Michelle Halder

Michelle Halder races in the German TCR series and became the first female driver to win a race outright in 2019. 

She was driving a Honda Civic Type-R and her historic win came at Zandvoort. The car is run by Profi-Car Team Halder, her family team. Michelle races against her brother Mike, who drives for the Profi-Car ADAC Honda team. Their respective team-mates, Marcel and Dominik Fugel, are also siblings.

Michelle started competing in the TCR championship full-time in 2018 in a SEAT Cupra, following some time in single-seaters. She earned her first podium positions this year: two overall second places at Most and Sachsenring. She was ninth in the championship. 

As well as TCR, she tried some more powerful machinery in the Audi Sport Seyffarth R8 LMS Cup, picking up a fifth place at Hockenheim as the best of her three finishes.

She has not always raced with a roof over her head; following a karting career that included a championship win in 2013, she initially gravitated towards the single-seater ladder. At the age of 16, she began her senior career in the ADAC Formula 4 championship.

It was a very steep learning curve and her best result in 2015 was a 20th place, in the last round of the season at Hockenheim. Her final championship position was 47th, and 19th in the Rookie standings. She was driving for the Engstler team. 

Another Formula 4 season beckoned for 2016, for Engstler. It turned out to be a part-season, and her best finish was 24th, at Hockenheim and Oschersleben. She missed the mid-part of the racing calendar and struggled for finances.

In 2017, she took her first steps in touring cars, racing a SEAT Leon in the STT (Spezial Tourenwagen Trophae) series with her brother, Mike. They earned a second and two third places at the Nurburgring and were tenth overall. This was Michelle’s first top-ten finish in cars and her first podium. 

She did consider a return to single-seaters in 2019 and was one of the initial 55 drivers under consideration for the all-female W Series. However, she chose to stick with TCR and ruled herself out of the W running before its first selection event, as the timetables of the two championships clashed. Her TCR victory was ironically overshadowed by the W Series finale.

2020 began in the German TCR series but the Halder team jumped ship to the European championship after deciding that they would get better value for money there. Michelle had already earned another podium at the Nurburgring in her Honda Civic. The first European round at Paul Ricard was a settling-in period and Michelle finished twelfth and thirteenth. In a very inconsistent and frustrating season, she won again at Zolder and had further top-ten finishes at Zolder, Monza and Catalunya. She was 15th in the championship.

Halder Racing entered a Cupra in to a couple of VLN races in the summer for Michelle and Mike, but they did not finish.

Michelle and Mike did much better in their 2021 VLN (now NLS) season. They were fourth in the SP3T class with one second and five third places.

Driving solo, Michelle competed in the Spanish TCR series, drivign a Honda Civic. She was on the pace very quickly, sharing wins with her brother at Navarra in May, but two DNFs at Jarama followed and her chances of a title took a hit. She was third in the championship after another win at Valencia and three podiums at Barcelona.

Returning to European TCR, she ran for the full year. This was not a vintage season for Michele or the Halder Honda Civic; her best finish was thirteenth at the Norisring and she was 21st overall. A few guest appearances in the Danish TCR series at Jyllandsringen gave her an eleventh place.

A second season in TCR Denmark, driving the same car, gave her an eleventh place in the championship. Although she managed two fifth places early on at Jyllandsring and Djursland early on, her season was affected by several DNFs near the middle and missing the Bellahoj rounds completely.

Her chief aim is to compete in the WTCR championship and she had put together a deal for 2021, although funding issues meant she had to scale back her plans.

(Image copyright reifenpresse.de)