Mattias Ekström will say 'goodbye' to DTM with two races at Hockenheim

Swedish racer Mattias Ekström, who left Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM) after seventeen seasons in the series and two championship titles, will contest his two farewell races in the season-opening round at Hockenheimring on May 5-6.

Audi will enter the event with an additional Audi RS5 DTM for Mattias. The #5 car will feature a special livery of Ekström’s longstanding partner Red Bull, including the hashtag #AdjöMattias and some impressive numbers which represent his career.

Ekström will race at Hockenheim without prior tests, but the Head of Audi Motorsport Dieter Gass is expecting the Swede to be fully competitive: “Mattias has always gotten used to a new car quickly. I’m sure that in his farewell race he’s not going to be just cruising either. He’ll live up to his motto ‘Go hard or go home’ in every respect.”

Mattias Ekström left DTM to concentrate on World RX campaign

Ekström left DTM after seventeen consecutive seasons with Audi in which he recorded 195 starts, 23 victories, 20 pole position, 18 fastest laps and 1,219 points. That numbers make him the most successful Audi DTM campaigner of all time.

It all started in 2001 when Mattias was 22 years old and he was driving an Audi TT-R for customer team Abt Sportsline. He won the first race in 2002 and then became the factory driver in 2004, winning the championship title that year. The second title followed in 2007. He was a DTM vice-champion four times, in 2005, 2011, 2014 and 2017.

Photos: Audi,