Stuck was born in
Garmisch-Partenkirchen in
Bavaria, and is the son of Christa Thielmann and the legendary 1930s Auto Union Grand Prix driver
Hans Stuck. His father taught him to drive on the
Nürburgring as a young boy. 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 together with
Ronnie Peterson. Later in the 1970s, he raced the turbo-charged
BMW 320i.
BT45B at the
1977 French Grand Prix at
Dijon-Prenois.After some success in
Formula 2 with a
March-
BMW, he also entered F1 with March. Overall, Stuck participated in 81 Grands Prix, debuting on 13 January 1974. He achieved two podiums and scored 29 championship points. Incidentally, Stuck was the first driver be born after the inaugural Grand Prix in 1950. Stuck was quite successful at
Brabham-Alfa in 1977, leading the
1977 United States Grand Prix at
Watkins Glen in the rain, but was replaced by
Niki Lauda in 1978. Stuck missed an opportunity to join
Williams F1 just before this team became successful. Stuck continued racing touring and sports cars all over the world, winning the
24 Hours of Le Mans twice with a
Porsche 962. Stuck says the 962 is the favourite racecar he has driven during his career, describing it as having the "perfect combination of power and downforce" and saying that he had "never sat in such a high-tech racing car as the Porsche 962C with the PDK
semi-automatic transmission". In the 1990s, Stuck tasted touring car success, winning the
DTM Championship in 1990 with
Audi, before returning to Porsche until the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1998. He resumed an official role with BMW after that. In 2006, Stuck raced in the inaugural season of the
Grand Prix Masters formula for retired Formula One drivers after scoring sixth in the first race event at the
Kyalami circuit in
South Africa on 11–13 November 2005. January 2008 saw Stuck began his current position with
Volkswagen Motorsport. This role has also seen him use his experience to help refine road cars, including the new
Golf VI GTI. Stuck announced the end of his 43 years active career as a race driver after the 2011 Nürburgring 24 Hours, in which he participated with a
Reiter Engineering Lamborghini Gallardo LP600+ GT3 together with Dennis Rostek and his sons Ferdinand Stuck and Johannes Stuck. Team Stuck3 finished 15th overall following gearbox problems. In April 2012, Stuck was elected President of the
German Motorsport Association (
Deutscher Motor Sport Bund). ==Racing record==