For the second time, the Ennstal-Classic took place from July 9 to 12, 2014 as a two-part event. While the long-distance rally participants covered around 800 km, the more competitive drivers enjoyed themselves on closed-off special stages on the circuit, airfield and on the mountain. The weather played along reasonably well.
Without snow and ice
Experienced Ennstal participants are prepared for anything, because all too often storms rage precisely when the often open sports and racing cars are on the road in the "last paradise" (self-promotion).
However, the weather proved to be less inhospitable than expected in 2014. Although it rained from time to time, there was also sunshine and dry spells. There was no snow or ice, but the roads proved to be quite slippery in places. And unfortunately, the usually very large crowd took the changeable weather as an opportunity to turn up in smaller numbers than usual for the Saturday Gröbming Grand Prix.
Entertaining route
Once again, the organizing team led by Michael Glöckner and Helmut Zwickl managed to plan an attractive route.
Of course, the standard routes, such as the Stoderzinken, had to be ridden, but the prologue (368 km) with the Sölkpass and Nockalm on the first day and the marathon (421 km) with its diverse route sections also made for fast riding, especially as there was hardly any civilian traffic to report.
The specified target times for the individual stages demanded a brisk pace, but thanks to the lowered requirements for pre-war automobiles, they could also be experienced by them. Fantastic landscapes and enthusiastic spectators forced some crews to take their eyes off the stopwatch. The fact that the visitors had good reason for spontaneous applause along the routes was not least due to the top-class range of vehicles on display, which even included an original Ferrari 250 GTO.
Close decision
"We came second a few years ago and I wanted to win my tenth Ennstal-Classic," says overall winner Reinhard Huemer. Together with co-driver Johann Watzinger, he took advantage of the superior maneuverability of the 1972 Dino 246 GT to ultimately cross the finish line with the smallest overall margin of 1433 points. "We didn't allow ourselves any major mistakes, there were very demanding special stages to master this year," commented the happy winner.
Helmut Schramke and Peter Umfahrer had to admit defeat in their 1960 Jaguar XK 150 DHC with a gap of 127 points. Peter Ulm and Jan Soucek finished in third place in a 1969 Porsche 911 ST. Last year's runners-up had big plans for 2014, but they were a little unlucky: "We actually wanted to take the win this time, but we were very unlucky once when a truck drove in front of us. But that's classic racing, maybe we'll have better luck again next year."
With Sir Stirling Moss on the mountain
Parallel to the Ennstal-Classic Rally, the Chopard Racecar Trophy was once again organized, which is primarily suitable for racing cars (also without road registration) and consisted exclusively of special stages. The Trophy participants only met up with the rally drivers two or three times and otherwise completed a special stage on the Red Bull Ring, a mountain stage on the Tauplitzalm, another special stage at Niederöblarn airfield and a mountain sprint in Moosheim.
Monoposti, CanAm racing cars, sports prototypes and road-going sports cars were at the start, around 45 vehicles in total. And many celebrities, from Sir Stirling Moss to Dieter Quester and rally legend Walter Röhrl.
As the special stages were not all in the same place, there were quite long transfer stages to cover - the journey to the Red Bull Ring and back alone was 280 km. No wonder that many participants had to load the racing cars for this, which was a matter of course for the non-road-legal vehicles anyway.
Not an easy task
The Racecar Trophy is also geared towards uniformity. This caused difficulties for the participants, especially when the weather conditions changed, as was the case on Friday. Those who set a good time on a dry track had to pay the price in the rain.
At the Niederöblarn airfield, it was a case of driving up and down the slope. The participants particularly enjoyed the hairpin bends at both ends. Here too, two times had to be as identical as possible.
Well-known winners
In Era I (monoposto racing cars up to 1983), Gaisbergrennen co-organizer Thomas Matzelberger won on his Formula Austro Vau (118 points) ahead of Winfried Kallinger on a CR Salmson (965 points) and Walter Degelsegger (3097 points) on a BMW F2 "Straubel".
In Era II (racing sports cars up to 1952), Florian and Marlene Kunz (86 points) took the winner's trophy in their three-wheeled Morgan Threeweeler Super Sports. Behind them were Marc Fischer and Mikolaj Rybak (279 points) in their Aston Martin DB2 Vantage, followed by Johann Kofler and Gabriele Foltis (351 points) in the Sunbeam Supersport. Ingo Strolz came fourth in his Buick Speedster, who hardly ever lets a stopwatch stop him from having fun. Racing legend Dieter Quester and Anja Schiemann took fifth place in their BMW 328, while Christian and Margot Baier managed to finish sixth in their Lea Francis Hyper TT.
Alexander and Florian Deopito drove their Lancia 037 Evo 2 to an unchallenged victory in the CHOPARD Racecar Trophy in the highly competitive Era III (racing cars up to 1983). Second place went to Enrico Falchetto and Heike Falk (95 points) in their Porsche 911 RS, followed by Josef Panis in a Ferrari 250 GT.
Satisfied faces all round, one can already look forward to the next edition of the Ennstal-Classic including the Racecar-Trophy.
Extensive picture galleries with almost 200 pictures
- Picture gallery Ennstal-Classic 2014
- Picture gallery Chopard Racecar-Trophy 2014
