Louis Krages
Louis Krages aka " John Winter " ( born August 2, 1949 in Bremen, † January 11, 2001 in Atlanta, United States) was a German racing driver and businessman, winning the 1985 24 Hours of Le Mans in a Porsche 956 C by Joest Racing could.
Louis Krages used his pseudonym " John Winter " to keep his racing activities in front of his family, especially to his mother, secret. He says that he assumed that his mother would disown him if they learned of his hobby. However, when he won in 1985 in Le Mans, he could no longer keep his avocation because of the numerous reports in the media secret.
He played most of his race for the team of Reinhold Joest. 1994 survived Krages a serious racing accident in the German Touring Car Championship in a Opel Calibra V6 on the AVUS with minor burns. In the season of 1995 he launched one last time in the German Touring Car Championship, this time in a Mercedes Benz C-Class DTM.
Krages had to give up his hobby when he before the takeover of his wood trading company by a competitor through economic bad decisions also forfeited long been a large part of his personal fortune.
Due to the circumstances of his death in January 2001, the police went to Atlanta from a suicide.