From mechanic to racecar driver

The young man I meet at a small, rural train station in Oschersleben looks self-confident. He must be an optimist, I think - someone who always makes the best of things.

The red car he picks me up in seems commonplace at first glance. But it's what's on the trailer behind it that's special: A bright yellow racecar sparkles in the sun.

Tobias' mother is also there and greets me warmly. She also seems to be interested in motorsport.

After a short drive, we reach the premises of the local motorsport club. Even from a distance, I spy a collection of polished trophies set up especially for me to see on a camping table. In the middle of the hilly landscape is an open garage area with a corrugated metal roof, but no walls, allowing a great view onto the Harz Mountain range.

Cars are a family affair

Tobias' father is sitting in a small, blue autocross vehicle and revs the engine. From the sound of it, it's not lacking in horsepower. It's got 130 hp to be exact, Tobias' grandfather says as he approaches.

Tobias is a passionate motorist, he tells me, using the old-fashioned word "Kraftfahrer" that is common in eastern Germany, as I later discover. His enthusiasm for everything with a motor and wheels began at a very young age.

"We had a small moped made by the East German company, Simson, which I started riding at the age of eight or nine," said Tobias. "We would go looking for wide open spaces where I was allowed to drive. Those were my first attempts. And then it just took off from there."

Vehicles aren't just a hobby for Tobias, they've also become his profession. After learning mechatronics, he then went to university. In October 2015, he'll be starting a Master's program with truck-maker MAN in Munich, where he'll be designing vehicle assistance systems.

Everyone in Tobias' family is crazy about cars:"My dad is in the motorsport club; my grandfather is in the motorsport club. And my great-grandfather, who died before I was born, was also active in motorsport," says the 25-year-old.

I can tell that he's proud of the family tradition. Tobias' great-grandfather even drove sidecars in motorcycle races, he says. In East Germany, public streets were often blocked off for car races because the events were considered a people's sport, he adds. But after reunification in 1990, the state subsidies for motorsport were cut.

Autocross joy ride for experts

In the meantime Tobias' father has started up the autocross car, which looks more like a metal box with an engine. The upholstery has been torn out and the gadgets have been reduced to the bare minimum. A radiator has been strapped to the back seat since there's no room under the hood. There's no passenger seat; in its place are wide cooling tubes that stretch through the inside of the car. A fire extinguisher is within reach.

The gas and brake pedals are stripped of rubber covering. The driver has to be able to feel even the slightest movement of the pedals, explains Tobias.

His father drives around the track a few times, up inclines of nearly 70 degrees, around muddy curves, and down precarious slopes. The track demands extreme concentration and a high level of skill.

Within a few minutes, the car is covered in dirt - but that's part of the fun. Now it's Tobias' turn. Under his father's watchful eye, he puts on his gear: Fireproof suit, cotton cap, sturdy helmet and slip-proof leather gloves.

No fear of getting dirty

As the motor screeches, Tobias shoots off onto the track, keeping his focused glance straight ahead. His grandfather jumps to the side to avoid getting plastered with mud as Tobias passes. The first time around, he takes his time, but picks up speed on his second and third lap around the track.

Then his rams into a mud bank and comes to a stop. His father looks worried for a moment, but mainly because Tobias came close to a central electrical line that could have shut down the electricity in the whole place, I find out later. Fortunately, nothing happened.

Unscathed, Tobias takes off again. After 10 laps, his father calls him in.

Exhausted and sweaty, Tobias climbs out from under the roll cage and takes off his helmet. It takes a lot of strength to maneuver the vehicle through the mud. But he laughs as he points to the dirt-encrusted car.

"We really try to get everything we can out of the motor and the car. That means experimenting with it," he says. The family tunes up all their vehicles in their own workshop - "that's the fun of it!" confirms Tobias.

A little while later, we sit in the workshop that Tobias was telling me about earlier. It's pure paradise for mechanics. All the shelves are full of tools, oil canisters and spare parts. Tires are leaning against the walls, and the scent of racecars - a mix of rubber and oil - fills my nose.

In the middle, there's a pit lined by thick old planks, so that the mechanics can get underneath the vehicles. "I learned all my skills here," says Tobias, settling into an old car seat that serves as a chair.

After completing his Bachelor's degree, he worked as a repair expert in a medium-sized company. "And fortunately it was so small that I got to do everything - from changing oil to trouble shooting to designing and building machines," remembers Tobias. "And everything I'd learned from by dad in the workshop really came in handy."

Optimization, not tuning

I ask him whether he faces stereotypes because he comes from eastern Germany. "That's not the case for my generation," he replies. "For me it's more of a geographic division. I come from the Harz region, and that existed before reunification on both sides of the border."

Tobias points out one advantage of reunification: Since then, all kinds of car brands are available in the region.

Back to the cars, I ask Tobias whether what they do can be called "tuning." "I don't really like the term 'tuning,'" he says, shaking his head. "The first thing I associated with tuning is lowered cars with extra spoilers that can't even drive over train tracks. We really want top performance from our cars so we can move on the racetrack. So what we do has more to do with optimization than with tuning."

Big wheels for a good cause

Tobias, however, has great respect for powerful vehicles that don't necessarily go fast. That's one reason why he volunteers with Germany's Federal Agency for Technical Relief, known as the THW.

"I got my truck license because I'm just fascinated by big vehicles and used to admire people who manage to drive them around tight curves," confesses the enthusiast.

Now Tobias is one of them. As part of the TWK, he gets to drive trucks when he's on duty for a search-and-rescue operation or is helping during floods or other natural catastrophes. The volunteer work takes up some of his free weekends, but he says he doesn't mind that.

It's not just the big trucks, but also a desire to help others that keeps him involved in the THW. He gets a bit emotional when he tells me about a time when he was assisting at a fire and discovered a stack of freshly washed laundry in the stairwell of a house that had been completely destroyed by the flames.

Whatever Tobias does, he does it wholeheartedly. And he's always available when there's an emergency.

Outside the workshop, the sun is setting. "In here, you can kind of forget your everyday life," he says.

He's already on his way out the door. He's scheduled to meet up with his THW team for a search-and-rescue drill. Tobias throws on his uniform. The family workshop will be waiting for him tomorrow.