Claudia Hürtgen

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Claudia Hürtgen (born September 10, 1971 in Aachen) is a German race driver. After fellow German Ellen Lohr, who won the German Formula 3-Championship and a DTM race, she is considered Germany's best female pilot.

Claudia started with karting and moved to German Formula 3. In 1993, during the F3 invitational race of the Monaco Grand Prix weekend, she suffered hand injuries in a roll-over crash, ending her career in single-seaters.

Coming back with touring cars in 1995, she won the Austrian championship.

Moving on to sports car racing, she then scored class wins, in an LMP-675 class car or a Porsche, in the American Le Mans Series as well as in the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

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

Back in touring car racing, Hürtgen was racing an ETCC-spec BMW 320i of "Team Schubert". In the years 2003 and 2004, she was champion in Germany's Deutsche Tourenwagen Challenge DTC, which was renamed DMSB-Produktionswagen-Meisterschaft DPM.

In 2005, the team and Claudia moved on the VLN endurance racing series on the Nürburgring Nordschleife.

As first woman, she won in 2005 the VLN championship on her own, against several hundred competitors. Sabine Schmitz (Reck) had won this series in 1998 together with Johannes Scheid (with whom she also had won the 24 Hours Nürburgring in 1996 and 1997).

In 2006, Claudia attempts to defend her VLN-title with both a BMW 120d Diesel and the WTCC-spec BMW 320i of "Team Schubert", as the 4 hour long races permit drivers to race on two cars. Points car only scored with one car determined in advance, though.

On the weekend of 22 April 2006, she could win the classes of both cars on Saturday's VLN race. The BMW 320i then was towed across northern Germany to Motopark Arena Oschersleben over night, to win both runs of the ADAC Procar there on Sunday, giving Claudia 4 wins out of 4 on this weekend.

At the 2006 24 Hours Nürburgring, she was driving two cars for a total of 11 hours, scoring an excellent fifth place among 220 cars with a BMW 120d. Her 245hp Diesel finished ahead of many stronger cars, like Porsche 911 GT3, BMW M3, Lamborghini Gallardo, Aston Martin, Maserati.