Karl von Wendt

Karl Josef Freiherr von Wendt (born April 28, 1937 ; † February 6, 2006 in Canada ) was a German racing driver and entrepreneur.

Career in motorsport

In 1961, Karl von Wendt took over his father's extensive estates in Gevelinghausen , Wiggeringhausen and the Papenhausen estate near Lemgo as a universal heir . Wendt's father, the graduate farmer Carl Freiherr von Wendt-Papenhausen , fell as a captain in Russia during World War II .

Karl von Wendt's great passion was motorsport. From 1959 to 1971 he drove karting, rallying, touring cars , sports cars and Formula 3 . He was also enthusiastic about automobiles from the Porsche brand and had a private Porsche collection. Karl von Wendt had his own racing team under the name of German BG Racing Team , which in addition to himself included drivers such as Jochen Neerpasch , Helmut Marko , Rolf Stommelen , Willi Kauhsen and Gerhard Mitter as regular drivers.

His greatest successes include the European championship title as a Porsche works driver in 1967 with the Porsche 911 and second place in the 1966 Nations Cup with Germany.

His most ambitious project was a race track in the Sauerland, in the planning of which Wendt had already invested a lot of money. When the planned Sauerland-Ring was politically prevented in 1971, he ended his motorsport career and dissolved his racing team.

In addition to motorsport, Karl von Wendt was a passionate sailor.

Life after motorsport

Von Wendt devoted himself to various projects in Germany and Canada. For example, he organized carriage and covered wagon rides through the Hochsauerland region and built a military track for equestrian sports. Another project was a camping site and holiday village with 25 log cabins and a steakhouse. He had his castle converted into a hotel, which he opened in 1973.

Wendt founded the Sauerland Tourist Association in 1973 and chaired it for ten years.

The Fort Fun adventure park and the super slides he developed together with Mannesmann-DEMAG Fördertechnik but not patented brought Karl von Wendt little luck. He was soon forced to sell large parts of his property. Von Wendt also lost the amusement park and his castle.

In the mid-1980s, Karl von Wendt emigrated to Canada in order to start a new life there. He ran a computer company there. On February 6, 2006, he died in his adopted home Canada after a serious illness.

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1968	Racing Team VDS	Alfa Romeo T33 / 2	Serge Trosch	failure	connecting rod

Individual results in the sports car world championship

season	team	race car	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th	15th	16	17th	18th	19th	20th
1965	AVO Jochen Neerpasch	Lotus Elan Mini Cooper	DAY	SEB	BOL	MON	MON	RTT	TAR	SPA	ONLY	MUG	ROS	LEM	REI	BOZ	FRE	CCE	OVI	ONLY	BRI	BRI
											26th									21st
1966	Jochen Neerpasch	Shelby GT350	DAY	SEB	MON	TAR	SPA	ONLY	LEM	MUG	CCE	HOK	SIM	ONLY	ZEL
								DNF
1968	IGFA Karl von Wendt Racing Team VDS	Porsche 906 Porsche 910 Alfa Romeo T33	DAY	SEB	BRH	MON	TAR	ONLY	SPA	WAT	ZEL	LEM
						16	7th	12	21st		5	DNF
1969	Porsche BG Racing Porsche Holding	Porsche 908 Porsche 907	DAY	SEB	BRH	MON	TAR	SPA	ONLY	LEM	WAT	ZEL
							4th	DNF	5			5
1970	Kremer Racing BG Racing	Porsche 911 Porsche 908	DAY	SEB	BRH	MON	TAR	SPA	ONLY	LEM	WAT	ZEL
								18th	18th

Web links

• Full biography at Fort Fun
• Karl von Wendt at Racing Sports Cars (English)
• Karl von Wendt. www.motorsportmemorial.org, accessed on May 15, 2020 (English).