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ADAC
Eifel Rallye Festival 2022
- A full house in the 'Home of
historic motorsport'
- Thierry Neuville: "A
weekend full of fun"
- €5,100 collected for the
charity Nestwärme e.V.
A
great atmosphere in Daun!
After an involuntary break of two years, everyone was finally
back: the participants, the organisers, the many helpers and the
numerous fans. Only the Eifel weather turned a new page, as if it
wanted to compensate everyone for the missing years The tenth
edition of the Eifel Rallye Festival passed without any rain at
all.
There
were high spirits among all participants as finally they could
celebrate the anniversary Festival together. The rolling rally
museum once again became an international class reunion of the
entire rally scene. It was impressive to see. The spectator car
parks at the stages and in Daun were virtually bursting at the
seams, the Rally Mile was jam-packed over the entire weekend and,
at the autograph session, shortly before its official end, the
fans were still queuing in a line that was well over one hundred
yards long.
"Even
after a two-year break, the necessary 'cogs' all meshed
successfully again straight away," said a delighted manager, Otmar
Anschütz, from the organising MSC Daun. "The cooperation
with the licensing authorities, the municipalities, the village
communities with their fire brigades and clubs, the ambulance
services, the supporting motorsport clubs and last but not least
the approximately eight hundred helpers on the festival weekend
– it all worked perfectly. What made me particularly happy was
that everyone had a smile on their face. In addition, the field of
participants was of a truly high quality and variety – I could
not have wished for it to have been better even in my
dreams."
Reinhard
Klein from Cologne, who is the man
responsible for putting together the starting field, also drew a
positive conclusion: "With this Festival, we want to give the
history of rallying a home – and over the last ten events we
have succeeded more and more in doing so. Over the years, and this
is also confirmed by our participants, the quality of the vehicles
has also become better and better." The starting field of the
maximum possible one hundred and fifty-five cars comprising
originals and faithful replicas of the old rally cars thus forming
a perfect cross-section of more than fifty years of the history of
this spectacular sport. The fans were able to enjoy a
comprehensive documentation of vehicles from five decades on the
occasion of the 50th anniversary of the World Rally Championship.
The palette ranged from DAF 66, Ford Escort RS1600, the most
diverse Opel models or the early Toyota Corolla to the Group B
bolides so popular with the fans. For the finale, the WRC cars of
the recent past also drove on the demonstration tracks.
On
Thursday evening, the Rally Mile traditionally turns into an
open-air cinema. The interviews with the rally stars are embedded
in moving and evocative images by cult filmmaker Helmut
Deimel. Host Markus Stier, who led through the evening in an
entertaining and informative way, called Deimel the 'Steven
Spielberg' of the rally scene. Hyundai's WRC star Thierry
Neuville was at the start this time in the
Peugeot 306 Maxi Kit-Car: "In terms of sound, this is
probably the best rally car ever built". The Belgian added,
"Finally it worked out for me to come back here, with my team
I'm just having a whole weekend of fun here." Asked about the
current not easy situation in the current WRC, he replied with a
wink, "Then I'll just have to win here in the Eifel."
That's not easy in an event without any time classification, but
Neuville drove his way into the hearts of the fans during his
appearance in the 'little screamer'.
Simo Lampinen, a works driver for Lancia, Peugeot, Saab and
Triumph between 1960 and 1979, is also known to many as the
long-time director of the 1000 Lakes Rally in his native Finland.
At the Festival, he sat alongside Fred Walter for a few stages in
the 1975 Lancia Beta Coupe, the car with which he competed in the
1975 Acropolis Rally. Lampinen has lived in Hamburg for fifteen
years, "but not because of the Reeperbahn but because our son
moved there," he explained with a smile. "This Festival
is so inspiring, Daun is currently the centre of the rally
world." Kalle Grundel, who drove for
VW, Peugeot, Ford and Lancia in the 1970s and 1980s, won the
German Rally Championship in 1985 in the 205 T16. He then drove a
309 GTi for Peugeot in Germany. "Although the 309 was only
front-wheel drive, that period in Germany was a great time for me
– I always like to think back on it. Here I'm especially happy
to meet up with so many friends again." And with a glance at Stig
Blomqvist, the 1984 World Champion, he added with a wink:
"If Group B hadn't been banned back then, either Stig or I
would have been World Champion in 1987." Blomqvist grinned
about the dangerousness of Group B cars, especially in case of
fire: "If you see in the mirror that it's smoking, you have
enough time to stop and get out."
For me, it's always great to come here," said Jochi
Kleint. "There are so many people here who enjoy the
earlier rally cars, that's exactly why I love coming to the
Festival." However, his participation in the Ford Capri that
Walter Röhrl drove in the 1972 Olympia Rally came to an early
end. "A part of the cardan shaft broke. We had ordered it in
England as a precaution, but it didn't arrive in time for the
Festival." To the delight of the fans, he subsequently drove
the Opel Ascona B in which he became European champion in 1979.
When Lofty Drews came
on stage, presenter Markus Stier addressed him in English. To the
surprise of the many fans, the now 82-year-old answered in German
and announced: "I am German". His parents emigrated to
the colony of German East Africa, now Tanzania. He was born there
and later started his co-driving career. In his first appearance
in the World Rally Championship, he won the Safari Rally in 1973
with Shekhar Mehta. For the start with the 'reborn' Lancia Stratos
with which he finished second in the 1975 Safari together with
Sandro Munari, he travelled especially from his new home in
Australia to the Eifel. "And at the airport I started
speaking German again after more than forty years." On the
finale, he then told us, "I had a fantastic weekend with so
many nice people. I made a lot of new friends, so I'm proud to say
I'm a Daunian."
Fabrizia Pons, now the most successful co-driver in
international rallying, had some problems switching into
'Eifel-mode' at the beginning. "So far, I don't know any
events without time classification and such a relaxed way of
dealing with things. But slowly I've understood the system and I
think it's wonderful." She ended her promising career as a
driver because she could not find the money to continue. "In
the end, it was a good thing because my place is on the co-driver
side." Curious side note is that Michèle Mouton, with whom
she was so successful in the Audi Quattro, started her career on
the co-driver side. "Fortunately, we both ended up on the
right side."
One of the most unlucky drivers of the festival weekend was Harri
Toivonen. In order to shoot film for a documentary about him
and his brother Henri, he travelled to the Festival with a TV
production company and started in the Lancia Delta S4. The Group B
car broke down during the shakedown and then completely refused to
work at the start of the first stage. "Nevertheless, it was a
brilliant weekend here in Daun," said the Finn happily.
Winners
even without timed stages
Winners are also crowned at the Eifel Rallye Festival without
recourse to timekeeping. At the finale of the big rally party on
Saturday evening, there were again many beaming faces. Six unique
prizes were presented. The 'Sideways Star' as 'cross-driving'
advance car was awarded to the Dutchmen Gerard and Mike Stacy in a
Ford RS2000 MK2 and was presented to them by Matthias Kahle. Kalle
Grundel stepped up. To hand the 'Best replication' prize to Frank
Unger/Thorsten Scheffner for their Lancia Delta Integrale 16V.
Lofty Drews presented Ezio Lolli and Alessandro Grillo with the
'Best original' prize for for their Lancia Stratos. The faces of
Helmut Steiner and Hanna Wadlegger were particularly beaming since
their Toyota Corolla WRC was chosen by the rally stars present and
they received the 'Champion's Choice' award from Stig Blomqvist.
The prize for the 'Most Beautiful Car' was awarded to Franz
Zehetner/Martin Strobl by Harri Toivonen. They drove a prototype
Alpine Renault A310 V6 from 1977. Fabrizia Pons presented a
special prize to Fred and Eva Walter. Simo Lampinen was this time
co-pilot with Fred Walter in exactly the same Lancia Beta Coupé
with which he had competed at the Acropolis in 1975. This was Fred
Walter's tenth start at the Festival.
A
collection of €5,100 for chosen charity, Nestwärme e.V.
There were beaming faces at the cheque presentation during the
Shakedown in Bodenbach. The auctioned rides with Stig Blomqvist,
Thierry Neuville, Niki Schelle and Wolf-Dieter Ihle resulted in
the sum of €4,800. Otmar Anschütz, Chairman of the organising
MSC Daun e.V. in the ADAC, handed it over to Petra Moske,
Chairwoman and founder of Nestwärme e.V. in Trier. This
association supports families with seriously ill or terminally ill
children. "We are very happy about this huge sum, we will use
it to support our project to build a hospice for children,"
said a delighted Petra Moske, who had travelled to the event
together with Leonie Moske, project manager at Nestwärme e.V.. As
a spectator at the cheque presentation, a fan present
spontaneously decided to increase the donation amount by 300
Euros. A total of €5,100 will now be transferred to Nestwärme.
After the €50,000 euros donated by Festival participants and
fans last year for the victims of the flood disaster, this is
further proof of the Festival community's willingness to donate.
In the photo from left: Otmar Anschütz (Head of Organisation
Eifel Rallye Festival), Petra Moske (Chairwoman Nestwärme e.V.
Trier) Stig Blomqvist (World Rally Champion 1984), Leonie Moske
(Project Manager Nestwärme e.V.) and Daniel Schümann (bidder for
a ride with Stig Blomqvist in the Audi Sport Quattro S1E2).
Anniversary
for Kahle
During the shakedown the experts did the maths and it was right to
the day. Exactly twenty years ago, on July 21st, 2002, Matthias
Kahle and his co-driver Peter Göbel finished second in a Škoda
Octavia WRC at the ADAC Eifel Rally as a round of the German Rally
Championship. The points thus gained were enough to secure the
title even before the last event of the series. While Kahle
already had several titles under his belt, it was Škoda and Göbel's
first year working together that led them straight to great
success. With a total of seven titles, Kahle is the
record-breaking German champion and has a very special connection
to the Eifel. He won the last DRM edition of the Eifel Rally in
2010. At the Eifel Rallye Festival that followed, he is one of the
crowd favourites when he drifts over the Eifel stages in the 1977
Škoda 130 RS. With eight starts, he is also one of the most loyal
participants.
Journalists:
Large crowds from a total of twenty nations
Besides representatives of the writing and photographing
association, TV stations and radio stations also reported from the
Eifel Rallye Festival. A total of ninety-six journalists from
twenty nations are now broadcasting their impressions of the
double anniversary to the world.
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