Marc Hessel
| Nation: |
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| DTM | |||||||||
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| First race: | Hockenheim 1987 | ||||||||
| Teams (manufacturers) | |||||||||
| 1987 Zakspeed (BMW), 1988 AMG (Mercedes-Benz) | |||||||||
| statistics | |||||||||
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| Podiums: | 3 | ||||||||
| Overall wins: | - | ||||||||
| Points: | 146 | ||||||||
Marc Hessel (born May 10, 1965 in Bonn ) is a German racing car driver , event manager and architect . He drove in the German Touring Car Championship (DTM) and Formula 3 , among others .
Beginnings
Marc Hessel began his motorsport career like many other racing drivers in karting . From there he went to the German and European Formula Ford F1600 championships in 1985 and 1986 . There he collected a total of 17 race victories for his father Hans Hessel's team and only just lost to Michael Bartels in the 1986 title duel . As a reward for this successful 1986 season, in addition to a visit to the then Lotus F1 driver Ayrton Senna, he was also offered a place in the newly created DTM junior team from BMW .
DTM years 1987 and 1988
At Zakspeed -BMW in 1987 he became a teammate of Belgian Eric van de Poele . Marc Hessel achieved his first and only DTM race victory in the second DTM race. In Zolder , Belgium , he started from position 23 to win. In the race at the Noris ring and the airfield circuit of Wunstorf two second places followed (in each case behind Harald Grohs ).
On the Salzburgring that found DTM finale in 1987 instead. Before this race, Marc Hessel (113 points), Ford driver Manuel Reuter (117 points) and Eric van de Poele (118 points) had a chance of winning the title. But since the Belgian van de Poele had the better chances, Hessel was given the order to let Eric van de Poele in the race. During this decisive run, van de Poele and Manuel Reuter suffered tire damage, as a result of which they fell far behind. Marc Hessel was in the top 5 until shortly before the end of the race and would have been champion. Due to the team orders but he drove extremely slowly in the last round, to pass to his Belgian teammate. However, he was so far behind that he still couldn't get past Hessel. Marc Hessel was ninth, van de Poele tenth and Reuter twelfth. That was the name of the 1987 DTM champion: Eric van de Poele. Marc Hessel was third in the final with 123 points. Officially, Hessel's driving style was justified on the last lap of the race by a misunderstanding with the pit.
For the 1988 DTM season , Hessel then switched to the AMG-Mercedes team , where he became teammate of Heiner Weiss , Thomas von Löwis and Johnny Cecotto . Here he could no longer build on his performance from the previous season. Until his last DTM race at the Nürburgring , he only ended up in the top 10 in Brno and scored a total of 21 points. From the Norisring race he was replaced by the Dane Kurt Thiim .
Formula 3 career
Already at the run on the Salzburgring in 1988, Hessel competed in Formula 3 for his father's team, Hessel Motorsport , as he did in Formula Ford times . At the end of the season, he finished 30th with 9 points and remained loyal to his father's team in 1989. After he had finished the season in fourteenth place, he changed teams again. In 1990 he finished eleventh in the overall ranking for the Schübel team . 1991 followed his most successful season with the Mönninghoff Sport Promotion Team. 1 win and 3 further podium placements meant he was third in the championship. At the end of this season he was still in 19th position at the F3 Grand Prix of Macau . 1992 was his last season for the time being when he drove for the RSM-Marko-Team . Here, however, he only managed one point.
Return to the touring cars
In 1997, in addition to a run in the Dutch touring car championship, he also drove the entire DTC season for Brinkmann-BMW. In this championship he finished 5th and won the Siegerland Prize.
In 2002 he gave another guest appearance at the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring . Together with Mirko Struck and Klaus Panchyrz , he finished twelfth overall on a BMW E36 .
Other activities
Marc Hessel is an architect with a degree and has worked for Hermann Tilke as a consultant for the new construction and renovation of the Sepang , Estoril , Saxony , A1 and Nürburgring race tracks . He also works for BMW as a product trainer and, together with former driver colleagues such as Harald Grohs and Leopold Prinz von Bayern, founded the event agency “Automotive Consult” based in Munich .
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Hessel, Marc |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German racing driver |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 10, 1965 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Bonn |