Drivers who spend the majority of their careers in tin tops seldom become international racing heroes, but Hans-Joachim Stuck, a man who’s driven everything under the sun, managed to evade that curse. The chipper German’s dominance of Trans-Am and IMSA GTO made him a feared driver Stateside, but his story goes much further than that. His varied career included three wins at Le Mans in Porsche’s fastest prototypes, an honest stab at Formula 1, and door-banging with the best in touring cars. He’s mastered most things with four wheels, at every notable track across the World, and despite a five-decade career, still beams like a teenager whenever the topic of motorsport comes up.

Some of that excellence came from growing up with the Nurburgring in his backyard. He got his start at the tender age of nine on the Nurburgring, where his father—a legendary racer in his own right—ran a racing school. To give the son of an Auto Union racer the head start every top-tier racer enjoys, Stuck Sr. placed two pillows on the driver’s seat of a BMW 700 and plopped his boy down; the youngster’s eyes just above the rim of the steering wheel.

A Stunning Driving Style

Height would prove to be a problem throughout Stuck’s career, as the once rotund boy grew to a rangy 6’4″. Perhaps this is why his career in single seaters never amounted to much, though his wild, tail-out style got him noticed. Additionally, it was that aggressive style which worked well with the tin-top machinery and tires of the day; Stuck’s success and demonstrations of sideways expertise at the Nurburgring in a BMW 2002 eventually attracted the attention of the BMW, and after a few stints with the marque, moved to Ford to challenge the DRM series in a Capri RS.

When Ford’s competition boss moved to BMW the next year, he dragged the young Stuck back to the outfit he knew well, although this time he’d be sitting at the helm of a March Formula 2, where power from BMW’s M12 motor, narrow tires, and little downforce facilitated his wild driving style. Obvious ability and a departing Jean-Pierre Jarier opened the doors to F1 with March in 1973, and later with Brabham, though after seven difficult years, Stuck left F1 in search of something better.

His departure from the top of the totem pole saw him back into DRM with Schnitzer, who provided him with a turbocharged BMW 320 and 650-odd horsepower. Demonstrating his love for all forms of motorsport, he felt no remorse or sense of being downgraded; his time in F1 was well-spent, and realizing his limitations there, he moved, very sensibly, into a category where he stood a good chance of winning.

https://

Personal Development and Fame with Porsche

It was at Weissach that Stuck came into his own as a driver. In the mid-eighties, he boldly phoned up Porsche to try and secure a contract with the manufacturer after learning about Stefan Bellof leaving to run in F1. A contract was drummed up within minutes, and with the aid of the factory, he became a well-rounded racer.

The support of knowledgeable engineers and more experienced teammates improved his setup skills giving him a more nuanced setup to racing. Up to this point, Stuck was a hard-charger with great car control, but a partnership with Derek Bell, Al Holbert, and Hurley Haywood taught him strategy, how to approach tire management, and mechanical sympathy. It was with the first of those whom he would forge one of the strongest relationships in his entire career; winning Le Mans together in ’86, and ’87. Though Stuck had a slight edge in speed and would do the lion’s share of qualifying runs between the two, the wise and gentlemanly Bell helped pull the team together and bring the car home.

The Porsche 962 was Stuck’s favorite car for its combination of power, grip, and downforce. A very physically-demanding car, especially as it had nothing in the way of air conditioning, and since Stuck was well into his thirties when he began driving it, he had to adopt a stringent diet and exercise regime to run with the younger bucks. It worked; he won the sweltering 12 Hours of Sebring twice with the 962.

Audi in America

With an enviable resume and connections with most of the bigger German marques, his career continued to blossom in the late 1980s, when he was asked to take a trip across the pond to race the new Audi 200 in the Trans-Am series. Audi needed to salvage their public image after a string of mechanical failures and the lawsuits which followed, and so they decided to campaign their new sedan in a field of Corvettes, Merkurs and Camaros. Initially, Stuck wasn’t sold on the idea. A four-door sedan with four wheel-drive and a turbocharged five-cylinder competing against big-bore V8s did not sound too promising.

However, once he was briefed on the detail of the car, and the resources Audi was willing to throw at the effort, he signed up gleefully. With his setup skills gleaned from years of endurance racing with Porsche, Stuck and co-driver Walter Rohrl worked feverishly with their engineers to refine the throttle and boost response and improve power allocation to the front and rear axles. This development led to Audi clinching the constructor’s title, with Hurley Haywood winning the driver’s title.

For the 1989 season, Audi took their Quattro to the highest level of American production-based racing: IMSA GTO. Replacing the 200 Trans-Am was the 90 GTO, a car which pushed the envelope in regards to what someone could do with a production-based car. A Torsen-type center differential, clever LSDs front and rear, and massive, 14-inch slicks at all four corners gave the team a decisive traction advantage, as did the spaceframe design. Additionally, an anti-lag system borrowed from rallying meant 720 accessible horsepower at the team’s disposal. “This was,” as he chirps in his scattergun English, “the maximum you could do out of a street car.” Listening to him reminisce, you get the impression he still feels the enthusiasm he felt on his first date with the car.

Since many of the IMSA GTO’s courses were narrow, wall-lined street circuits, having that low-end torque helped, but they weren’t ever quite on-par with the Corvettes and 300ZXs which walked away on the straights. However, slow and slippery circuits made tire conservation difficult, and when the Chevys and Nissans blew their tires off towards the end of the races, Stuck and his Audi could strike. With fresher tires offered by four wheel-drive, the Audis would have won the series if it hadn’t been for missing Daytona and Sebring; they clinched seven out of thirteen races. Nevertheless, they were so successful that they found clever ways to taunt their competitors, including Stuck’s trademark yodeling as he passed.

Twilight of a Long Career

Into his forties, Stuck was still a highly-paid driver taking Audi’s wares to the top step; winning DTM with the heavyweight Audi V8 Quattro in its debut year. Multitasking in a variety of series simultaneously, Stuck returned to Le Mans at the ripe age of 55, to win his class in a Porsche GT1, but it would be his last taste of champagne at the top of the rostrum. From there on, he raced GT cars in the twilight of his career, but still had the speed in 2004 to record this epic lap at the Nurburgring:

https://

Stuck’s career came to a reluctant end after a harrowing crash at the Nurburgring in 2008, when Stuck spun his R8 into the guardrails; developing a blood clot in his brain. According to his doctors upon examination, Stuck was about fifty minutes away from dropping dead. He would need two holes drilled into his head, but it was not an issue to the toothy German, who remarks, “I am not George Clooney, so it doesn’t worry me.”

With that odd Bavarian mixture of humor and sense, he decided to throw in the towel then and there. However, before he really finished his racing career, he would contend one last race where it all began. With his sons, Johannes and Ferdinand, Stuck raced in a Gallardo LP600+ GT3 in the Nurburgring 24 Hour Race, where they finished 15th. Though he no longer races, he’s not far from the world of motorsport. As the President of the German Motorsport Association, an occasional Nurburgring chauffeur for gutsy passengers, and a brand ambassador to Volkswagen, he’s kept a busy schedule, which for the animated and hyperactive German is a good thing. He’s still smiling, after all.