The weather could hardly have been better and thanks to last year's major landslide on the Sölk Pass, a completely new route had to be chosen, which suited the event very well.
New route, new program
Since the start of the rally in 1993, the Sölkpass had always been an absolute must. But in August last year, around a hundred meters of road were washed away by a landslide. The great uncertainty about the condition of the road caused the organizers to change their plans very early on. This adjustment was received very positively, although some people felt that the tradition of the Sölkpass was missing a little. But the prologue on Thursday over the 363 kilometers from Gröbming to Salzburg and back was perfect despite everything.
For the first time, the Salzburgring was also included and not the Red Bull Ring as in previous years.
Another major change was the postponement of the Stoder mountain stage, which had previously always been at the start of the rally, by one day to Friday. Both the uphill and downhill stages were scored before the 402 kilometers to Steyr in Upper Austria continued.
Start problems
So much for the changes, the rest remained the same, so not every participant made the journey at the first attempt. One Maserati driver, for example, was forced to abandon his trailer due to a loss of air pressure and drive straight on towards Gröbming. The differential of the registered Cortina broke halfway and overnight the Ford became a Porsche. The young ladies' team complained of smoke in the cockpit before the start, but the local garage was able to fix it.
A very special sports car
The flagship of this year's Ennstal-Classic was definitely the "Burana" Ferrari 166MM. In 1952, the 0272M chassis was covered with a body by Aurelio Lampredi at the Ferrari factory - which was completely unusual. The chassis was completed by February 18, 1953, and on March 21 the car was sold to Alberico Cacciari for the equivalent of 4400 dollars.
On April 12, the car started in the Giro Sicilia under Piero Scotti, but, as in the Enns Valley, did not see the checkered flag. Cacciari raced in the Mille Miglia with Bill Mason, the father of Nick Mason (Pink Floyd drummer), who was commissioned by Shell to make a film about the Mille Miglia. They were ranked 56th out of 475 starters.
Cacciari drove a further 10 races in 1953. In 1954, the car was then used for the racing film "The Racers" starring Kirk Douglas in the leading role of De Graffenried / Parravicini with starting number 556 at the Mille Miglia with a modified body, because according to the script the Ferrari was called "Burano".
After the end of filming, "MGM 20th Century Fox Studios" in Hollywood sold the car to Tom Carsten from Tacoma, who then resold it to Pete Lovely for 2800 dollars in the spring of 1955. Loveley drove it in several races and also won. In addition, he always drove it on the road to the race venues. The car later changed hands several more times. Unfortunately, the rear axle broke during the rally and the team was forced to switch to an F40.
To win, you have to arrive first
The problem-free Porsche 356 and Jaguar XK types were again represented in large numbers and completed the 800 kilometers as incident-free as almost always.
Only small things could disrupt the flow, for example one driver's fuel gauge still showed a quarter full and the driver did not switch to reserve, which in retrospect proved to be a mistake, as the car rolled out about ten meters before the measuring point without fuel, the penalty points thus acquired could have been prevented by switching over.
The Devin Porsche also stopped without fuel, but in the end the problem was not the fuel pump, but a broken fuel hose.
Fire at the Grand Prix
Sudden excitement shortly before the end of the Zenith Grand Prix in Gröbming, the all-important final stage, when the fire siren suddenly went off and two heavy fire engines left the fire station. One vehicle leaked a lot of water, prompting a police officer to say, "At least you can see that it's not empty."
The Jaguar of former Minister of Justice Dieter Böhmdorfer caught fire at the start of the final stage in Gröbming. However, the fire could be fought with hand-held fire extinguishers and nobody was injured, according to the fire department. The 1962 Jaguar MK II started to burn during the start. Dieter Böhmdorfer was in the car as a passenger and his son Florian, who was driving the car.
Well-known winners
The 26th edition of the Ennstal-Classic is over and once again the father-son team Florian and Alexander Deopito were the measure of all things. They dominated right from the start with their Volvo 122 S Rallye. Not even the new route on Thursday could knock them off form. And the "weather gods" once again proved to be motorsport fans, as the predicted thunderstorms failed to materialize at the Zenith Grand Prix in Gröbming.
"It was insanely exciting. We enjoyed it from the first to the last second! The field of competitors is getting more and more high-class every year, which makes it more and more difficult. You have to prepare well to stand on the podium. You certainly have to be able to ride well, but you need that little bit of luck and we had that again this year. The new route was amazing. The Salzkammergut, especially over the Postalm, then past Hallstadt and the Koppenpass, that was a real upgrade. We really enjoyed it," said the beaming winner at the finish.
Ingo Glatter and his co-driver Gustav Fenz in the Mini Cooper S took second place this time. They were also delighted with their podium finish: "We're over the moon, it's the first time we've been on the podium. After ten or eleven years of the Ennstal-Classic, it's simply a dream come true to be among the top three. We even won Era 4!"
Behind them, Peter Ulm and Jan Soucek were able to secure the last place on the coveted Ennstal-Classic podium: "It was an insanely great rally. We wanted to finally win at our sixth attempt, we've already been on the podium four times. The co-driver was great, but unfortunately the driver made a big mistake yesterday. But we are also super happy with third place!"
Note: In addition to the four picture galleries with over 500 photos, an entertaining picture story provides further impressions .
