Udo Schütz

Who is Udo Schütz?

Udo Schütz is a German entrepreneur, who was competing successfully with racing cars in the 1960s, and with yachts in the 1990s.

His career began in the early 1960s. With Anton Fischhaber and his #72 Porsche 904 he in 1965 won the GT 2.0 class at the 1000 km Nürburgring, 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 USA, 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, dubbed the „Bull from Selters“, Schütz 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 and without a helmet, Schütz' head did not fit behind the wind screen. Paired with former Targa winner Umberto Maglioli, Schütz suffered yet another DNF, but two weeks later in Germany, Schütz won the 1000 km Nürburgring outright in 1967, paired with Joe Buzzetta on the #17 Porsche 910. Le Mans was yet another DNF, followed by his second world championship win, 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.