Autosport Mannschaft Gelsenkirchen

Not to be confused with AMG, the high performance division of Mercedes-Benz formed in 1967.

Autosport Mannschaft Gelsenkirchen (AMG) is a German racing team best known for its appearances in sportscars and touring car racing. The team was formed in the early 1960s by a group of engineers in Gelsenkirchen, Nordrhein-Westfalen.

History

1960s

WSRC

The team's first forays into international motorsport came in the 1962 World Sprint Racing season when they entered a trio of Mercedes-Benz 300 SLS for the headline grabbing trio of Jackie Stewart, Ricardo Rodríguez and Mauro Bianchi for the final two rounds of the season - with Rodríguez being replaced by Juan Manuel Fangio for the final round in Argentina. Fangio was severely injured in an accident during this final race, fracturing both of his legs and was lucky to escape alive - this would prove to be Fangio's last competitive appearance.

1970s & 1980s

BMW M1 Procar Championship

Autosport Mannschaft Gelsenkirchen were among the first teams to register for the inaugural BMW M1 Procar Championship, fielding an all-German line-up of Klaus Ludwig and Hans-Joachim Stuck. After a solid, if unspectacular start at the opening round at Jarama, Stuck would take advantage of the updated models to crush the competition at Zolder, starting from pole and scoring the fastest lap en route to a dominant victory.

1990s: Re-Emergence on the International scene

1991 WTCM season

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, AMG raced in the DRM and DTM series back home in Germany before resurfacing at an international level in 1991 when they entered a number of the European rounds of the World Touring Car Masters series with a pair of Opel Vectras: One for Volker Strycek, the other shared between both Christian Danner and Michael Bartels.

Despite suffering from financial issues, the team would have a surprisingly successful season, with the highlights being Strycek qualifying second at AMG's first race at Pau and winning the independents class in the feature race at Anderstorp, and Christian Danner scoring a top 10 finish at the Spa endurance race.

1992 WTCM season

Autosport Mannschaft Gelsenkirchen's season was so impressive that, for 1992, the team managed to acquire sponsorship from local Beer giants Veltins, giving them enough money to fund a full season program. Strycek rejoined the team, this time with two new drivers as his teammates: Belgian Eric Van De Poele for most of the races and New Zealander Paul Radisich for the asian Rounds.