German entrepreneur (born 1937)
Udo Schutz
(born 11 January 1937)
[1]
is a German entrepreneur, who was competing successfully with racing cars in the 1960s, and with yachts in the 1990s.
Career
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His career began in the early 1960s. With Anton Fischhaber and his #72
Porsche 904
he in 1965 won the GT 2.0 class
[2]
at the
1000 km Nurburgring
, finishing 11th overall, and soon was hired by the factory to represent
Porsche in motorsport
.
The
1967 World Sportscar Championship season
began with two DNF in the US, followed by an 8th at Monza, and he did not even start at Spa with his
Porsche 906
being entered by a Portuguese team while other factory drivers already had the improved
Porsche 910
. Rather heavy and tall,
[3]
[4]
dubbed the ?Bull from Selters“ (his home town), Schutz was not well suited for the low race cars, especially when fitted with closed tops. For other tall drivers like
Dan Gurney
and
Mike Parkes
, special bubble roof extensions were added to Ford and Ferrari cars. Driving around Sicily for the 1967 Targa in regular traffic, with the street-legal 910 #184
[5]
and without a helmet, Schutz' head did not fit behind the wind screen.
[6]
Paired with former Targa winner
Umberto Maglioli
, Schutz suffered yet another DNF, but two weeks later in Germany, Schutz won the 1000 km Nurburgring outright
[7]
in 1967, paired with Joe Buzzetta on the #17
Porsche 910
. Le Mans was yet another DNF, followed by his second world championship win,
[8]
paired with
Gerhard Mitter
in a 910 at Mugello, then a Targa-like road race in Italy with eight laps of 66 km each. In Brands Hatch, he shared a 910 with Jochen Rindt, finishing 11th. Zeltweg was another DNF, in a 906 entered by Scuderia Lufthansa, and the penultimate round in Switzerland, the Hill Climb at
Ollon-Villars
, saw him finishing with a tiny Fiat-Abarth 1000cc at the lower end of the field.
For the
1968 World Sportscar Championship season
, Schutz joined the Italian
Alfa Romeo Tipo 33
factory team, scoring 5th
[9]
place at the
24 Hours of Daytona
, with the rest of the season being rather disappointing.
Schutz returned to Porsche for the
1969 World Sportscar Championship season
and was paired there with
Gerhard Mitter
, mostly on a
Porsche 908
/02, fitted with spyder or long tail body. The season began at Daytona with a 24th place following camshaft trouble, and a 5th place at Sebring. In the third round at Brands Hatch they scored their first podium finish, beaten by two sister cars. The first Italian race, the
1000km Monza
, ended with an engine failure, but the second one, in Sicily, with a triumph. They won the
Targa Florio
[10]
on the
Porsche 908
/2 #266
[11]
ahead of three sister cars. For the 1969
1000km Spa
, a fast track like Monza and Le Mans, they opted to drive the powerful new
Porsche 917
for the first time ever in a race, even though they had qualified it only at 8th, slower than their 908. The flat-12-cylinder engine failed in lap 1 before Schutz could take over from Mitter. At the Ring, Mitter/Schutz qualified 3rd in their 908/02,
[12]
but due to suspension problems ended up 31st while the other 908s occupied the first five places. At the
1969 24 Hours of Le Mans
, Mitter and Schutz were back in the 908. After 14 hours, in lap 199, Schutz at high speed crashed his #23 Langheck badly after a collision with the #64 sister car driven by
Gerard Larrousse
, getting ejected from the car when it rolled, surviving without severe injuries. Having already secured the championship, the
Porsche System Engineering
factory team did not participate in the penultimate round at Watkins Glen in mid July. Only three 908/02 cars were shipped overseas and entered by other teams, and Schutz was not among the drivers.
After his driving partner Gerhard Mitter died two weeks later in practice for the
1969 German Grand Prix
, Schutz skipped the ultimate round in Zeltweg and retired, sticking to his decision even when Ferrari looked for experienced drivers for their
Ferrari 512S
multi-car effort in 1970. In total he won 50 races, three of them counting towards the world championship. He has won the German Sports car championship in 1966, scored 2nd with and for Porsche in the
1967 World Sportscar Championship season
, finished 3rd with Alfa in 1968, and helped Porsche to finally secure the World Sportscar Championship in 1969.
He focused on his company
Schutz Werke
in his home town of
Selters (Westerwald)
, which offers also containers. Thus, ?Container“ was the name of his yacht with which he in 1993, together with
Pinta
and
Rubin XII
, won the
Admiral's Cup
for Germany.
[13]
In 2008, Schutz had a new ?Container“ built, with modern materials.
[14]
[15]
References
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External links
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