Helmut Maier

Helmut Maier (born 7th December, 1943 in Passau, Germany) is a German racing driver best known for his appearances in World Touring Car Masters. In 1989, he became the World Touring Car Masters Class D champion.

WTCM

Maier raced in the inaugural WTCM season in 1988 in a self-ran Toyota Corolla Coupe - taking in the three German rounds that season. Decent results in these three rounds were enough to secure fourth place in class.

The following year, Maier embarked on a near-full season in WTCM (only missing on the races in South Africa) and joined up with fellow German Wolfgang Kudrass at the semi-works Volkswagen Dealers Racing team - piloting his now famous Volkswagen Golf Mk1 for the first time. Maier gelled with the Golf immediately, taking clean sweeps of class wins at Fuji, Brno and Spa-Francorchamps. Being one of the few Class D runners at most rounds, Maier won his class at a canter - taking 316 points to Kudrass's 181.

Later career

Maier has remained an active racing driver to this day, frequently racing his Volkswagen Golf in hillclimb and Oldtimer events in Germany, Austria and Czechia.