Background
His father, Kurt Ahrens Senior, was a German Speedway champion who competed against his son for 5 years.
His father, Kurt Ahrens Senior, was a German Speedway champion who competed against his son for 5 years.
He then raced Formula 2 and was present when Jim Clark was killed at the Hockenheimring in 1968. Due to the long Nürburgring track, it was possible to take part in the German Grand Prix in Formula 2 cars. He participated mostly with Brabhams for the Caltex Racing team, and was invited to drive the Brabham-Repco F1 in the wet 1968 German Grand Prix.
In 1968, Kurt joined also the Porsche factory sports car team and shared victory with Jo Siffert in the 1969 Austrian 1000 km event.
He co-drove the pole-setting Porsche 917 "long tail" at the 1969 24 Hours of Le Mans and the 1970 24 Hours of Le Mans, but neither car finished. Ahrens retired after 1970, taking pride in never crashing in a race.
He had suffered a high speed shunt in April 1970 while testing a long tail Porsche on a wet Ehra-Lessien, with the car disintegrating badlythe car went under the Armco barrier and broke in half (as they were known to do), leaving Ahrens strapped in the back.
