22/6/1943
Record updated 22-Jun-06
Sports car driver and team owner who won many of the major Sports Car races but never Le Mans.
Georg Loos was a multi millionaire property dealer who raced his cars under the “Gelo” banner. As a team owner and driver he always had the best drivers: Rolf Stommelen, Toine Hezemans, Klaus Ludwig, Derek Bell and John Fitzpatrick, and won nearly all the important endurance and sports prototype races.
He raced Ferrari, Porsche and McLaren sports cars from 1967 to 1973, before he formed his own team, Gelo Racing. Best known for their Porsche 935 turbos, Loos often flew into races in his own helicopter. Gelo Racing were the only private entrants to win the 1000Ks at the Nuerburgring Nordschleife three times.
Georg raced in Interserie, the European equivelant of the Can-Am Series and in 1972 his McLaren to South America for the Copa Brazil at Interlagos.
In 1975 he hired Hezemans to contest the European GT Championship in a Porsche Carrera RSR. The Dutchman scored four podium finishes and earned himself a third place in the Championship and in 1977 Rolf Stommelen won the Deutsche Rennsport Meisterschaft (German Racing Championship) or DRM for short, in Loos' Porsche 935.
The DRM was so popular that it drew bigger crowds than F1 races at the time and races were held in Belgium, (Zolder) and Holland (Zandvoort) as well as Germany.
He withdrew from racing in the mid 1980's amid rumors of financial problems which he denied.
With houses in Germany and Switzerland he has broken all his ties with racing prefering to 'sit in the sun, look at the sea and drink red wine with the locals'.