Klaus Ludwig

Klaus Ludwig (born 5 October 1949 in Bonn) is a German racing driver.

He also known as König Ludwig ("King Ludwig") for his success in touring cars and in sports car racing.

Klaus Ludwig's 1981 Group 5 Zakspeed Ford Capri at the Auto & Technik Museum in Sinsheim, Germany

Ludwig drove the Roush-Zakspeed Ford Mustang Turbo during the 1981 and 1982 Camel GT race seasons.

In the 1970s, Ludwig drove for Ford in the Deutsche Rennsport Meisterschaft, winning in 1979 with a Kremer-Porsche 935. With this car, based on the then 15-year-old Porsche 911 road car design, he won the 24 Hours of Le Mans overall in the wet, an unprecedented win against the faster pure sports car racing prototypes (though it was subsequently matched in 1995 when a McLaren F1 GTR won the race at its first attempt).

In 1984 and 1985, he won the 24 Hours of Le Mans for Joest Racing in their #7 Porsche 956. Considering Le Mans and sportcars too dangerous after the deaths of Manfred Winkelhock and Stefan Bellof, he was recruited for the 1987 World Touring Car Championship for Ford only to finish runner-up by a single point to BMW driver Roberto Ravaglia after a post-season disqualification (after Ludwig claimed the pole, he and fellow West German Klaus Niedzwiedz had finished second behind team mates Steve Soper and Pierre Dieudonné at the Bathurst 1000 in Australia, but both cars were disqualified due to illegal wheel arch size on their Ford Sierra RS500's). He then moved to the Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft (DTM), and became champion in 1988 in a Ford Sierra RS500. Ludwig also represented IMSA in the 1986 International Race of Champions, finishing 8th.

He repeated the success at Mercedes-Benz in 1992 and 1994, before moving back to sports cars racing for them in 1997 to become the 1998 FIA GT Champion. He retired when the series did not continue in the 1999 season.

He soon returned in June 1999, to win the 24 Hours Nürburgring on the Nordschleife for the third time driving a Zakspeed Viper.

When the DTM resumed as Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters in 2000, he returned to the series, winning at the age of 50 years at the Sachsenring circuit, only to retire once again.

Ludwig returned as a "hobby pilot" to the Nürburgring Nordschleife when given the opportunity to drive a high power vehicle. The years 2004 and 2005 saw him enter the 24 Hours Nürburgring with Uwe Alzen on the Jürgen Alzen Porsche 996 GT2 Bi-Turbo. With a normally aspirated Porsche 997 GT3 of the Alzen brothers, Ludwig plus Christian Abt managed to beat the old distance record in the 2006 edition of the 24h, yet finished only second, 1 lap behind the winners.

Ludwig has also worked as a TV commentator on DTM races.

Achievements

• Winner 24 Hours of Le Mans: 1979, 1984, 1985
• Deutsche Rennsport Meisterschaft champion 1979, 1981
• Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft champion 1988, 1992, 1994
• FIA GT World Champion 1998

Complete European Formula Two Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
1978	Weisberg Gelo Team	John Fitzpatrick Toine Hezemans	Porsche 935/77	Gr.5 +2.0	19	DNF	DNF
1979	Porsche Kremer Racing	Don Whittington Bill Whittington	Porsche 935 K3	Gr.5 +2.0	307	1st	1st
1982	Ford-Werke AG Zakspeed	Marc Surer Manfred Winkelhock	Ford C100	C	67	DNF	DNF
1983	Sorga S.A. Joest Racing	Stefan Johansson Bob Wollek	Porsche 956	C	354	6th	6th
1984	New-Man Joest Racing	Henri Pescarolo	Porsche 956B	C1	360	1st	1st
1985	New-Man Joest Racing	Paolo Barilla Louis Krages	Porsche 956B	C1	374	1st	1st
1986	Joest Racing	Paolo Barilla Louis Krages	Porsche 956B	C1	196	DNF	DNF
1988	Porsche AG	Hans-Joachim Stuck Derek Bell	Porsche 962C	C1	394	2nd	2nd
1998	AMG-Mercedes	Bernd Schneider Mark Webber	Mercedes-Benz CLK-LM	GT1	19	DNF	DNF

Complete World Touring Car 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	Pos.	Pts
1987	Eggenberger Motorsport	Ford Sierra RS Cosworth	MNZ DSQ	JAR ovr:4 cls:1	DIJ ovr:4 cls:4	NÜR ovr:1 cls:1	SPA Ret							2nd	268
		Ford Sierra RS500						BRN ovr:1 cls:1	SIL ovr:6 cls:1	BAT DSQ	CLD ovr:12 cls:8	WEL ovr:1 cls:1	FUJ ovr:1 cls:1

* Overall positions shown. WTCC points paying positions may be different

Complete Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft/Masters results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete International Touring Car Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

• † — Retired, but was classified as he completed 90% of the winner's race distance.