Benny Leuchter Talks About his Career in New Interview

Touring Car Racing isn’t quite as glamorous or publicized as F1, so you could be forgiven for not recognizing Benjamin Leuchter’s name. To VW fans, though, Leuchter’s should be a household name ever since he set the FWD lap record at the Nurburgring in the Golf GTI Clubsport S.

Volkswagen, with whom Leuchter races during the season, has now released an interview with the German driver that covers everything from his start in racing to his start with Volkswagen, to the time he spent as Sebastian Vettel’s teammate.

Leuchter did not come from a racing family, so when he started karting at the age of 8 he had no one to guide him. Still, his passion and speed got him into a seat with BMW talent development. There he raced with four-time Formula 1 World Champion, Sebastian Vettel.

“For us Germans, Sebastian Vettel is the number driver after Michael Schumacher,” Leuchter tells VW. “I do look back fondly to that time. It was great fun, and taught me a lot as I was able to gather a lot of important experiences.”

Without support, though, the German drivers’ paths diverged. Leuchter eventually ended up without a car to race in. Eager to stay on the track, he applied for a job teaching driving for VW. From that he got offered a spot in Touring Car and now—when he isn’t setting production car records—races the Golf GTI TCR in the new TCR Germany series, in which he is racing for the title.

Read the whole article and what advice this scrappy driver has for young drivers at volkswagen-motorsport.com.

The post Benny Leuchter Talks About his Career in New Interview appeared first on VWVortex.

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