Driver Biography – Kurt Luby

• Date of birth: 6th March 1963
• Nationality: British
• Marital status: married, two children
• Lives: Bolton, Lancashire
• Car No: 41

Career Highlights: –

• Junior British Karting Champion 1978 and 1979
• Five times British Gearbox Kart Champion, between 1980 and 1987
• British Formula Ford 1600 Champion 1987 and 1988
• Formula Vauxhall Lotus Championship, second in 1989, third in 1990
• Member of the BMW Junior Team in the British Touring Car Championship in 1990, five wins and two second places in the 2.0-litre category; 13th overall in championship from seven races
• Second place in the 1991 National Group N Saloon Championship in a BMW M3, with 13 race wins
• British GT Champion 1998

Kurt Luby was just 12 when his competition career began, driving karts. His talent quickly shone through and he took the British junior championship title in 1977 and 1978. Graduating to the 125cc Gearbox karts he made his debut racing on full-scale circuits and dominated the competition, claiming the British championship five times between 1980 and 1987. He was also twice Commonwealth Champion and also took a Kart Grand Prix win.

Progressing to Formula Ford single-seater racing, Kurt sustained the success he enjoyed in karts. In 1987 he took the Townsend Thoresen British FF1600 title and the following year clinched the Dunlop Star of Tomorrow championship.

Joining AMCO Motorsport, he contested the Formula Vauxhall Lotus series, finishing second in the championship in 1989 and third in 1990 under his own Kurt Luby Motorsport banner, outstripping future Formula 1 stars David Coulthard and Rubens Barrichello. Kurt’s own team continued to run talented drivers in the Vauxhall Lotus and Vauxhall Junior series through to 1995.

Kurt’s British Touring Car Championship debut came in 1990 when he was recruited to the BMW Junior Team, driving one of the works-supported Prodrive M3s. Although only competing in seven of the season’s races, Kurt notched up five wins and two second places among the 2.0-litre runners in the competition, placing him 13th overall in the championship. In 1991 he piloted an L&C BMW M3 in the national Group N saloon championship, clocking up 13 race victories, 12 pole positions and four lap records to finish the season in second place, missing out on top honours by a single point.

From 1992 to 1997 Kurt took a break from competition to concentrate on building up his motor sport engineering business. When he returned to the track in 1998 he was immediately back to his winning ways, taking the BRDC British GT Championship with Richard Dean in the Oftedahl Motorsport Dodge Viper. Along the way Kurt and Richard claimed six GT2 class wins, including a memorable overall victory in the wet at Silverstone in which they outpaced all the more powerful GT1 competitors. The following year the driving partnership continued in the new Judd V10-powered GT1 Sintura, which claimed two race wins.

ENDS