Hans-Joachim Stuck, the beginnings
Hans-Joachim Stuck (born 1 January 1951 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen), is a German racing driver who has competed in Formula One, two podiums in a Brabham-Alfa, and in many other categories. Note his now legendary helmet design (picture above).The always friendly and funny, tall (1,94m) and blond Bavarian is nowadays living in Austria. He is the son of the legendary Hans Stuck.
As a young boy, his father taught him driving on the Nürburgring. In 1969 he started his first ever motor race at the Nordschleife. Speaking about that day he said, “Getting to the grid was extremely exciting. All of a sudden, my wishes to become a racer came true. I just wanted to start the race and give everybody hell!”. The following year, at just 19 years of age, he won his first 24 hours race at the wheel of a BMW 2002TI. He won there again in 1998 and 2004, too, each time with a BMW touring car.
In 1972, Stuck teamed up with Jochen Mass to drive a Ford Capri RS2600 to victory at the Spa 24 Hours endurance race in Belgium. His campaigns racing the BMW 3.0 CSL “Batmobile” were very successful in 1974 and 1975, in the German DRM as well as in the USA, with Ronnie Peterson and Brian Redman (picture-below taken at Sebring). Later in the 1970s he raced the turbo-charged BMW 320i.
