Brilliant news for Benjamin Leuchter. The winner of the TCR class in the 2017 VLN endurance championship will start for “Max Kruse Racing”, the new team of 14 times football player of the German National Team. Leuchter will continue to drive the 350 HP strong VW Golf GTI TCR in which he took five class wins last year at the Nordschleife, together with Andy Gülden. The professional footballer Kruse founded the team at the beginning of the year and he will also be in charge of the team management with immediate effect.
The intention of Leuchter and Kruse, who have been friends since two years, is not only to promote juniors with their project. “Max Kruse Racing brings together football and motorsport. The patterns of action to become successful are similar on both sports and you have to work hard on yourself in any of those”, says Leuchter who has also already been involved as instructor in the training of some young race drivers and ambitious sports car drivers. Moreover, they offer driver trainings for enterprises, associations or clubs. “In particular professional footballers very often drive fast cars without really being able to control them in critical situations”, says the striker of the team of Werder Bremen. “With our offer, we wish to bring them to driving in a responsible manner.”
In 2018, the 30-years old man from Duisburg wishes to continue the successful performance recorded in the year 2017 in which he did not only win the TCR category in the VLN endurance championship, but also the legendary Nürburgring 24 Hour Race. Last weekend, Leuchter was also victorious with a VW Golf GTI TCR at the Dubai 24 Hour Race. “The Nürburgring and the Nordschleife, this is my sporting living room. The victory at the 24 Hour Race last year was an incredible success for me and for Volkswagen. I would therefore like to confirm this result again,” says Leuchter. Whether they will be able to compete in the full season will depend on possible clashes of dates.
