The Schaeffler Group will be represented in the 2010 motorsports season at the German Touring Car Masters (DTM) and the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) with the LuK and INA brands. Partners will again be Audi (DTM) and BMW (FIA World Touring Car Championship – WTCC). Furthermore, the Schaeffler Group is focusing on supporting engineering students with several sponsorship activities in the Formula Student.
The motorsports season 2010 has already started for the Schaeffler Group with the first two races of the World Touring Car Championship in Curitiba, Brazil. Once again, the shiny yellow of clutch and transmission specialist LuK and the vibrant green of the INA brand that is renowned for fundamental engine, transmission and chassis components and rolling bearings are amongst the colors worn by the RBM BMW works team. Four-time world champion Andy Priaulx and Augusto Farfus are the drivers.
The Schaeffler Group’s yellow and green logos will also be prominent at the starting lines at the international DTM venues. The striking LuK brand is featured on the Audi A4 driven by Mattias Ekstroem, who is again determined to win the DTM title. DTM fans have been familiar with the combination of Audi A4, Ekstroem and LuK since 2007. This was the season when the combination won the DTM title. The Schaeffler Group is not only represented by the Abt team’s Audi driven by Mattias Ekstroem, but also by the racing car driven by Mike Rockenfeller. The DTM Audi of the Phoenix team features the green logo of Schaeffler’s INA brand.
The comprehensive motorsports activities of the Schaeffler Group also include supporting various university teams in the Formula Student, which is hosted at international venues. The Formula Student has become an established talent pool for engineering students. It creates valuable contacts between engineering students and the Schaeffler Group, one of Germany’s innovation leaders with around 1,250 patent applications annually.
The Schaeffler Group can look back on a long tradition in motorsports. It has been particularly active in various areas of motorsport under the brand of clutch and transmission specialist LuK since the eighties. Bernd Schneider, Frank Biela, Kurt Thiim, Roland Asch, Peter Oberndorfer, Joerg van Ommen, Mike Rockenfeller and Mattias Ekstroem are among the drivers competing in the DTM in Ford, Alpina, BMW, Mercedes and Audi racing cars. Jutta Kleinschmidt won the Dakar Rally in a Mitsubishi Pajero in 2001 with support from LuK, and the Race Touareg of the Volkswagen Dakar team has featured the yellow LuK logo for many years. LuK participates in the Formula 3 (with drivers such as Karl Wendlinger, Michael Bartels, Marco Werner and Bernd Maylaender), the Porsche Carrera Cup and numerous other racing series including the World Touring Car Championship (WTTC) and the FIA European Truck Racing Championship where the best drivers compete for titles in front of a large audience.
At the end of the eighties, the Schaeffler Group was represented by Audi (and Armin Schwarz) in the European rally championships with both the yellow LuK brand and the green INA brand.
Michael Schumacher also drove a racing car with the LuK logo. As driver of one of the Formula Ford racing cars supported by LuK in 1988, he demonstrated his potential for winning the Formula 1.
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