Hans-Joachim Stuck

Hans-Joachim Stuck (born 1 January 1951), turns 70 today. He is a German racing driver who has competed and excelled in Formula One, in endurance racing, in touring cars and in many other categories.

He scored two podiums in Formula One in 1977 while driving for Bernie Ecclestone’s Brabham (picture above) and won the 24 Hours of Le Mans twice for Porsche in 1986 and 1987.

Due to his height of 194 cm, Stuck did not fit well into the F1 cars of the late 1970’s that had a cockpit moved forward with the legs of the drivers exposed to a frontal impact. Leaving F1 at that time probably spared him bad leg injuries, as suffered so many others (Regazzoni, Laffite, Jabouille…).

Stuck continued racing touring and sports cars all over the world, winning races on all continents. The German says the Porsche 962 with which he won Le Mans twice (picture here-under) is the favourite race car he has driven during his career, describing it as having “the perfect combination of power and downforce.”

Happy birthday, “Striezel”.