shown his interest in Le Mans however, testing Mark Webber’s title-winning Porsche 919 Hybrid at Bahrain last year and instantly being on the pace. He’s pretty handy at endurance racing already though, having won the Daytona 24 Hours three times.
Sébastien Loeb
Raced in: WRC, WTCC, World Rallycross, Dakar Rally, Le Mans 24 Hours, FIA GT Series, X-Games, Pikes Peak
Sébastien Loeb’s list of achievements is so long that any racing driver who achieves even 10 percent of what the Frenchman has can count themselves lucky. Not content with winning the World Rally Championship nine years in a row, Loeb has raced (and won) in plenty of other series too.
He won on his FIA GT Series debut in 2013, he won his second ever race in the World Touring Car Championship, he won on his Rallycross debut at the X-Games beating the likes of Ken Block and Travis Pastrana, he broke the Pikes Peak record by a minute and a half in his first appearance at the event and he took four stages victories on his Dakar Rally debut this year. We could go on...
Romain Dumas
Raced in: WEC, WRC, Pikes Peak, Dakar Rally, R-GT Cup
Another talented Frenchman, like Loeb, Romain Dumas has driven a whole range of different cars including a Formula One car back in 2002 for Renault.
He really made a name for himself though in endurance racing, winning the 2010 Le Mans 24 Hours for Audi and taking a GTE-Pro class win for Porsche three years later.
Dumas is also a handy offroad racer, winning the Pikes Peak Hill Climb in 2014, taking a class win at Rallye Deutschland last year and taking part in the fearsome Dakar Rally.
Nelson Piquet Jr.
Raced in: F1, Formula E, WEC, Rallycross, NASCAR
After his involvement in the crash-gate controversy, the less said about Nelson Piquet Jr’s Formula One career the better, but the son of the Brazilian three-time champion has enjoyed plenty of success since he left F1 in 2009.
Piquet Jr won races in NASCAR’s Nationwide Series and Camping World Truck Series and also showed his skills in a rallycross car by taking a win in the Red Bull GRC series in 2015.
Since then however he’s found a more permanent racing home in Formula E, where he won the inaugural championship season. The Brazilian has now also joined some of his fellow Formula E racers in the World Endurance Championship.
