Margarita and Magdalena Voglar are the second women's team to win the 32nd Ennstal-Classic! They were in the lead from day one and never relinquished it until the finish.
Despite the often extreme weather conditions on the Stoderzinken and despite the heat wave that lasted for two days beforehand, the youngster team from Graz in an Alfa Romeo Giulia TI (1964) managed to come out on top in the exciting finale in Gröbming.
Ennstal premiere
The Ennstal-Classic 2024 thus brings an absolute premiere: For the first time, the two sisters, who despite their tender age can already be described as Ennstal-Routinières (2021 they already won the silver medal), win the overall competition with participants of the Vredestein Youngster Trophy!
Their parents, Thomas and Barbara Voglar, who also completed the entire Ennstal-Classic in their 1929 Buick Butcher Brother Indy Special, could hardly hide their pride.
Exactly 30 years ago, at the 2nd edition of the Ennstal-Classic in 1994, Jutta Roschmann and Nicole Neukunft achieved the first triumph of an all-women team.
From then on, the event was in strong male hands for 29 long years. Never before has the atmosphere at the award ceremony been as exuberant as this time. The joy was immense and the "girls" were wholeheartedly congratulated on their "start-finish victory".
Second place went to Sebastian Klackl and Nicola Kovacic-Klackl (Mini 1000 MKII, 1969), who have always finished on the podium at the Ennstal-Classic; Sebastian won the event for the first time in 2010, albeit with a different line-up.
Erich and Roswitha Volk were able to clinch third place with a sensational performance in the Porsche Design GP, narrowly overtaking the previously third-placed team of Leonard Kapsch and Nicholas Antoni in a Jaguar XK120 (1951) in their Ford Mustang Fastback (1965).
Difficult conditions
As is so often the case, the Enns Valley showed its usual damp side from Friday evening onwards, when a thunderstorm briefly flooded the roads. At around seven o'clock on Saturday morning, when the traditional chase up the Stoderzinken began, the mountain was shrouded in a light drizzle and deep fog.
The team of influencer Jonas Lach and his father Gunter Lach were the first vehicle to enter the competition in a Bentley 3 Liter Speed, the car is actually a long-distance racer and hardly suitable for mountain classifications, which the team from Hanover took rather sportily.
The pre-war vehicles sped up the mountain with no regard for losses, partly according to the motto "being there is everything", but also partly in a highly sporty manner. The rain became heavier as the second convoy of younger vehicles tackled the mountain, the winning team left just 16 penalty points in the classification, a fantastic achievement, especially in view of the prevailing conditions.
100 years of automotive history
A special vehicle from the field of participants in the Ennstal Classic was at the start with the number 2. The Bugatti Type 30 from 1924, exactly 100 years old, completed the 900 kilometers (prologue Thursday 426 km, marathon Friday 442 km plus the mountain stage of around 30 km) without any problems worth mentioning.
The car also has a racing history, as can be seen from the short chassis of the Type 23. Only 17 were built in this configuration.
The vehicle dates from the time when Ettore Bugatti ran the company together with his son Jean. Initially delivered by Omina in Munich, various private racing entries are documented. The Bugatti then disappeared in Scandinavia until it returned to Germany at the end of the 1960s via Helmut Feierabend. The Molsheim T30 set standards in that it was the first Bugatti with four-wheel brakes, and from this model onwards, only parts manufactured in-house were used, right down to the smallest screw.
It's fantastic how all the pre-war cars were unperturbed by the heat, the heavy rain or the drop in temperature of around 20 degrees overnight.
Which car is actually the best choice for a rally like the Ennstal-Klassik? It definitely gets too hot in the 300 SL, perhaps the Porsche 550 Spider?
Hollywood actor Patrick Dempsey once drove it. In an interview with the daily newspaper "Die Presse", he said: "I vividly remember this track in Austria. It was like going back in time. Every moment in the cockpit of that car was a journey, not just through the landscape, but through time itself. It was as if I was crossing the boundaries of my own being. Pure transcendence. It was unforgettable."
But probably nothing can replace the satisfaction of driving a pre-war racing car, regardless of whether it's a Porsche, Ferrari or NSU....
Grand Prix without rain
The starting field for the Porsche Design Grand Prix lined up at the start ramp in Gröbming on Saturday at 12:30 pm during a pleasant break in the rain.
Prominent participants included Prince Leopold of Bavaria, Dieter Quester, Aksel Lund Svindal, Richard Lietz, Thomas Preining (Hans Joachim Stuck unfortunately had to withdraw due to illness) and David Brabham, who spontaneously took part in the GP in a Formula 3 Brabham, which his father Sir Jack Brabham originally designed for Frank Williams and which was then driven by the legendary James Hunt and later also by Jean-Pierre Jabouille.
The Porsche 962C with the PDK gearbox in the Shell colors competed in the 5 Supercup races in 1987 and won the title. However, the cooperation with the sponsor Shell only began at the second race, the 200 miles of Nuremberg at the Norisring. In 1989, this 962C served as a test vehicle and was subsequently used in Weissach as a test car in the field of aerodynamics.
In 2021, it was restored to its original 1987 Supercup condition by the Porsche Museum.
