"Like the race car driver."

Martin Tomczyk is 24 and is battling it out in his sixth season in the DTM (German Touring Car Masters). In the second part of the interview, the German race car driver talks about the rapid start of his career, disinterested girls and Michael Schumacher.

Are you famous? Do people recognize you on the sidewalk?
No, and I am pretty glad about this. But it’s fun when I have to give my name at some office or when ordering something. To the question: "Like the race car driver?", I answer: "Exactly. Like the race car driver."

Why did you become a race car driver?
My father was a race car driver and I was often there at his races. In Rosenheim, our town, there was a group of motor sport enthusiasts who organized races. There, I was also allowed to start, and after that I was in action almost every weekend.

How did you finish your very first race?
I think I was sixteenth. In the second race I was second, so my career was already taking off from the very beginning.

Have you ever doubted your career selection?
No. At first we were a group of 16 kids who were driving karts as a hobby. We were friends and had a lot of fun. But I am the only one from this group who made this hobby into an occupation.

How were you different from the other 15?
I was probably a little better. More important however was: racing costs money. My family decided that the financial investment would be worth it – and I think that was the right decision.

What feelings did you have going to school on Mondays, if you had just won a race on the weekend?
My school buddies were not interested at all in motor sports, therefore I could not make any points at all there with my successes.

Were the girls also not languishing themselves, taken by the successful race car driver?
Unfortunately not. From this vantage point, the whole investment was for nothing.

You advanced from year to year up to higher racing classes. Was there a master plan for your career?
Not at all. But there are certain measures you can take to advance: if you are good in one junior racing series, you move up to the next one. However, the advancement from Formula 3 into the DMT came surprisingly fast for me – I thought that I would be driving two years in Formula 3.

But if an offer like that from AUDI comes, one probably always says yes?
I didn’t have to think about it very long.

Your brother Tobias was also a race car driver and is now your manager. How did this distribution of roles develop?
I am four years younger than he is. He used to also drive in kart races, but I was always faster than him. It just developed this way that he took on a different position in the racing scene.

If one thinks about kart sports in Germany, of course one thinks of Michael Schumacher, who started his career in kart racing. Was he or is he a role model for you?
In my earliest years, he was of course a role model in a certain way and I watched every one of his races. But it was not only Schumacher, who started his career in kart racing. For us guys it was obviously a motivation to know: we can also reach the top.

Can you still advance higher?
Above the DTM there is only one class, the Formula One. I have however set my goals primarily in the DTM. Although I admit: I would like to know how to drive a Formula One car. I can imagine that the Formula One is a lot of fun.