Hans-Joachim Stuck interview on Ausringers

The Nurburgring is probably the most talked about race circuit in the world these days. With everyone from GM to Nissan, Porsche to Dodge and who knows who else using it as the benchmark test -nevermind that it's all self-reported and more or less worthless- a car's "Ring time" has become quite the buzz word for any performance car.

Hans-Joachim Stuck should be synonymous with the 'Ring for any person who claims to be into four-wheeled vehicles (and if not, shame on you, go read some history books and then come back) and AUSringers has a killer interview with the man himself. A legend for many reasons, he is know for being particularly adept at driving in the rain, hence his nick name the "Rainmaster" ("Regenmeister" for those who speak Deutsch).

HJS became one of my most favorite drivers when I watched him on television at the 12 hours of Sebring race sometime in the late 90's. It was a particularly stormy race, and Hans was behind the wheel of a Porsche 993 GT2 twin turbo. Not only was there a torrential downpour...one of those Sebring storms that makes you wonder how anyone is driving at any speed resembeling fast...but Stuck was actually making up time and passing much faster cars. All the while the windows were fogging up in the worst way, making visibility pretty much zero. Stuck was driving around the track, sliding and making corrections one-handed, while trying to wipe off the windshield so he could see. I'll never forget the in-car footage on the backstretch, through turn 17, down the start / finish. If only I could find that on youtube and post it up...

Anyways, I can't seem to find any decent pictures of one of those GT2's on the track...there seems to be a bit of a vortex swallowing them up, but I have a couple I'll scan in later. At any rate, they were bad ass, no other way to put it.
So to finally get to the point, VW Motorsport now has Herr Stuck on the payroll, and he'll be once again piloting a Scirocco GT24 at this years Nurnburgring 24. Check out the interview over at AUSringers, it's well worth reading. While you're over there you can download an awesome desktop sized version of the image at the top of the post. Do it now!

AUSringers HJS Interview

_WRS