Georg Loos
Georg Loos (born June 22, 1943 , † March 6, 2016 in Stuttgart ) was a German entrepreneur, motorsport team owner and automobile racing driver . Loos had gained notoriety through his involvement in motorsport with his Gelo Racing Team and as a racing driver in the sports car world championship , interseries and German racing championship (DRM) from 1968 to 1980.
His greatest achievement was the overall victory of his racing team in the DRM in 1977.
Racing career
Loos took part regularly as a driver in sports car races between 1968 and 1974 . His first success was the overall victory in Zolder in 1968 with a Porsche 910 . In 1970 he founded his own racing team, the Gelo Racing Team , with which he competed in the sports car world championship with a Ferrari 512S . That year he and his co-driver Helmut Kelleners won the 500 km race in Zolder with the Ferrari. In the same year, he won several races in the German Automobile Circuit Championship (DARM) in Zolder with a Porsche 911 . In 1970 Loos took part for the first time with Helmut Kelleners in the 24-hour race of Le Mans , where both had to end the race prematurely after an accident.
From 1971 he also drove in the Interseries, where he first raced a McLaren M8E and later a McLaren M8F. With a McLaren M8F he won the Copa Brasil in Interlagos in 1972. From 1973 Loos switched from McLaren to the Porsche 917/10 TC in the Interserie . In this racing series, his best placement was a second place in 1973 at the Norisring and in Hockenheim.
In the sports car world championship from 1972 he competed in races in a Porsche 911 in the GT class. In 1974 he achieved fourth place in the overall standings in a Porsche 911 Carrera RSR in Spa (first place in the GT class). A year later, he won the GT car classification at the Le Mans 24-hour race and finished fifth in the overall classification. This result was his best result at Le Mans. After 1975 Loos ended his racing career and concentrated exclusively on managing his racing team. The team won the German racing championship in 1977 with Rolf Stommelen in a Porsche 935 .
From 1970 to 1975 Loos competed six times as a driver in the Le Mans 24-hour race.
From 1982 the Gelo Racing Team did not compete and Loos withdrew from the public. Economic difficulties were assumed to be the reason. In December 2014, the businessman, who was considered cocky and impulsive, was wanted for alleged loan fraud in the millions. However, his lawyer denied the allegations.
Loos died on March 6, 2016 at the age of 72 in Stuttgart, where he had relocated his place of business. He was buried on March 13, 2016 in Bad Honnef .
statistics
Le Mans results
year | team | vehicle | Teammate | Teammate | Teammate | Teammate | placement | Failure reason |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1970 | NART | Ferrari 512S | Helmut Kelleners | failure | Handling after an accident | |||
1971 | Gelo Racing Team | Ferrari 512M | Franz Pesch | failure | Engine failure | |||
1972 | Gelo Racing Team | Porsche 911 S. | Franz Pesch | Jean Sage | failure | Engine failure | ||
1973 | Gelo Racing Team | Porsche 911 Carrera RSR | Jürgen Barth | Rank 10 | ||||
1974 | Gelo Racing Team | Porsche 911 Carrera RSR | Clemens Schickentanz | failure | ignition | |||
1975 | Gelo Racing Team | Porsche 911 Carrera RSR | J. Fitzpatrick | G. Lennep | T. Hezemans | M. Schurti | 5th place and class win |
Web links
- Fan page about Georg Loos
- Internet site with a list of the racing cars driven by Georg Loos
- In memoriam: Georg Loos (1943-2016)
- Obituary for Georg Loos (French)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Georg Loos ( Memento from June 23, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Motorsport team GELO Racing Team . In: KuLaDig, Kultur.Landschaft.Digital. (Accessed July 17, 2020)
- ↑ "curbs", Medien Bonn, issue No. 13, June 2016, p. 19.
- ↑ Remscheider Generalanzeiger. Retrieved January 14, 2017.
- ^ 1-vision-weiss: On the death of Georg Loos. Retrieved on January 14, 2017. ( Memento from January 14, 2017 in the Internet Archive )
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Loos, Georg |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German automobile racing driver |
DATE OF BIRTH | June 22, 1943 |
DATE OF DEATH | March 2016 |