NEWS // OLIVER JARVIS EAGER FOR START OF DTM SEASON

With just under eleven weeks until the start of the 2010 DTM season, one driver who is particularly looking forward to the coming year is Audi's Oliver Jarvis.

Jarvis has filled the seat left by Danish master Tom Kristensen and will finally get his chance to compete with the latest spec Audi A4 DTM after spending the last two years with prior-spec models. The young British driver who has shown well with some stirring drives in older machinery is eager to be able to compete on a level playing field with the likes of Timo Scheider and Mattias Ekstrom... [read more]

"I know that competing with my team-mates and the Mercedes guys will be a tough job – but I look forward to the challenge, says Jarvis. "I’ll give everything to do a good job and will do my part to see the title goes to Audi again at the end of the season.” he added.

Jarvis has set himself a punishing fitness schedule for the coming season. "I’m working intensely on my fitness,” said the Briton. "Actually, I’m not doing anything different from what I did in previous years. But I’m taking advantage of the fact that I’m now living in Switzerland by skiing and snowboarding regularly. This is excellent fitness training plus also good fun, and the fresh air is invigorating.”

Jarvis visits his new team, Abt Sportsline on a weekly basis and has started to feel at home. "I’ve known the guys at Abt from the past two years and during the ‘DTM on Snow’ event in December I got to know them even better. I think that we’ll be working together superbly.” The same goes for his new race engineer, Franco Chiocchietti, who worked on Tom Kristensen’s A4 over the last six years. "Each time I visit we jointly study the data that was logged last year. This will help me when the season finally starts.”

The amiable youngster primarily owes the fact that he became a racer to his father, Carl, who competed in Formula Ford. As a six-year-old, Jarvis contested motocross races, at the age of eight he started his karting career, and at 18 his career as a professional racer.

Testing for the new season will include the Official DTM test days at Valencia Spain from March 24th-27th, before the series makes its way to Hockenheim for Round One on April 25th

Editorial: Neil Tozer
Photos: DTM