Claudia Huertgen

Claudia Hürtgen (2012)

Claudia Hürtgen (born September 10, 1971 in Aachen ) is a German racing driver .

Career

Beginnings in motorsport

Hürtgen's career began in karting . In 1988 she was the Pop 100 Senior Champion. After initial successes in Formula Ford in 1991 and the German Formula 3 championship in 1993, she took part in the F3 invitation race in Monaco . There she suffered serious hand injuries in an accident. After recovering, she became Austrian touring car champion in 1995 .

Use in GT and prototypes

In the following years, Hürtgen drove for Roock Racing in the FIA GT championship . She achieved her first GT2 class win on the Helsinki city circuit. At the side of Uwe Alzen and Stéphane Ortelli , among others , further class victories followed at the Nürburgring and in Laguna Seca . With her good results in the FIA-GT, she and her team qualified for the 1999 Le Mans 24-hour race . Together with Vincent Vosse and André Ahrlé , however, she only finished the race in midfield. In addition to her further involvement in the FIA-GT, she also competed with Roock Racing in the Daytona 24-hour race . After its successful premiere with a class win in 1997, it was unable to match this result until 2001. After several years in a Porsche 911 GT2 , Roock Racing switched completely to the American Le Mans Series after a few selected races, including the 2001 Sebring 12-hour race . Team owner Michael Roock cooperates with the racing team KnightHawk Racing . This gave Hürtgen a cockpit in a Le Mans prototype of the LMP675 class. At the side of Mel Hawkins and Steven Knight , she retired in her debut race in the Lola B2K / 40 with engine overheating problems. Despite the late failure and as the only participant in the class, her vehicle was rated, which brought her and the team the class victory. The vehicle also proved to be error-prone in the further course of the championship; several defects in the engine were only opposed to a podium finish in Mid-Ohio . Therefore, Roock Racing ended its involvement in motorsport in 2002. Hürtgen was allowed to contest a few races for KnightHawk Racing in 2002 . Her work tool was now an MG-Lola EX257 , which was sent out on the track from race to race with other driver pairings during the season. Hürtgen finished two of the five races as class winner of the LMP675. This secured KnightHawk Racing the championship title in the American Le Mans Series in 2002.

Touring car

In 2003 and 2004, Hürtgen was the champion of the highest German touring car class, the German Touring Car Challenge and the DMSB Production Car Championship. These championship titles were each won with a BMW 320i from the Schubert Motorsport team .

VLN

In 2005, Hürtgen moved to the BFGoodrich endurance championship on the Nordschleife of the Nürburgring . In 2005 she was the first woman to win the overall standings in the endurance championship against several hundred competitors. She stayed in the championship until 2008 and achieved various class wins for Schubert Motors, including a BMW 120d and a BMW Z4 M Coupé .

Back in GT racing

Due to her experience in various BMW models, Hürtgen received a contract with Alpina in 2009 for use in the newly developed BMW-Alpina B6 of the GT3 group . She started with Csaba Walter in the FIA GT3 European Championship and finished several races in the top ten. Walter and Hürtgen secured the BMW one-make cup of the European Championship with a podium finish at the finals on Circuit Zolder . In a guest start in the ADAC GT Masters , she won both races alongside Maxime Martin . At the end of the year, Alpina withdrew from the GT3, but sold the car to S-Berg Racing . Hürtgen switched to the successor team and is now registered for the entire ADAC GT Masters season.

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1997	GT Racing Team AG	Porsche 911 GT2	Hugh Price	John Robinson	Rank 13
1998	Roock Racing	Porsche 911 GT2	Michel Ligonnet	Robert Nearn	Rank 17
1999	Roock Racing	Porsche 911 GT2	Vincent Vosse	André Ahrlé	Rank 20
2001	Roock Knight Hawk Racing	Lola B2K / 40	Chris Gleason	Rick Fairbanks	failure	engine overheat

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1997	Roock Racing	Porsche 911 GT2	Michel Ligonnet	Zak Brown	Dirk Layer	Rank 10
1999	RBJH Development	Porsche 911 GT2	Hubert Haupt	Zak Brown		failure	accident
2000	Roock Motorsport North America	Porsche 911 GT2	Hubert Haupt	Vic Rice		failure	no oil pressure
2001	Roock Knight Hawk Racing	Lola B2K / 40	Mel Hawkins	Steven Knight		failure	Motor overheated

Web links

• Personal website