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ADAC Junior Motor Racer of the Year

Big honour for Nico Hülkenberg: the reigning Formula 3 Euro Series Champion was elected ADAC Junior motor racer of the year. In this weekend’s ADAC SportGala, held in Munich, he was decorated for his successes and achievements in the 2008 season.

“Having been chosen by ADAC as best Junior Motor Racer of the year represents a big honour for me,” said the German who was - just as DTM Champion Timo Scheider - one of the event’s two big stars. The Junior Trophy was presented to Formula 1 test driver Hülkenberg by ADAC Sports President Hermann Tomczyk. While ADAC Motor Racer of the year Timo Scheider received his trophy - the Big Christopherus made from Nymphenburg Porcelain - from ADAC President Peter Meyer.

During his address of welcome, the Sports President looked back on the successful motor-racing year. With more than 3,000 events, ADAC once again secured the pole position in German motor sport.

Numerous celebrities travelled to Munich for the ADAC SportGala held in the ‘Deutsches Museum’ - in an appropriate automobile-history ambience - and enjoyed an attractive entertainment programme. Among the guests also were the likes of ITR Chairman Hans Werner Aufrecht and Audi Motorsport Director Dr Wolfgang Ullrich as well as Martin Tomczyk and former DTM driver Christian Abt.

21-year old Hülkenberg can look back on a successful season and proved to be the fastest man on the 2008 Formula 3 Euro Series grid. Consequently, he succeeded in securing the title early. Following the penultimate race weekend of the season, at Le Mans, Hülkenberg’s lead in the championship was that big that none of his opponents had the chance of stealing his championship lead. And the German also demonstrated his impressive skills in the qualifying sessions: he secured six of ten pole positions and won eight of the 2008 season’s 20 races.

In the end, he secured the title in the planet’s most competitive young-gun series with a clear 35.5-point lead over second-placed Edoardo Mortara (Signature-Plus), thus being the first German to have won the title in the six years of Formula 3 Euro Series history. An important success as numerous of his predecessors advanced to higher motor-racing categories. Reigning Formula 1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton (2005 champion) or DTM front-runners Paul di Resta (2006) and Jamie Green (2004) also won the title in the hard-fought young-gun series.

And Hülkenberg already has made the first step on the way to establishing at the pinnacle of motor racing. At the beginning of 2008 he was signed as test driver by the Williams F1 team, thus having the opportunity to prepare for the things to come. In 2009 he is going to race in the GP2 series.

Written: Mon, 01 Dec 2008 20:17:21