Franz Engstler (born 25 July 1961) is a German

auto racing Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. In North America, the term is commonly used to describe all forms of automobile sport including non ...

driver.

Racing career

Born in

Kempten im Allgäu Kempten (; ) is the largest town of Allgäu, in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany. The population was about 68,000 in 2016. The area was possibly settled originally by Celts, but was later taken over by the Romans, who called the town ''Cambodunum''. K ...

, Engstler started racing in the European Hillclimbing Championship and the German Long Distance Cup, which he won. From 1988 he competed in German Formula Three, winning the class B title in 1989. In 1993 he switched to

Touring car racing Touring car racing is a motorsport road racing competition that uses race-prepared touring cars. It has both similarities to and significant differences from stock car racing, which is popular in the United States. While the cars do not move a ...

, where he was German Touring Car Championship Class 2 champion in an

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. Between 1994 and 1999, he raced in the German Super Touring Championship for various teams. He finished first in the 2000 German Touring Car Challenge, with two wins. Two more seasons were spent racing in this series in 2002 and 2003. After a season in the 2004 German Production Car Championship, he moved to the Asian Touring Car Championship. He dominated the championship, which bought him back to back titles in 2005 and 2006. Another title came in 2007, winning the German ADAC Procar Series for the second year. 2008 first saw him enter the WTCC. A solid first season saw him finish second in the independents Trophy. The highlight of the year was sixth place overall finish in the final race in

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. Before the end of the 2008 season, he won the BMW Sports Trophy for independent drivers, ahead of one hundred and forty other BMW drivers around the world. Engstler claims BMW Sports Trophy Engstler was involved in a bizarre incident at the 2009 WTCC meeting at Pau. Having finished sixth in race one, he started race two from second position. He took the lead from Alain Menu at the start and led the first lap. The safety car was deployed following three separate incidents on the first lap. The safety car jinked left right into the middle of the circuit, and with the nature of the circuit, Engstler was unsighted as he slammed into the safety car causing substantial damage to both cars, ending his race.

Racing record