Claudia Hürtgen (born 10 September 1971 in Aachen) is a German race driver. Along with Ellen Lohr and

Sabine Schmitz Sabine Schmitz (; 14 May 1969 – 16 March 2021) was a German professional motor racing driver and television personality. Born in Adenau to a family in the hotel and catering business, and raised in one of the villages nestled within the Nür ...

, she is one of Germany's best known female racers. Hürtgen started her career in

karting Kart racing or karting is a road racing variant of motorsport with open-wheel, four-wheeled vehicles known as go-karts or shifter karts. They are usually raced on scaled-down circuits, although some professional kart races are also held on fu ...

and moved to German

Formula Three Formula Three, also called Formula 3, abbreviated as F3, is a third-tier class of open-wheel formula racing. The various championships held in Europe, Australia, South America and Asia form an important step for many prospective Formula One dr ...

. In 1993, during the F3 invitational race of the

Monaco Grand Prix The Monaco Grand Prix (french: Grand Prix de Monaco) is a Formula One motor racing event held annually on the Circuit de Monaco, in late May or early June. Run since 1929, it is widely considered to be one of the most important and prestigiou ...

weekend, she suffered hand injuries in a roll-over crash, which ended her single-seater career. She began racing again with touring cars in 1995, winning the Austrian championship, followed with

sports car racing Sports car racing is a form of motorsport road racing which utilises sports cars that have two seats and enclosed wheels. They may be purpose-built prototypes or grand tourers based on road-going models. Broadly speaking, sports car racing i ...

, in which she scored class wins, in an LMP-675 class car or a Porsche, in the

American Le Mans Series The American Le Mans Series (ALMS) was a sports car racing series based in the United States and Canada. It consisted of a series of Endurance racing (motorsport), endurance and sprint races, and was created in the spirit of the 24 Hours of Le M ...

as well as in the

24 Hours of Daytona The 24 Hours of Daytona, also known as the Rolex 24 At Daytona for sponsorship reasons, is a 24-hour sports car endurance race held annually at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. It is run on the Sports Car Course layou ...

and the

24 Hours of Le Mans The 24 Hours of Le Mans (french: link=no, 24 Heures du Mans) is an endurance-focused sports car race held annually near the town of Le Mans, France. It is the world's oldest active endurance racing event. Unlike fixed-distance races whose w ...

. In 2000, she returned to the site of her crash, to win the Monaco Historic Grand Prix in a

Maserati Maserati S.p.A. () is an Italian luxury vehicle manufacturer. Established on 1 December 1914, in Bologna, Italy, the company's headquarters are now in Modena, and its emblem is a trident. The company has been owned by Stellantis since 2021. ...

. Between 2003 and 2004, she was champion in Germany's Deutsche Tourenwagen Challenge (DTC), which was renamed '' DMSB-Produktionswagen-Meisterschaft'' (DPM). In 2005, Team Schubert and Hürtgen moved on the VLN endurance racing series on the

Nürburgring The is a 150,000 person capacity motorsports complex located in the town of Nürburg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It features a Grand Prix race track built in 1984, and a long "North loop" track, built in the 1920s, around the village a ...

Nordschleife. Hürtgen won the VLN championship in 2005, making her the first female champion since

in 1998. At the 2006 24 Hours Nürburgring, Hürtgen drove two cars for a total of 11 hours, scoring 5th place among 220 cars with a 245 bhp 120d. 2011 saw Hürtgen compete with Team Schubert (as Team

Need for Speed ''Need for Speed'' (''NFS'') is a racing game franchise published by Electronic Arts and currently developed by Criterion Games, the developers of ''Burnout''. The series generally centers around illicit street racing and tasks players to co ...

) in the FIA GT3 European Championship and in various endurance races. She won the Dubai 24 Hour and finished 2nd overall at the

Spa 24 Hours The 24 Hours of Spa is an endurance racing event for cars held annually since 1924 at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Stavelot, Belgium. It is currently sponsored by TotalEnergies. History The Spa 24 Hours was conceived by Jules de Their a ...

having started from 49th on the grid, in addition to her three podiums in the FIA GT3 season. In 2021, Hürtgen was set to compete in

Extreme E Extreme E is an FIA-sanctioned international off-road racing series that uses spec silhouette electric SUVs to race in remote parts of the world, such as the Saudi Arabian desert or the Arctic. All racing locations are chosen to raise awareness ...

with ABT CUPRA XE alongside

Mattias Ekström Mattias Ekström (born 14 July 1978 in Falun, Sweden) is a racing driver from Sweden. He competed in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters for Audi from 2001 until his retirement in 2018, and has been competing in the FIA World Rallycross Champion ...

Racing record

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Complete Extreme E results

( key)

References

External links

* 1971 births Living people Sportspeople from Aachen Racing drivers from North Rhine-Westphalia German female racing drivers German racing drivers German Formula Three Championship drivers 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers American Le Mans Series drivers Blancpain Endurance Series drivers ADAC GT Masters drivers European Touring Car Championship drivers European Touring Car Cup drivers 24 Hours of Spa drivers 24 Hours of Daytona drivers Extreme E drivers Nürburgring 24 Hours drivers Abt Sportsline drivers {{Germany-autoracing-bio-stub RSM Marko drivers Cupra Racing drivers 24H Series drivers