1,000 Greatest Drivers: René Rast

The greatest touring car driver of all time?

If you were wondering why I decided Sean Edwards was such an obvious lock last week, this is the main reason why. Rast, who turned 38 today, has arguably the best touring car record in history with nine championships in a variety of sports car and touring car series in the years 2008-2020, and Edwards is still to this day Rast’s only full-time teammate to beat him in a teammate head-to-head ever. Rast beat Edwards for the Porsche Carrera Cup Germany title in 2012 by a mere 9 points, but Edwards beat Rast 8-6 on the head-to-head. They would have been tied if you throw out a race where Edwards was disqualified. And Rast is a guy who swept three Porsche Supercup-winning teammates 18-0 and won a DTM series-high 7 races in 2018, a year when his 17-time winning teammate Jamie Green won the title. Rast’s record as you will see below is freaking mind-boggling. I do think he’s declined a bit from his peak, but he’s still going to have an extraordinarily high teammate rating this year as he beat Sheldon van der Linde 11-4 and Marco Wittmann 10-3, so maybe it is just that his cars aren’t fast. Bear in mind that van der Linde and Wittmann themselves combined to win 3 DTM titles as well as lead my touring car model overall 5 out of 10 years from 2013-2022 themselves, yet he still roasted them. Tentatively E- for this year because he only finished 4th in points, but don’t be surprised if I adjust that up or down after I’ve updated my model.