Former racing driver Hans Joachim Stuck summed up the Planai-Classic 2017: "Those were three great days, despite the bitter cold, I don't regret a single second."
Even the journey to the event was accompanied by major disruptions and a massive loss of time for many due to the driving snow. The Italian team in the "snow-white" Lancia Fulvia, for example, arrived on the road, but got completely lost twice and had already covered tens of extra kilometers before the rally. Finally, at the end of the journey, the hotel on a hill could not be reached by Lancia, and the last few hundred meters had to be climbed on foot, loaded with all the luggage.
The last automobile adventure in our latitudes
Christian Baier was taking part for the 19th time with his Lea Francis, knew all the conditions and showed a lot of enthusiasm: "This is the last automotive adventure you can still find in Austria. I don't want to compare it to a normal car journey from Vienna to St. Pölten, this is an addiction to adventure. I was really looking forward to navigating through the snow for three days and seeing how I could get the car up the mountain and - even more difficult - down again safely.
Getting up the mountains was one thing, but getting down again afterwards was quite another. Christian Baier reported after the descent: "I kept the car in third gear and when it picked up speed, I wanted to shift into second to brake, but the engine died. The carburetors were probably a bit undercooled. Now, of course, I couldn't get any more gears into the car and it was also getting faster and faster. The only thing that helped was a soft snow cornice."
"It helps that I know a few corners here in the Enns Valley, because I have to look as far ahead as possible. If I'm not in the right gear one time, I have to continue straight ahead in the next hairpin bend. The basics are of course the same. If you accelerate in a bend, you're gone," Baier explained. "Every time I step on the cable brake, something different happens. Sometimes it only goes left, sometimes only right, sometimes nothing at all. That's the challenge," he said, explaining the appeal.
Almost arctic cold
The minus 18 degrees with the gusts of wind at Niederöblarn airfield felt like minus 48.57 degrees. It was almost arctic cold. For once, global warming was not an issue. The wind blew fresh snow across the runway, which looked like it had come out of a fog machine, but felt like shock freezing on the body.
The film clip from "Cool-Running", when the Jamaicans first stepped out into the cold of Calgary, immediately came to mind. Nevertheless, the half-frozen faces of the riders radiated great satisfaction, even if the corners of their mouths could no longer really be turned upwards. For once, they were finally able to really enjoy the winter conditions. While the few rare patches of snow had to be gathered together in recent years, in 2017 the riders only rode on asphalt in the parking garage. Snow in huge quantities transformed the whole area into a dreamlike landscape.
Snow in masses
The very first stage to the Dachstein valley station showed what we would have to contend with over the following days. There were more than 30 centimetres of powder snow on the route and the dense snowfall made the ride a great adventure.
Some of them already got stuck here. Hans Joachim Stuck was one of them: "I can't believe it myself, but we got stuck right after the start. We then went back to a bend where we had lights and changed to tires with snow chains. Then the jack also started to muck around..." But the racing legend didn't let that spoil the fun: "Why should I be annoyed, it was great. Where else can you experience something like that apart from the Planai Classic?"
Tough test
The triple main stage on Saturday up to the Planai took place on the coldest day for five years (in the Enns Valley). At around minus 20 degrees, the drive was a real test of endurance for the open-top cars.
Motivated by the expected hot glass of punch at the finish, the participants drifted upwards through the snow flurries.
Twists and turns non-stop
Just how tricky the rally was was shown by the many spins that ended badly. Johann Kofler and his Sunbeam also felt the effects of this. He also left the road and was stopped by the crash barrier not far away. "The snowplow had filled in a small ditch. I got into it with my right wheels and I was pulled into the ditch."
Nothing happened to the driver, only the mudguard was slightly battered. But what was much worse was that the car was stuck in a snow bank. However, the towing service that had been alerted was not called out at all, as the following rally legend Rudi Stohl offered immediate assistance in his Pinzgauer. Kofler concluded: "That was really cold, you can believe me."
The whole rally was driven less with the head and more with the bottom. The so-called "popometer" was more important than anything else at all times. It alone had to steer the right foot and for once it was more in demand than any steering movements on the steering wheel. In the current car, you could feel how often the electronic driving aids were working, whereas in the historic automobile, the driver's sensitive popometer took care of all that.
Repeat offenders
The now four-time winning team of Pius Weckerle and Otmar Schlager were once again unstoppable this year in their 1972 VW Beetle. "It was like heaven and hell. Winning a Planai-Classic in ice and snow is a madness. We're slowly looking for someone to pay us not to drive anymore," joked the beaming four-time winner Weckerle.
Alexander and Florian Deopito came second in a Mercedes-Benz 350 SLC, while Günter Schwarzbauer and Erich Hemmelmayer came third in a Datsun 240 Z.
The complete results can be found on the Planai-Classic website.
The closing words came from the organizer team Zwickl-Glöckner: "It was a Planai-Classic like never before. A big compliment to the discipline and skill of the entire starting field." Apart from a few frost and panel dents, everything remained intact.
The participants will certainly not forget the Planai-Classic 2017 in a hurry, after all, they were freezing to a boil, especially when they were sitting in the open cars, and could hardly get warm after the rides at minus 20 degrees. Nevertheless, most of them will probably be at the start again in 2018 when the next Planai-Classic starts.
