MPG Competition

**MPG Competition** is an amateur kart team and sim racing team that competes in various IVRC championships. It was founded in 2018 to participate in the Touring Car Championship. MPG Competition's headquarters are located in Ulm, Germany.

## Racing History

### **Touring Car Championship**

MPG Competition was founded in 2018 to enter the premier season of IVRC's Touring Car Championship. The team decided to enter with three different cars, with each driver choosing his favourite manufacturer. They later hosted a fourth car, but went back down to three cars after the withdrawal of Martin Jatzek.

At the halfway point of their first season, MPG Competition held the lead in the teams' championship with a huge advantage over the rival teams, while team principal Grimminger was leading the drivers' championship. Unlike Grimminger though, the team kept on their lead to win the inaugural TCC teams' championship.

In season two of the TCC MPG returned with the same line-up, although Jatzek raced only a part-time championship and ever since the withdrawal of Grimminger, they shared the drive. Frau and Volland however were able to bring MPG Competition into first place of the teams' championship at the halfway point again, which they never gave away and won their second consecutive TCC's teams' championship.

### **Nürburgring Endurance**

The team entered the 2018 Nürburgring Endurance race with a 3-driver line-up consisting Volland, Frau and Grimminger, sharing duties in a Ferrari 488 GT3. Due to the limitation of the race distance to 90 minutes, each driver entered on his own. Carlos Frau thus took the first major event win for MPG Competition, but the team even locked out the podium by finishing first, second and third.

### **Bathurst 200**

The team enterd the 2018 Bathurst 200 race with a three-car line-up consisting Volland, Jatzek and Frau, each driving a Ford FG X Falcon. The original line-up featured Grimminger, but due to other commitments, the team brought up Jatzek as a replacement, who scored the team's first Bathurst 200 podium.
In 2019 the team intended on returning to the famous Mount Panorama Circuit with a three-car line-up again, however shortly before the race Volland announced that he will not take part and thus left returnee Frau and newest recruitment Daniel Nieto alone on their duties. Nieto really impressed by qualifying 4th in a 22-car field, while Frau made it to a solid 8th. At the start however, Frau was stuck for one lap with technical issues and thus had to catch up to the rest of the field over the course of the race, where fellow countryman Nieto continued to impress by starting, racing and finishing in fourth.

### **GT3 World Cup**

The team split its entries for the 2018 GT3 World Cup, with Phillip Volland and Carlos Frau and each driving a Mercedes-AMG GT3, while Martin Jatzek and Constantin Grimminger entered with a Nissan GT-R GT3. As the rules forbid multiple car manufacturers within one team, the Mercedes entry was listed as 'MPG Competition Europe', while the Nissan entries raced under the Macau flag and the 'MPG Competition Asia' banner. After ruining his chances on starting 2nd in the Main Race with a last-lap crash, Grimminger then found himself in the way of a spinning Jatzek at the start, taking both Nissans out of contention. Frau however went on to have a brilliant race and finished in second for the 'Europe' squad.

### **F3 World Cup**

The team entered the 2018 F3 World Cup with Martin Jatzek, Constantin Grimminger and Carlos Frau each racing a Volkswagen-powered Dallara F312. After a fulminant drive in the Qualifying Race Grimminger looked set to get a podium during the Main Race, however he crashed out under odd circumstances and gifted Frau the final podium position.

### **Winter Series**

For the 2018–19 Formula E season, which was like all Winter Series seasons intended to be a fun series, MPG Competition entered a conjuction with Swinegel Racing to boost up their numbers. While MPG itself entered with Martin Jatzek and Carlos Frau in the squad's in-house team, Constantin Grimminger entered together with Marc Stwerka as MPG Swinegel Racing. This turned out to be their best shot, as the shared entry went on to win the teams' championship despite not scoring any win; also it brought Grimminger to his first ever drivers' championship title.

### **World Endurance Championship**

For the inaugural World Endurance Championship season MPG planned to enter with all it's drivers in all available classes, however with the cancellation of the LMP2 class just shortly before the season opener, Grimminger and Frau were forced to join the GTE class. As they didn't want to join Volland on his Porsche 911 RSR, they've re-activated MPG Competition Team Asia and entered with two Aston Martin Vantage GTE's, just to end the first two races on a 1-2 for Team Asia. Jatzek himself went into LMP1, driving an Audi R18, on which he finished a respectable third in the first race and even won the second race.
While the LMP1 division wasn't able to continue it's success, despite new recruitment Matthew Clipp scored a pole position at the German round, the GTE division was able to score six wins in the first six events and thus is now on course to win the GTE teams' championship.

## Results

### **Touring Car Championship**

* D.C. = Drivers' championship position
* T.C. = Teams' championship position.

† — Drivers competed for various teams over the season.

\* — Season still in progress.

### **Winter Series**

* D.C. = Drivers' championship position
* T.C. = Teams' championship position.

\* — Season still in progress.

### **WEC results**

* D.C. = Drivers' championship position
* T.C. = Teams' championship position.

\* — Season still in progress.

### **Events**

#### **GT3 World Cup**

 14
 MPG Competition Europe
 17

## Timeline

 WEC | 2019–