Klaus Ludwig

Born in Bonn, Ludwig found his way into motorsport in the early 1970s via amateur sporting events such as slaloms and orienteering, but also already occasional touring car races. In 1973, he competed in the German Racing Championship in a Ford Capri 2600 RS. He achieved his first successes with this vehicle and steadily improved his driving skills.

In 1975 and 1976, he was runner-up, and in 1979 he won the championship in a Porsche 935 K3. In the same year, he achieved a surprising first victory in the 24-hour race in Le Mans with such a car together with the US Whittington brothers.

The Bonn native remained loyal to the brand in the 1980s and completed numerous races in the Group C sports car world championship in the 956 and 962 models. Highlights included two further victories and a second place at Le Mans in 1984, 1985 and 1988. In addition, he secured his second title in the German Racing Championship in 1981 in the Ford Capri Turbo of the Zakspeed team, as well as two victories in the 24-hour race on the Nürburgring in 1982 and 1987, both with Ford.

In 1988 Ludwig switched to the German Touring Car Championship and, also driving a Ford, won the drivers' title in his first year. In the following season, he switched to AMG-Mercedes and drove a 190 E 2.3-16 DTM as well as a 190 E 2.5-16 Evolution DTM later in the season. Despite numerous top placings, including five race wins, he only finished 11th overall due to injury.

In the 1990 season, he worked his way up to fifth place in the drivers' championship in the 190 E 2.5-16 Evolution DTM and its successor, the 190 E 2.5-16 Evolution II DTM. In the following four years, always driving the latest AMG Mercedes racing touring cars, he never placed worse than fourth in the drivers' standings. In 1992 and 1994, he won the championship two more times. In his five DTM years with AMG-Mercedes, he achieved a total of 19 race wins.

In 1997, he followed the call to the FIA GT Championship, where he drove a Mercedes-Benz CLK-GTR, mostly in a team with Bernd Schneider. Ludwig finished his first season in fourth place in the drivers' championship. The following year, now driving with the young Brazilian Ricardo Zonta, he triumphed first in the CLK-GTR, then in the new CLK-LM in five of the ten rounds and won the championship title. At the end of the year, the Bonn native announced his retirement from active sport.

Nevertheless, Ludwig couldn't quite let it go and, for example, won the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring once again in 1999 in a Chrysler Viper GTS-R prepared by Zakspeed. In 2000, racing fever really took hold of him again, and he completed the entire premiere season of the new German Touring Car Masters in an AMG-Mercedes CLK-DTM. Lack of competitiveness was not his problem, as he was able to secure third place overall in the drivers' championship.

At the ripe old age of 50, he even managed to win a race at the Sachsenring. After that, he actually took it easy, but still took part in the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring from 2004 onwards. Only a severe impact into the crash barriers at the 2012 race prompted him to finally retire as a racing driver. Even beyond that, he remains closely associated with Mercedes-Benz as a Brand Ambassador.