The DTM Esports Championship may be over for 2025 in a competitive fashion – after Lucas Muller took the title from Isaac Price in the final round – but the racing didn’t stop as some 2025 drivers, and some guests, took to the Hockenheim for two final races.
The first was very similar to the season we’ve just seen, with the DTM 2024 machines. But the second race was a tantalising prospect, the 1995 DTM cars on RaceRoom’s excellent pre-2001 Hockenheimring.
DTM 2024 (GT3) Race
You may think the first race would just be a re-run of the championship finale to the 2025 season, held only 12 days ago. However, there was a ‘last day of school’ feel, with returning drivers taking it a little less seriously, and some other wildcards like real-life racer Tim Heinemann, Raceroom employee Luka Kita, and Traxion.gg’s very own John Munro.
2024 champion Tim Jarschel, about to cede his crown to fellow German Lucas Muller, took pole for the first race alongside Manuel Vera. However, into turn one, the German spun after contact, dropping to the back of the field and giving him a chance to show his overtaking prowess, comfortably landing him a top ten finish.
This gave Vera the necessary gap to win comfortably, so the entertainment came from further back. 2025 title contender Florian Haase repeatedly attacked two-time DTM Trophy winner Heinemann for fourth position, but the real-world star would continually bat them away in an aggressive and entertaining fight.
DTM 1995 (Class 1 Touring Cars) Race
This was very much the showpiece race of the day. The brilliant-sounding, excellent-looking, and fun-to-drive ’90s DTM cars were perfect for Raceroom’s old Hockenheimring layout.
Manuel Vera continued his strong evening by taking pole here, but his Alfa Romeo lacked power alongside the Mercedes’ that surrounded him, and he was soon shuffled backwards by Haase, Jarschel and Kita. In the slipstream-heavy race, groups would lose contact and rejoin the leaders in the style of a bicycle race, but eventually, the aforementioned Germans broke clear.
On the penultimate lap, Kita very nearly made a mistake that ended his chances, and Jarschel tried to break away by bump drafting Haase, knowing a 1v1 fight gave him better chances. But Kita used the chicanes and some other runoff areas to soon get back in touch, and prove why Jarschel had tried to keep him distanced.
The two almost fell over each other trying to pass Haase, ending up side-by-side going into the stadium section. Kita did a cutback through the final turn, and very nearly beat both to the line, but just missed out in a photo finish by 45 thousandths of a second.
It was exactly the kind of event that competitive sim racing could stand to see more of. Yes, the standards of racing were lower, and track limits were a suggestion rather than a rule on the last lap. Competitors would complain far more fervently if there were money on the line, and rightly too.
Yet, using historic cars and tracks is a nice way to shake things up, and Raceroom’s offering certainly delivered that.
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