Joachim Winkelhock
Encyclopedia : J : JO : JOA : Joachim Winkelhock
Joachim Winkelhock (born October 24, 1960), is a German motor racing driver.
The younger brother of the late Manfred Winkelhock, Winkelhock was born in Waiblingen, near Stuttgart. The youngest brother Thomas Winkelhock as well as Manfred's son Markus Winkelhock are racers, too.
After the death of his brother interrupted his career in 1985, he resumed later on, winning the 1988 German Formula Three championship as well as that year's European Cup, at the unsual high age of 28. The next year was less successful, as he tried F1 with the small AGS concern. Failing to pre-qualify on 7 occasions, Winkelhock then linked up with BMW in touring car racing and the Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft.
He won the 24 Hours Nürburgring in 1990 and 1991 on BMW M3 entered by Schnitzer Motorsport.
His first title was the 1993 British Touring Car Championship. There, he was also commonly known as Smokin' Jo, for his cigarette habit.
Winkelhock next won was the 1994 Asia-Pacific Touring Car Championship, and in 1995 he won the German Supertouring Championship STW. He also triumphed in the 1995 Spa 24 Hours, and the 1994 and 1998 Macau Grand Prix Guia touring car races. His last success for BMW came at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which he won in 1999 driving the BMW V12 LMR prototype run by Schnitzer Motorsport.
In 2000, he joined Opel in the new Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters, and in 2003 he announced his retirement from motor racing at age 43.
He runs his family Waiblingen-based truck-crane and towing business, occasionally getting personally involved in recovering crashed trucks.
External links
- [Personal website]
- [Winkelhock] at ChicaneF1
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.