Walter Mertes

Walter Mertes (born January 26, 1955 ) is a German entrepreneur and former racing car driver .

Racing career

Walter Mertes started motorsport in the early 1970s.

In 1983 he started together with Edgar Dören and Hans-Christian Jürgensen, first in a Porsche 930 and later in a BMW M1 in Group B of the European Endurance Championship . A year later he drove a BMW M1 in the sports car endurance world championship . There his best result was 19th place and Group B class win at Silverstone.

At the same time as the World Endurance Championship , he competed in the German Racing Championship (DRM) at the Nürburgring Super Sprint race in 1984 and finished eighth.

In 1985 Mertes switched to touring car motorsport and drove two races for Ford with a Ford Sierra XR4Ti in the European Touring Car Championship this year and the following year .

Walter Mertes contested most of his races in the German Touring Car Championship (DTM). In 1985 he started there as a private driver with a Rover Vitesse . From 1986 to 1987 he drove a Ford Sierra XR4Ti for Ford Ringshausen as Manuel Reuter's team-mate . During this time he achieved his best result in this racing series in 1987 with 12th place in the annual ranking. In 1988 Mertes switched to BMW Isert and drove a BMW M3 .

In 1989 he competed again with Heiner Weiss and Hans Heyer for AMG in a Mercedes-Benz 500 SEC in the Spa-Francorchamps 24-hour race - but was unable to finish the race.

Career as an entrepreneur

Walter Mertes founded the motorsport agency wm GmbH in 1985, which is responsible for marketing for the DTM and the ADAC GT Masters . Until 2018, the company was also responsible for marketing the European Formula 3 Championship , which was replaced in 2019 by the successor series, the FIA Formula 3 Championship .

Until 2017, Mertes was on the board of the ITR , which markets the DTM as an umbrella organization.

statistics

Individual results in the sports car world championship

season	team	race car	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11
1983	Langenfeld Motor Club	Ford Escort	MON	SIL	ONLY	LEM	SPA	FUJ	KYA
					DNF
1984	Team Jürgensen Walter Mertes	BMW M1	MON	SIL	LEM	ONLY	BRH	MOS	SPA	IMO	FUJ	KYA	SAN
			DNF	19th		DNF

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} DriverDB - website: Walter Mertes. In: www.driverdb.com. Retrieved August 10, 2020 . 
2. ↑ ^{a b} WMSport - website: company profile . In: www.wmsport.de. Retrieved August 10, 2020 . 
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Racingsportscars - Internet site: Complete Archive of Walter Mertes. In: www.racingsportscars.com. Retrieved August 10, 2020 . 
4. ^ ADAC Motorsport - website: Gerhard Berger takes over DTM chairmanship. In: www.adac-motorsport.de. March 21, 2017, accessed August 10, 2020 .