Allan McNish will race for defending German Touring Car Masters (DTM) champions Audi in next year’s series. The Monaco-based Scotsman makes his début in the powerful, ultra-competitive touring car series which will feature fellow ex-Formula One drivers Mika Häkkinen, Jean Alesi and Heinz-Harald Frentzen.

McNish, 35 next month, has been selected to drive the new generation A4 DTM car along with 2004 DTM champion Mattias Ekström (Sweden), Tom Kristensen (Denmark) and Martin Tomczyk (Germany). Meanwhile Christian Abt (Germany), Rinaldo Capello (Italy), Pierre Kaffer (Germany) and Frank Stippler (Germany) will race the current 2004 A4 DTM model which was confirmed at the Essen Motor Show in Germany today.

McNish commented: “The DTM has got a very high pedigree of drivers, some from Formula One like Mika, plus some unfamiliar faces for me like Britain’s Gary Paffett but no matter anyone’s background, there is not one person racing who wants to finish second. DTM will be new territory for me but having visited the championship finale this year I can confirm the racing is very fast and furious. I will give 100% but being a DTM ‘new boy’, I am not going to make any predictions.”

Allan added: “It is not going to be easy for me and I am going to have to learn the tricks of the trade but I watched Tom’s [Kristensen] progress this year coming from a similar background and he was competitive. “I am really excited about this programme and can’t wait to start. I still get the same feeling now as when I started karting almost 25 years ago and combining that passion with hard work and effort from myself and the team I know we can be successful.”

The DTM regularly attracts over 100,000 spectators at each race and is likely to visit the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Turkey as well as Germany next season – 25 November 2004