Uwe Alzen

Uwe Alzen (born 18 August 1967) is a German racing driver specialised in touring car racing and sports car racing. He is a two-time Nürburgring 24 Hours winner, for Porsche in 2000 and for BMW in 2010.

Biography Alzen won the 1992 Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland, the 1993 24 Hours of Spa, the 1994 Porsche Supercup and the 1995 Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft privateer B-Class championship.

In 1996, Alzen raced in the full Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft International Touring Car Championship, driving an Opel Calibra V6. When this series was discontinued, he raced for Opel in the German Super Tourenwagen Cup. Alzen celebrated an apparent championship win in 1999 for Opel under controversial circumstances after a last corner incident involving his teammate Roland Asch and his main rival for the championship Christian Abt. Alzen, who was leading the race at the time, barely limped to second place after crashing with Abt's teammate Kris Nissen, whom he was trying to lap seconds earlier at the chicane. Weeks later though, his Championship win was stripped and was given to his rival, Christian Abt, after an amateur video proved that Asch had deliberately crashed into Abt.

Alzen continued with Opel in 2000 in the new Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters, but was released after colliding with his teammate Manuel Reuter. He left the AMG-Mercedes team in 2003 under similar circumstances.

Alzen won the GT1 category of the 1998 24 Hours of Daytona in a Rohr Motorsport Porsche 911 GT1 Evo.

Alzen was also a competitor in the 1998 FIA GT Championship season and 1998 24 Hours of Le Mans race in a Porsche 911 GT1, finishing second overall. In 2004, he also competed in FIA GT, with Michael Bartels on a Vitaphone-sponsored Saleen S7.

Alzen and his elder brother Jürgen were also driving at the Nürburgring Nordschleife VLN Endurance racing series and 24 Hours Nürburgring in their privately built Porsche 996 GT2 Turbo 4WD from 2003 to 2005. Uwe Alzen set the lap record there with this Turbo at 8:09, about ten seconds faster than the factory cars of Opel and Audi from the DTM, as well as the BMW M3 V8 GTR of Schnitzer Motorsport. He also has beaten them for the pole positions, yet his car failed at the start of the 2005 wet race due to electronic problems, prompting another very emotional interview.

In 2003 he finished 4th in the 24 Hours of Bathurst, 1st in class, and in 2004 Nürburgring Fans voted Alzen Driver of the Year 2004.

Due to rule changes for 2006, the Alzen brothers discontinued their use of a turbo engine in favor of a normally aspirated Porsche 997 GT3. But they chose to run a standard H pattern manual gearbox in the 2006 24h race, convinced that the Porsche sequential gearbox would not last. They finished in second place, after the Manthey Porsche which has a sequential gearbox that saves several seconds per lap. Uwe was quite upset with the disadvantages of having a manual gearbox during the post race press conference.

In 2008, Alzen entered the Speedcar International Series, racing for Phoenix Racing, winning two races and finishing third overall.

In January 2012, Alzen was confirmed for a full season driving a BMW in the American Le Mans Series sharing a car with Jörg Müller.

Racing record

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results Year Team Co-Drivers Car Class Laps 1998 Porsche AG Jörg Müller Bob Wollek Porsche 911 GT1-98 GT1 350 2nd 2nd 1999 Manthey Racing Patrick Huisman Luca Riccitelli Porsche 911 GT3-R GT 317 13th 1st 2010 BMW Motorsport Jörg Müller Augusto Farfus BMW M3 GT2 GT2 320 19th 6th

Complete Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft/Masters results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete International Touring Car Championship results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Team Car 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 Pts 1995 Persson Motorsport Mercedes C-Class V6 MUG1 MUG2 HEL1 HEL2 DON1 DON2 EST1 EST2 MAG1 MAG2 12th 26 1996 Opel Team Zakspeed Opel Calibra V6 4x4 HOC1 HOC2 NÜR1 NÜR2 EST1 EST2 HEL1 HEL2 NOR1 NOR2 DIE1 DIE2 SIL1 SIL2 NÜR1 NÜR2 MAG1 MAG2 MUG1 MUG2 HOC1 HOC2 INT1 INT2 SUZ1 SUZ2 8th 119

Partial Porsche Supercup results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Team Car 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Pts 2003 Porsche AG Porsche 996 GT3 ITA ESP AUT MON GER FRA GBR GER HUN ITA USA USA NC‡ 0‡ 2005 Konrad Motorsport Porsche 997 GT3ITAESPMONGER USA USA FRA GBR GER HUN ITA BEL 10th 87 2006 PZ Koblenz Porsche 997 GT3 BHR ITA GER ESP MON GBR USA USA FRA GER HUN ITA 2nd 166 2007 SPS Automotive Porsche 997 GT3 BHR BHR ESP MON FRA GBR GER HUN TUR ITA BEL 3rd 128 2008 SPS Automotive Porsche 997 GT3 BHR BHR ESP TUR MON FRA GBR GER HUN ESP BEL ITA 13th 67 † — Did not finish the race, but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance.

‡ — Not eligible for points.