A winter rally without snow is like Christmas without a Christmas tree. But from January 3 to 5, 2019, the Planai-Classic was really spoiled by Mrs. Holle. It is very rare to see this much snow and all the highways from Munich to Vienna were in chaos.
Hans Joachim Stuck, the top star in the field, said: "I've driven a lot, but I've never experienced anything like this, this was driving at the limits of the past..." When a professional driver says that, cheers.
Snow, wind and hardly any visibility
The rally started late on Thursday afternoon in the direction of the Dachstein in heavy snowfall. Gusts of wind blew the snow so hard that visibility dropped to below zero at times, even lower than the outside temperature.
There was only one thing to do: stop on the spot, switch on the hazard warning lights and wait until your eyes could see the wooden posts at the sides with the road in between completely blown over.
The Dachsteinstrasse was cleared only thirty minutes before the first starter with two large vehicles, one up and one down. Good for the rally participants, bad for the photographers, as there were no more parking options to the left or right of the road after it had been cleared.
Fritz Müller, driving a Porsche 914/6, compared his trip to a Himalayan expedition in a snowstorm.
It's possible without four-wheel drive and optimum weight distribution
Normally, the last few years have always ended with a snowy day, but this time the snowfall never stopped and lasted well beyond the three days of the rally.
Once again, one team topped all the other participants. Alexander Deopito and his son Florian have long been the measure of all things in the Austrian classic car scene. In a Mercedes-Benz 350 SLC, which is actually not quite the ideal winter car, they left all the others standing and won in the end with 3781 points with a lead of around 1000 points over the second-placed Alfa Romeo.
Flatlanders on the podium
It's only logical that an Austrian should win in the mountains, especially with lots of snow. But how does a Dutchman manage to finish second with an Italian? Michael and Nico Koel left nothing to chance with the Giulia Super and took the silver medal. This second place by a flatlander - the highest mountain in the Netherlands measures just 322 meters - should actually be rated much higher than the Austrian's victory. When has a Dutchman ever finished on the podium in a ski race? That actually happened too, albeit not in the top three.
"The World Cup downhill in Val Gardena/Gröden 2013 changed Marvin van Heek's life forever. The 21-year-old Dutchman benefited from the weather chaos on the "Saslong" in December 2012 and skied sensationally to 8th place. For the second time after Harald de Man in 1998 in the Super-G, a ski racer from the tulip country won World Cup points," one could read in the Berner Zeitung on January 18, 2013.
To do justice to all the Dutch, we translate the words of the beaming winner Alexander Deopito: "Deze Planai Classic was het zwaarste evenement dat ik ooit gereden heb. We all reached our limits with our concentration and concentration. The stress of the winter weather was unbearable!"
In other words, he said: "This Planai Classic was the most difficult event I have ever ridden. We were all at the limit in terms of stamina and concentration. The constant stress of the winter weather was draining!"
Hardly any accidents
Despite the extremely difficult conditions, the first accident of the rally did not happen in the car, but next to it, on the special stage at Niederöblarn airfield. There, a participant slipped on the icy ground and fell to the ground so badly that he had to be taken to hospital in an ambulance.
At the end of the rally on the third and final special stage from the Kessleralm up to the Planai, the German team Martin Krisam/Uli Barnewitz lost contact with the road in poor visibility with their Sunbeam Tiger and slid down the slope. The occupants were uninjured, only the car had to be recovered by the fire department, which led to the third run of the Planai mountain stage being abandoned.
Reduced average speeds
During the rally, the prescribed average speed was reduced from 40 to 35 km/h, as it was simply impossible for everyone to keep to the planned average in normal traffic. "I was really happy about this reduction in the cut, because on some parts of the route you couldn't even maintain a 35 km/h cut," said overall winner Alexander Deopito.
Christian Clerici, driving a Volvo P1800, wanted to join Strietzel Stuck in the VW Beetle from the Wolfsburg classic department, "until I found out why Stuck was once a Formula 1 driver..."
It was always impressive to see how the rally participants with cars far below today's standards were better and safer on the road than all the tourist traffic (crammed with electronics).
As
Fritz Müller said what we were all probably thinking: "The night-time special stage from Ramsau to Filzmoos reminded me of my childhood, especially the high snow walls! There you ride in solitude in a dream area and are happy about the fact that there is still a real winter after all..."
The children also enjoyed the enormous amount of snow. They slid down everywhere and romped around in the deep snow.
The real heroes
A big thank you goes to the two organizers Helmut Zwickl and Michael Glöckner, who managed to pull off the rally with all their helpers under these extreme conditions. But as they both said at the end, it wasn't the drivers who were the heroes this time, but the many helpers from the road traffic office, as well as timekeepers, technicians and mechanics, who made all the fun possible in this terrible weather!
The drivers all agreed: ....es was by far the best Planai-Classic, maybe even forever. The special stages on the snow-covered side roads, mostly at night, were absolutely fantastic. We all struggled more or less with our vehicles, but now we are overjoyed. A big thank you to everyone who worked on this event and made these unforgettable days possible. Thank you very much!
