Steffi Halm signs with Team Schwabentruck for 2018 campaign...
Steffi Halm will undertake her second consecutive full season of the FIA European Truck Racing Championship with Team Schwabentruck this season.
The multiple FIA ETRC race winner, who finished fourth in last year’s standings, has been announced today as the lead driver at the Ulm based team which will once again race an Iveco truck this season.
Halm will make her public debut with the team at Misano in May when the new edition of the FIA ETRC kicks-off with the first four races of the year. Before that she will test at Autodrom Most, but has recently sampled the truck at the on-site test facility in Ulm.
The news comes on International Women’s Day and is the perfect time for one of motorsports most competitive and successful female racers to confirm her programme for 2018.
Halm took three victories in 2017 when she raced for the Reinert Racing team. Her wins at Red Bull Ring, Slovakiaring and Le Mans formed the backbone of her most successful season yet.
Team Schwabentruck ended their era of racing with Gerd Körber last autumn as the German legend retires from full-season competition.
The team therefore looked at an effective replacement and were impressed with Halm’s credentials and a deal was formed earlier this year.
Speaking of the collaboration between Halm with Team Schwabentruck, ETRA’s Georg Fuchs paid tribute to Halm’s skill behind the wheel.
“Steffi is one of the true stars of the FIA ETRC and it is great to see she will undertake a full campaign in 2018 with Schwabentruck,” said Fuchs.
“It is also very apt that on International Women’s Day that Steffi shows she is one of the very top female racers in motorsport at this time. She has shown that on talent and fighting instinct alone she deserves her reputation as one of the toughest and fairest racers around.
“I am sure she also takes great satisfaction in being a role model to aspiring young girls who want to get in to motorsport later in life. We at ETRA think she is a great inspiration and we are looking forward to seeing her add to the list of victories she has gathered already,” explained Fuchs.
Halm took her first FIA ETRC win at Hungaroring in 2015 and then quickly followed it up with three wins the following season at Nürburgring, Hungaroring again and Le Mans Bugatti.
With the trio of wins last season it means that Halm has seven wins to her name making her a member of an elite club of successful FIA ETRC multiple race winners.
The first race weekend of the 2018 FIA ETRC season takes place at Misano in Italy over the weekend of 26/27 May.
Photo: Andre Bartscher