Jens Klingmann

Jens Klingmann (born 16 July 1990 in Heidelberg) is a German racing driver and BMW Motorsport works driver.

Racing career

Karting foundation Klingmann began competitive karting in 1998 at the age of eight. Over an eight-year period, he contested various regional and national German junior karting championships before transitioning to single-seaters ahead of the 2006 season.

Open-wheel formula career

Formula BMW ADAC In 2006, Klingmann entered the Formula BMW ADAC championship with Eifelland Racing as an official BMW Junior driver. Klingmann won 11 of the 18 races to finish the season with 699 points, ahead of runner-up Daniel Campos-Hull and third-placed Philipp Eng. He also secured a third-place podium finish at the season-ending Formula BMW World Final. He did not score points during the 20-race calendar and finished 27th in the final championship standings. Following the 2008 campaign, he left single-seaters to focus on GT racing.

GT and sports car career

ADAC GT Masters Klingmann entered sports car racing in 2009, contesting several series. In the ADAC GT Masters, he drove an Alpina B6 GT3 and finished 14th in the standings, taking a race win at Oschersleben. In 2015, he returned to a full-time ADAC GT Masters campaign with Schubert Motorsport alongside Dominik Baumann. The pair won four races, placing Klingmann third in the final points classification.

BMW factory driver appointment Klingmann was promoted to the official BMW M Motorsport factory driver roster at the beginning of 2014. In August 2014, while competing in the Nürburgring Endurance Series (VLN) for Schubert Motorsport, he set a qualifying lap time of 7:59.045 minutes, recording one of the first official sub-eight-minute laps on the 24.358-kilometer Nordschleife layout.

IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Klingmann made his first North American appearances in 2015, joining BMW Team RLL for selected IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship events and finishing second in the GTLM class in wet conditions at Petit Le Mans. He moved to Turner Motorsport for a full-time GTD program in 2016, driving the new BMW M6 GT3 to a second-place finish at the 12 Hours of Sebring and an inaugural North American victory at Mosport with Bret Curtis. He finished the 2016 standings in sixth place and remained with the team in 2017, taking another class victory at Road America to finish eleventh in points. Two years later, he took an overall third-place finish at the 2020 24 Hours of Nürburgring as a driver for BMW Team Schnitzer. In 2023, he paired with Bruno Spengler at the BMW Italia Ceccato Racing team, which operated under the administrative management of ROAL Motorsport. Driving a BMW M4 GT3, Klingmann and Spengler won the Italian GT Sprint driver title at the final round in Monza. The duo finished the year as the Sprint Cup championship runner-up, highlighting their campaign with a race win at Mugello while managing development tracking for the updated BMW M4 GT3 Evo package.

He defended his title in the 2024 season to become a consecutive Italian GT Sprint Cup champion. He shared the vehicle with Connor De Phillippi, Ugo de Wilde, and Neil Verhagen, finishing fifth overall and winning the custom SPX vehicle class.

Race results

Career summary

Season still in progress.† As Klingmann was a guest driver, he was ineligible for points.

Complete Formula BMW ADAC results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Entrant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Pos. Points 2006 Eifelland Racing HOC11 HOC12 LAU1 LAU2 NÜR11 NÜR12 OSC11 OSC12 OSC21 OSC22 NOR1 NOR2 NÜR21 NÜR22 ZAN1 ZAN2 HOC21 HOC22 4th 121 2007 Eifelland Racing OSC11 OSC12 LAU1 LAU2 NOR1 NOR2 NÜR11 NÜR12 ZAN1 ZAN2 OSC21 OSC22 NÜR21 NÜR22 CAT1 CAT2 HOC1 HOC2 1st 699

Complete Formula 3 Euro Series results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Entrant Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Pos. Points 2008 RC Motorsport Dallara F308/032 Volkswagen HOC1 HOC2 MUG1 MUG2 PAU1 PAU2 NOR1 NOR2 ZAN1 ZAN2 NÜR1 NÜR2 BRH1 BRH2 CAT1 CAT2 LMS1 LMS2 HOC1 HOC2 27th 0

Complete FIA GT3 European Championship results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Team Car 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Pos. Points 2009 Alpina Alpina B6 GT3 SIL1 SIL2 ADR1 ADR2 OSC1 OSC2 ALG1 ALG2 LEC1 LEC2 ZOL1 ZOL2 26th 11

Complete ADAC GT Masters results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete 24 Hours of Nürburgring results

Complete GT World Challenge Europe results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap)

GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup

GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup

Complete IMSA SportsCar Championship results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap)