Louis Krages (bornKlaus Louis Kragés, 2 August 1949 – 11 January 2001), more commonly known by his pseudonymJohn Winter, was a German racing driver and businessman.

Krages used the racing pseudonym "John Winter" to prevent his family, mainly his mother, from learning about his hobby. As John Winter, he won the24 Hours of Le Mans in1985 with thePorsche 956 ofJoest Racing, withKlaus Ludwig andPaolo Barilla. Winter drove a single stint in the early hours of Sunday in support of his teammates for less than an hour, most of it behind the safety car.^[1] After the success and the publicity involved, his alter ego was revealed to his family when, the next day, his mother picked up a newspaper, with a picture of Krages on the rostrum.^[2][3]

Winter spent many seasons competing in the GermanInterserie series, usually racing privately entered Porsches, taking the title in 1986. Winter was also a regular entrant at Le Mans, competing 10 times at the race. Apart from his victory, his best finish was third in aJoest RacingPorsche 962 in 1988. He would also win the24 Hours of Daytona in 1991 for Joest in the same car and also drove in theIMSA GTP until 1993, the year he won atRoad America withManuel Reuter, when the series ended, making the car obsolete.

In 1994, Winter, along with the team, defected toDTM, driving anOpel Calibra. In Round 10, Race 1 atAVUS, he was involved in fiery accident, in which his car disintegrated in a fireball. For the following year, driving a privateerMercedes-Benz C-Class, he reverted to his real name, which he competed throughout the season and which was also his last.

Krages sold off his business and emigrated toAtlanta where he started up a toy business.^[3][2][4]

In 2001, suffering from problems in his business and fromdepression, he died bysuicide inAtlanta,Georgia, shooting himself at his home.^[2][3]

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
1978	Porsche Kremer Racing	Dieter Schornstein Philippe Gurdjian	Porsche 935-77	Gr.5 SP	182	N/C*
1979	Porsche Kremer Racing	Axel Plankenhorn Philippe Gurdjian	Porsche 935-K3	Gr.5 SP	273	13th	5th
1984	New-ManJoest Racing Schornstein Racing Team	Volkert Merl Dieter Schornstein	Porsche 956	C1	340	5th	5th
1985	New-ManJoest Racing	Klaus Ludwig Paolo Barilla	Porsche 956B	C1	374	1st	1st
1986	Joest Racing	Klaus Ludwig Paolo Barilla	Porsche 956B	C1	196	DNF (Engine)
1988	BlaupunktJoest Racing	Frank Jelinski Stanley Dickens	Porsche 962C	C1	385	3rd	3rd
1989	Joest Racing	Frank Jelinski Pierre-Henri Raphanel	Porsche 962C	C1	124	DNF (Water leak)
1990	JoestPorsche Racing	Stanley Dickens Bob Wollek	Porsche 962C	C1	346	8th	8th
1991	Konrad Motorsport JoestPorsche Racing	Bernd Schneider Henri Pescarolo	Porsche 962C	C2	197	DNF (Overheating)
1993	JoestPorsche Racing	Manuel Reuter Frank Jelinski	Porsche 962C	C2	282	DNF (Engine)

• Note *: Not Classified because did not cover sufficient distance (70% of their winner) at the 12, 18 or 24-hour intervals.

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
1986	Joest Racing	Giampiero Moretti Randy Lanier	Porsche 962	GTP	10	DNF (Engine)
1987	Joest Racing	Sarel van der Merwe Danny Ongais	Porsche 962	GTP	281	4th	4th
1988	Joest Racing	Frank Jelinski Paolo Barilla	Porsche 962	GTP	309	2nd	2nd
1990	Joest Racing	Henri Pescarolo Bob Wollek	Porsche 962	GTP	261	11th	6th
1991	Joest Porsche Racing	Frank Jelinski Henri Pescarolo	Porsche 962C	GTP	295	4th	4th
1992	Joest Racing	Bernd Schneider Frank Jelinski	Porsche 962	GTP	221	DNF (Engine)
1993	Joest Porsche Racing	Chip Robinson Manuel Reuter	Porsche 962	GTP	180	DNF (Accident)

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
1978	Kremer Porsche Racing	Josef Brambring Dieter Schornstein	Porsche 935-K2	GTX	635	5th	3rd
1991	Joest Racing	Frank Jelinski Henri Pescarolo Hurley Haywood Bob Wollek	Porsche 962	GTP	719	1st	1st
1992	Joest Racing	Bernd Schneider Massimo Sigala Oscar Larrauri	Porsche 962	GTP	327	DNF (Engine)
1993	Joest Porsche	Bob Wollek Manuel Reuter Frank Jelinski	Porsche 962	GTP	190	DNF (Engine)

• Winters World

• 1949 births
• 2001 suicides
• 2001 deaths
• 24 Hours of Daytona drivers
• 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers
• 24 Hours of Le Mans winning drivers
• German expatriates in the United States
• German racing drivers
• Racing drivers from Atlanta
• Racing drivers from Bremen (state)
• Suicides by firearm in Georgia (U.S. state)
• World Sportscar Championship drivers
• Sportspeople from Bremen (city)
• Team Joest drivers

• CS1 German-language sources (de)
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Articles with hCards
• Pages using infobox person with deprecated parameters
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