After the chaos of 1996 none of the three leading protagonists contested the championship full-time in 1997. In fact only Meklau returned at all, dominating the sole race that took place on home soil at the A1-Ring, and skipping every other round in favour of racing elsewhere. The calendar was again a collaborative effort by the Austrian and Czech championships, and now incorporated the struggling Hungarian championship as well. Ducati privateer Hermann Schmid won overall at the Landshaag hillclimb but for the rest of the year it was Gerhard Esterer who won everything but that single race in Austria, and those 8 victories from 11 races comfortably gave him the title by a clear 45 points.