Manfred
Winkelhock

Manfred Winkelhock was born in Waiblingen on 6 October 1951. He won the Volkswagen Scirocco Cup in 1976 and moved into Formula Two in 1978. In 1979 he drove a BMW M1 painted by Andy Warhol at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, finishing sixth overall and second in its class with his co-drivers.

In Formula One, Arrows entered him for the 1980 Italian Grand Prix as a replacement for the injured Jochen Mass, but he did not make the start. He secured a seat with ATS for 1982 and was classified 22nd in the world championship that year. His best result was fifth place at the 1982 Brazilian Grand Prix. BMW became the engine supplier to ATS in 1983, and Winkelhock had several good qualifying performances in 1983 and 1984. The car was seldom dependable, however, so results were scarce and accidents frequent. In 1984 he raced for ATS and Brabham, and in 1985 for RAM. He made 47 starts from 56 entries, without a podium, win or pole position.

Alongside Formula One, Winkelhock regularly raced sports cars and touring cars. In 1985 he won the 1000 km of Monza with Marc Surer. He crashed in a Kremer Porsche 962C during the 1000 km race at Mosport in Canada on 11 August 1985 and died the following day in Toronto. Kenny Acheson replaced him at RAM.

His brother Joachim and his son Markus also became racing drivers. Markus contested the 2007 European Grand Prix at the Nürburgring for Spyker, leading six laps in the rain, and won the FIA GT1 World Championship in 2012.

Source: Wikipedia, “Manfred Winkelhock”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.