Driving on the most beautiful roads in the Alps - that is the credo of the Saalbach Classic. Held for the 6th time on the weekend of June 20-23, 2018, it is still a small insider tip in the abundance of historic rallies: a manageable starting field of 60 teams in the Sport Trophy and 10 teams in the Weekend Trophy.
Moderate route lengths without treacherous special stages guarantee an intimate event in a relaxed atmosphere and great surroundings with carefully selected routes. And yet: at the top, there was a fight for 100ths of a second.
Wide range of brands
An illustrious field was presented at the Saalbach Classic: The variety of brands ranged from A for Alfa Romeo to V for Volkswagen (a Beetle and with a Swedish crew to boot, who had arrived on the road!), with a total of 23 different brands at the start. The Mercedes 300 SL Gullwing was conspicuous by its absence for once, but two BMW 507 Cabriolets were registered instead.
And a very special Englishman was at the start: starting number 4 was a Lagonda T2 Compressor from 1930 - a car that used to belong to Leslie Hawthorn, the father of Mike Hawthorn, Formula 1 world champion in 1958 (and the cause of the 1955 Le Mans disaster).
The participants came mainly from Austria and Germany, with one team each from Italy, Sweden and Switzerland. "We want to cap the Saalbach Classic at a maximum of 80 cars. We prefer to be small and fine, don't attach any importance to fancy-pants and instead have beautiful cars with nice crews at the start," says Walter Zipser, "all-round manager" of the Saalbach Classic, describing the organizer's intentions.
Warm-up with Röhrl
The event started on Thursday towards the evening with a "warm-up stage" of a few kilometers with five tube evaluation tests, which led to a mountain restaurant with an official welcome by Walter Röhrl and dinner.
Shortly after the start of the rally, the field of pre-war cars had already thinned out a little: an Alvis Eagle had to lay down its arms, the starter was defective. An Alvis Speed 20 was fresh from an overhaul, but the engine still failed after a few kilometers.
Grossglockner times two
After the short "warm-up" (which ended in a veritable high alpine storm with squalls and rain à-discretion), the royal stage followed on Friday: the Grossglockner had to be conquered twice. 2504 meters of altitude are not without their challenges - one or the other carburetor had trouble ensuring the fuel supply without choking. And one or two of the teams also ran a little low on oxygen. It wasn't just the altitude that caused difficulties: On the first crossing in the morning, the road had to be guessed rather than sighted through thick banks of fog.
And on the second crossing in the afternoon, sleet showers and fine snowfall ensured that one or two cars got to see the cool white for the first time. The second highlight followed on Saturday with the Salzburg-Bavaria circuit, and the Rossfeld-Panorama road was another highlight after the Grossglockner.
Demanding regular riding
In total, the route was peppered with over 50 special stages. Section measurements, which had to be ridden to the nearest hundredth of a second, alternated with section riding over several kilometers. The crews were therefore challenged and a close battle raged at the front throughout the rally.
A year ago, Karsten and Monika Wollenberg were beaten by just one (!) hundredth of a second in their Mercedes Benz 230 SL, but this year they secured victory by a clear margin.
However, the famous hundredth of a second influenced the results again this year: it decided between second and third place. Werner Fessl / Wolfgang Artacker with their Fiat Abarth 124 Spider came out on top, while Heimo + Katarina Hofstätter with their Alfa Romeo 1750 GTV had to settle for third place.
Results in brief
1st Wohlenberg / Wohlenberg (D), Mercedes Benz 230 SL, 12.95 points.
2. Fessl / Artacker (A), Fiat 124 Abarth, 21.42.
3. Hofstätter / Hofstätter (A), Alfa Romeo 1750 GTV, 21.43.
4. Weise / Weise (A), Porsche 356, 21.71.
5. Schöggl / Artacker (A), Alfa Romeo 1750 Spider Veloce, 22.32.
6. Panis / Bürger (A), BMW 328, 23.44.
All results can be viewed on the Saalbach-Classic website .
"Rally World Champion Walter Röhrl"
To introduce the racing icon Walter Röhrl would be like carrying owls to Athens. The two-time World Champion (1980 + 1982), European Champion 1974, four-time Rally Monte Carlo winner (1980 with Fiat 131 Abarth, 1982 with Opel Ascona 400, 1983 with Lancia Rallye 037 and 1984 with Audi Quattro) is Honorary President and co-organizer of the Saalbach Classic.
Although it is rumored that Röhrl is rather averse to socializing, he appeared very tidy throughout the rally. In his welcoming speech, he emphasized how he enjoys driving cars that have neither electronics nor other frowned upon driving assistants installed: "I want to feel what the car is doing and, above all, I want to direct the car and not be directed by the car.
And with a smile on his canine teeth, he points out that he has a copy of "every air-cooled car in his garage". We can assume that he wasn't referring to Tatra models... During the Saalbach Classic, he folded his 1.91m into a Porsche Turbo (with the starting number "Walter Röhrl") from the factory museum.
"Porsche works driver"
Wilfried and Elke Krings from Germany traveled to Saalbach in good spirits with their 1934 Alvis Speed Special. On Thursday afternoon there were some problems with the calibration of the Tripmaster. But that was just the beginning - then it got really bad: the freshly overhauled engine refused to work, Wilfried Krings was already expecting another engine failure and decided not to bring the Alvis to the start at all. Understandably a little frustrated, they decided to drive home again.
Then everything changed for the better, at least for the team: After a crew for a Porsche 356 from Porsche-Salzburg dropped out, Krings / Krings were able to switch to the coupé without further ado and take the Saalbach-Classic under their wheels after all - this time with the status of real Porsche works drivers...
"Harald Neger"
"You're not allowed to say Neger anymore, so I'm just Harald," was how Harald Neger introduced himself to the rally participants at the briefing. He was responsible for the road book and it left nothing to be desired. Everything was listed down to the last detail - not the slightest mistake could be spotted.
Harald, as the participants called him throughout the weekend, can look back on a long racing career. From the mid-seventies to the early eighties, he drove in the European Touring Car Championship, mostly with Heribert Werginz and Umberto Grano and exclusively with products from a Bavarian manufacturer. He then drove successfully for many years in the rally and rally-cross scene. Since the beginning six years ago, Harald has been part of the hard core of the Saalbach Classic organizers.
"A chat with Walter"
Thursday afternoon, the chronicler and his co-driver try to calibrate the Tripmaster correctly. They are lying somewhat contorted in the footwell of the passenger seat, trying to turn the right screw, especially in the right direction. From the corner of your eye, you can see a long shadow stretching across the car. A quick glance reveals that Walter Röhrl has just stopped his racing bike to check that everything is OK. He was coming back from his daily 40 km ride, he said - it's easy to see in the mountainous surroundings that his ride hardly ever took him through flat terrain. He then explained that he now had to take a shower - the chronicler added that he probably also had to look after his cat.
