1997 Super Tourenwagen Cup Explained

The 1997 ADAC Deutsche Super Touren Wagen-Cup was the fourth edition of the Super Tourenwagen Cup (STW).

Season summary

The 1997 season saw a battle for the championship between Laurent Aïello for Peugeot and Joachim Winkelhock for BMW. Aiello took an early lead which he held throughout the season, scoring an impressive 11 wins and 17 podiums in 20 races. Winkelhock meanwhile emerged as the prime challenger after an even start between him and teammate Johnny Cecotto, but despite a mid-season four-race winning streak he could not catch Aiello, who claimed the title for Peugeot. Reigning champions Audi meanwhile struggled, despite a star lineup including Emanuele Pirro, Yvan Muller and Tamara Vidali, with Pirro winning only a single race and the other two drivers failing to reach the podium.

Teams and drivers

Team Car No Drivers Rounds Class ROC Auto/A.Z.K. Audi A4 Quattro 1 Emanuele Pirro 1-7 M Audi A4 8-10 Audi A4 Quattro 2 Philipp Peter All M Audi A4 3 Yvan Muller All T Audi A4 Quattro 4 Tamara Vidali All T BMW Team Bigazzi BMW 320i 5 Johnny Cecotto All M 6 Joachim Winkelhock All M Peugeot Esso Peugeot 406 9 Jörg van Ommen All M 10 Laurent Aïello All M Team Honda Sport Honda Accord 11 Altfrid Heger All M 12 Marco Werner All M Cool Fire Alfa Romeo Team Engstler Alfa Romeo 155 TS 14 Frank Schmickler 1-7 T 15 Franz Engstler All T Beru Zündtechnik AR Engstler Alfa Romeo 155 TS 16 Marco Bromberger All T 17 Danny Pfeil All T Abt Sportsline Audi A4 Quattro 18 Christian Abt All T 19 Kris Nissen All T Opel Team Zakspeed Opel Vectra 20 Kurt Thiim 1-2, 4-10 T 21 Uwe Alzen All M Nissan Primera Racing Nissan Primera eGT 22 Sascha Maassen All M 23 Roland Asch All M Isert BMW-Team BMW 320i 24 Steve Soper 10 T 25 Leopold Prinz von Bayern 1, 3-9 T 26 Christian Menzel All T Opel Team SMS Opel Vectra 27 Manuel Reuter All M 28 Michael Bartels All T Opel Team AM Holzer Opel Vectra 30 Alexander Burgstaller 1-5 T 31 Ronny Melkus 1-2, 4 T Team Honda Sport Honda Accord 32 James Thompson 10 M PMC Sports BMW 320i 33 Marc Gindorf 1-5 T JAS Engineering Alfa Romeo 155 TS 35 Christian Danner All M 36 Stefano Modena All M Cool Fire Alfa Romeo Team Engstler Alfa Romeo 155 TS 38 Stephen Vollmair 10 T MHT Sports BMW 318is 39 Michael Heigert 1-3 T Isert BMW-Team BMW 320i 40 Éric Hélary 2 T AUGROS-MIG Austria Team Audi A4 44 Klaus Niedzwiedz All T 45 Dirk Müller 4-6, 8-10 T 46 Raimund Baumschlager 7 T Cool Fire Alfa Romeo Team Engstler Alfa Romeo 155 TS 47 Gianni Giudici 8 T

Icon Class M Drivers eligible to score points in the Manufactures Trophy T Drivers eligible to score points in the Team Trophy

Race calendar and results

Round		Circuit	Date	Pole Position	Winning driver	Winning team
1	R1	Hockenheimring	27 April	Laurent Aïello	Laurent Aïello	Peugeot Esso
	R2				Laurent Aïello	Peugeot Esso
2	R1	Zolder	11 May	Johnny Cecotto	Johnny Cecotto	BMW Team Bigazzi
	R2				Johnny Cecotto	BMW Team Bigazzi
3	R1	Nürburgring	25 May	Laurent Aïello	Laurent Aïello	Peugeot Esso
	R2				Laurent Aïello	Peugeot Esso
4	R1	Sachsenring	15 June	Laurent Aïello	Joachim Winkelhock	BMW Team Bigazzi
	R2				Joachim Winkelhock	BMW Team Bigazzi
5	R1	Norisring	29 June	Laurent Aïello	Joachim Winkelhock	BMW Team Bigazzi
	R2				Joachim Winkelhock	BMW Team Bigazzi
6	R1	Wunstorf	13 July	Laurent Aïello	Laurent Aïello	Peugeot Esso
	R2				Laurent Aïello	Peugeot Esso
7	R1	Zweibrücken	10 August	Laurent Aïello	Laurent Aïello	Peugeot Esso
	R2				Emanuele Pirro	ROC Auto/A.Z.K.
8	R1	Salzburgring	24 August	Laurent Aïello	Laurent Aïello	Peugeot Esso
	R2				Laurent Aïello	Peugeot Esso
9	R1	Lahr	7 September	Johnny Cecotto	Johnny Cecotto	BMW Team Bigazzi
	R2				Joachim Winkelhock	BMW Team Bigazzi
10	R1	Nürburgring	5 October	Laurent Aïello	Laurent Aïello	Peugeot Esso
	R2				Laurent Aïello	Peugeot Esso

Championship results

Points system
Race 1	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th	11th	12th	13th	14th	15th	16th	17th	18th	19th	20th
	30	24	20	17	16	15	14	13	12	11	10	9	8	7	6	5	4	3	2	1
Race 2	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th	11th	12th	13th	14th	15th	16th	17th	18th	19th	20th
	60	48	40	34	32	30	28	26	24	22	20	18	16	14	12	10	8	6	4	2

Pos Driver HOC ZOL NÜR SAC NOR WUN ZWE SAL LAH NÜR Pts 1 Laurent Aïello 1 1 3 3 1 1 2 2 2 Ret 1 1 1 4 1 1 2 20 1 1 696 2 Joachim Winkelhock 4 2 2 2 Ret Ret 1 1 1 1 2 3 2 5 4 2 7 1 3 2 644 3 Johnny Cecotto 2 3 1 1 3 2 15 5 4 Ret 7 5 3 2 7 5 1 2 5 3 571 4 Jörg van Ommen 3 4 9 19 4 5 5 4 3 2 6 10 17 Ret 2 24 6 21 2 4 377 5 Uwe Alzen 9 26 15 15 6 7 3 3 25 12 3 2 7 25 3 3 3 3 6 Ret 370 6 Emanuele Pirro 11 9 4 10 7 5 4 Ret 5 3 Ret Ret 4 1 13 7 19 11 13 10 357 7 Yvan Muller 12 11 10 11 20 Ret 13 6 11 19 Ret Ret 6 6 6 6 4 4 7 6 298 8 Roland Asch 13 10 21 18 9 9 10 9 12 6 11 12 13 11 14 11 Ret 12 11 9 285 9 Kris Nissen 5 6 16 6 14 13 8 19 16 4 24 14 14 14 15 10 11 8 26 16 273 10 Sascha Maassen 14 Ret 8 7 10 8 7 11 9 20 Ret 8 15 12 18 12 13 9 18 11 263 11 Michael Bartels 18 13 17 26 8 10 Ret DNS 15 17 13 9 16 16 5 4 10 6 4 5 263 12 Altfrid Heger 28 Ret 28 12 5 4 16 14 10 Ret 10 13 11 15 12 Ret 12 7 10 8 238 13 Christian Abt 8 15 5 4 11 12 11 17 6 Ret 15 11 8 17 17 14 Ret Ret 19 13 223 14 Christian Menzel 7 8 11 16 Ret Ret 9 7 Ret DNS 8 7 25 9 8 8 5 Ret Ret DNS 222 15 Tamara Vidali 23 Ret 13 Ret 13 11 Ret 8 7 5 20 15 10 7 27 19 14 13 17 14 207 16 Philipp Peter 16 14 6 5 21 Ret 6 21 Ret 8 17 19 5 3 16 15 Ret Ret 12 17 205 17 Manuel Reuter 15 12 12 8 16 DNS 14 Ret Ret DNS 9 6 9 10 11 9 Ret DNS 15 Ret 189 18 Kurt Thiim Ret 19 24 13 20 20 20 11 4 4 Ret DNS 9 13 8 5 9 Ret 180 19 Marco Werner 6 5 30 25 2 3 Ret DNS 8 10 5 17 Ret Ret 10 16 9 Ret 14 Ret 170 20 Stefano Modena 10 7 14 27 23 20 23 Ret 27 7 14 Ret 18 20 19 17 16 10 DNS Ret 129 21 Klaus Niedzwiedz 24 20 20 20 18 DNS Ret 12 14 9 12 Ret 12 8 22 20 Ret 14 21 15 103 22 29 17 15 14 17 10 26 DNS 16 21 26 18 26 23 17 15 85 23 Alexander Burgstaller 25 18 18 14 12 15 12 13 13 Ret 79 24 Franz Engstler 21 Ret 22 17 22 21 21 15 23 15 19 18 20 23 21 22 18 17 20 20 57 25 Frank Schmickler 22 24 29 Ret 26 16 22 16 24 14 21 16 21 19 52 26 Marc Gindorf 20 16 Ret Ret 19 17 18 Ret 19 13 44 27 James Thompson 8 7 41 28 Éric Hélary 7 9 38 29 Christian Danner 17 23 23 23 17 Ret Ret Ret 17 Ret 18 Ret 24 21 20 18 20 18 23 18 37 30 Steve Soper 16 12 23 31 Danny Pfeil 26 21 26 22 24 19 25 22 21 16 23 20 23 22 25 Ret Ret DNS 24 19 23 32 Dirk Müller 19 Ret 18 21 Ret DNS 23 21 15 16 22 Ret 21 33 Raimund Baumschlager 19 13 20 34 Marco Bromberger 27 22 25 24 25 Ret 26 18 22 18 22 Ret 22 24 24 25 21 19 Ret DNS 16 34 Michael Heigert Ret 25 27 Ret 27 18 8 35 Ronny Melkus 19 Ret 19 21 24 DNS 4 36 Stephan Vollmair 25 DNS 0 37 Gianni Giudici Ret DNS 0 Pos Driver HOC ZOL NÜR SAC NOR WUN ZWE SAL REG NÜR Pts

Manufacturers' Trophy

Pos	Manufacturer	Points
1	BMW	1215
2	Peugeot	1073
3	Audi	562
4	Opel	559
5	Nissan	548
6	Honda	442
7	Alfa Romeo	166

Teams' Trophy

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Pos	Team	Points
1	ROC Auto/A.Z.K.	505
2	Abt Sportsline	496
3		423
4	Isert BMW-Team	368
5	AUGROS-MIG Austria Team	144
6	Cool Fire Alfa Romeo Team Engstler	109
7	Opel Team AM Holzer	83
8	PMC Sports	44
9	Beru Zündtechnik AR Engstler	38
10	Opel Team Zakspeed	20