World Touring Car Championship 1987

The 1987 World Touring Car Championship was the first World Touring Car Championship . It emerged from the then European Touring Car Championship , but was only held once. The championship began on March 22nd and ended on November 15th, 1987 after a total of 11 races. The winner was the Italian BMW M3 driver Roberto Ravaglia from the Schnitzer Motorsport team, one point ahead of the tied German Ford drivers Klaus Ludwig and Klaus Niedzwiedz . After a season overshadowed by various disqualifications, the series was relegated to a European Championship.

15 vehicles from the manufacturers BMW (4), Alfa Romeo (7), Ford (3) and Maserati (1) took part in the actual championship . The other starters received neither points nor prize money. The races each went over 500 km with a driver change.

In the very first race, the factory Fords were disqualified because of inadmissible electronics. The BMW works cars dominated the race. But in order to save weight, the sheet metal of the roof skin on the BMW works racing cars was thinner than on the production vehicles. Since the thickness of the sheet metal was not documented in the homologation papers of Group A , those responsible at BMW assumed that the "series" production required in the regulations was sufficient to meet the requirements for a compliant car. The responsible stewards therefore disqualified the BMW on the evening of the race.

Alfa Romeo withdrew from the series after the race at Silverstone. At the race in Bathurst, Australia, the Fords - which had previously celebrated a double victory - were disqualified for improper modifications to the rear wheels. From these races onwards, some factory-supported vehicles from the Australian manufacturer Holden took part in the championship, which were competitive but not eligible for points. The lonely Maserati, however, was never competitive, with only six vehicles collecting points in the season, including four BMWs and two Fords.

The only eleven drivers (out of 30 entitled to points) who actually scored points were: Roberto Ravaglia (269), Klaus Ludwig *, Klaus Niedzwiedz * (268 each), Emanuele Pirro (244), Pierre Dieudonné * (193), Steve Soper * (193), Olivier Grouillard (164), Johnny Cecotto , Gianfranco Brancatelli (158 each), Roland Ratzenberger (146) and Luis Pérez-Sala (134). The four drivers marked with an * were for Ford, the rest for BMW.

calendar

run	date	country	route	winner	brand
1	March 22	Italy	Monza	Allan Moffat John Harvey ¹	Holden
2	April 19th	Spain	Jarama	Emanuele Pirro Roberto Ravaglia	BMW
3	10th of May	France	Dijon	Gianfranco Brancatelli Johnny Cecotto	BMW
4th	July 12	BR Germany	Nürburgring	Klaus Ludwig Klaus Niedzwiedz	ford
5	1st – 2nd August	Belgium	Spa Francorchamps	Eric van de Poele Jean-Michel Martin Didier Theys	BMW
6th	August 16	Czechoslovakia	Brno	Klaus Ludwig Klaus Niedzwiedz	ford
7th	September 6th	Great Britain	Silverstone	Enzo Calderari Fabio Mancini	BMW
8th	4th of October	Australia	Bathurst	Peter McLeod Peter Brock David Parsons	Holden
9	October 11th	Australia	Calder	Steve Soper Pierre Dieudonné	ford
10	October 26th	New Zealand	Wellington	Klaus Ludwig Klaus Niedzwiedz	ford
11	15th of November	Japan	Fuji	Klaus Ludwig Klaus Niedzwiedz	ford

¹ No points were awarded in the race, although three of the Alfa Romeo and Maserati had crossed the finish line, albeit with many laps behind.

Web links

• Frank de Jong: World Touring Car Championship 1987 (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Tom Schwede: Notes from the microphone - how I became aware of the loss of the bodywork while moderating the Classic Days Schloss Dyck! August 6, 2019, accessed September 15, 2019 .