Grau began his career in karting from 1986 to 1990 . In 1991 he was promoted to the ADAC Formula Junior , where he became champion a year later. In 1993 , Grau was appointed to the German Touring Car Championship by Mercedes-Benz for the new DTM Junior Team . Together with Stig Amthor he drove in a Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.5-16 Evo II , but was only able to score 13 points in the season because the car was technically inferior to the factory teams. In 1994 , Grau stayed with Amthor in the junior team, but only scored one point. In 1995 he got a place in a Zakspeed - Mercedes-Benz C-Class V6 . With technically higher quality material, Grau regularly finished in the points alongside Kurt Thiim , Louis Krages and Ellen Lohr ; three times he even placed in the top three. With 68 points in the DTM and 39 in the ITC , which was held at the same time, Grau recommended himself for an AMG works car in the 1996 ITC season . However, Grau could not prevail against the strong competition and so he was transferred to the Persson team in the middle of the season .