DTM at Oschesleben, 2007

DTM at Oschesleben, 2007

It's official: Grand-Am and NASCAR will partner to bring a 12-race U.S.-based championship for the Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft (DTM) series. We reported on an unconfirmed rumor that this might happen earlier in the month, and let's just say, we have our ice skates ready for this frosty day in the Inferno.

The decision to match DTM with Grand-Am and NASCAR makes more sense than you might initially think, however. Huge audiences at NASCAR events and lots of overlap between the teams running both the Grand-Am and NASCAR series means promotion and engagement for DTM could end up helping both of the other organizations out as well.

The questions arise when you ask where the drivers for the 12-race U.S. DTM championship will come from. In Germany, DTM is a manufacturer-dominated series, with Mercedes-Benz Audi and (soon, in 2012) BMW running the teams and taking the wins. The U.S. version won't be much different--the core German DTM teams will run "satellite" teams here in the U.S., supported by the German operations.

Possibilities for U.S.-based racers to get into DTM cars exist, too, however, with both NASCAR and Grand-Am drivers in the mix.

For more details on the arrival of DTM to our shores, as well as impressions from some of the key players in Grand-Am racing, hit the link to SpeedTV's coverage below.

[SpeedTV]