Opel Motorsport Special at the Opel Villas
It was 40 years ago that Kleint and Wanger brought the European Championship title to Rüsselsheim. In 1978, Jochen Berger knew exactly that the experienced rally driver Jochi Kleint and the rising star in the co-driver's firmament Gunter Wanger had the best chance of success with the new Group 2 Opel Ascona from Rüsselsheim.
At the same time, Opel decided to organize a one-make cup in rallying. The Opel Kadett Cup was born.
Willi-Peter Pitz was put in charge of the infrastructure and in November 1978 Kleint/Wanger drove a Cup Kadett at the Cologne-Ahrweiler Rally under competitive conditions. Tires were also tested together with Pirelli to determine a specific type for the Cup.
With this standard 60 hp Kadett, the pair were among the top 10 at times and finished in 12th place overall, including class victory. Unbelievable!
The foundation stone for the Kadett Cup had been laid and Jochi and Gunter were on the road together for the first time. Preparations for the European Championship season and the Cup were now in full swing. Jochen Berger also briefly thought about driving the DM and the European Championship, as some events were on both calendars, but after the cancellations at the Trifels and Metz, they only concentrated on the European Championship. After the Christmas vacations, they went to Austria with an Opel Kadett GT/E to warm up for the January rally. Two weeks later, the Ascona, GG-CA 833, had its first outing at the Boucles de Spa Rally. Overall victory!
This was followed by the Costa Brava Rally, again with Kadett, then in Germany Sachs Winter, Trifels, Saarland, Roland, Metz, Firestone and Elba in between, all on Ascona and always top places overall. Once more with the Kadett at the Scottish Rally, then Hesse, Ypres, Poland, Hunsrück, Halkidiki and Cyprus. The Ascona was absolutely reliable and cut a fine figure.
At the Vinho de Jerez Rally in Spain in October, the entire Opel team was able to celebrate the European Championship title and there was no need to compete in the final round in Portugal. A great success after a season of 21 rallies. Congratulations. My greatest respect!
Another success story was the Opel Kadett Cup. Opel Director Ekkehard Rohde presented this program to promote young talent at the 1978 Opel Sports Cup awards ceremony. Board member John M. Fleming emphasized Opel's commitment to mass sports and promised that Opel would continue to offer vehicles specially designed for motorsports in the future. He also spoke of a sporty Ascona with a 2.4-liter transverse-flow engine, which is to be built in the following year in a quantity of 400 units. 10 events were planned for the first season of the Opel Kadett Cup.
Unbelievable: On the day of the entry deadline, January 31, 1979, 180 drivers had registered, some of whom had to cancel because the number of entries had been limited to 120. At the first race, the Westfalen-Lippe-Fahrt, 120 cadets came together and Jochen Berger, who was present in person, was soon able to spot some talented drivers. Opel had hit the bull's eye with this initiative to promote young talent and some famous rally drivers would later emerge from it. Willi-Peter Pitz had ensured good organization and all participants were well looked after by the sponsors Pirelli, irmscher, Bilstein, Matter, ATS, Mobil and others. Mr. Romeni and Norbert Hauer carried out the technical scrutineering and inspection.
Of course, the expert eyes of these two gentlemen did not fail to notice that one participant had used hidden tricks to give his car more power. He was therefore disqualified from the very first run. Strict rules were in place to ensure that all teams were on an equal footing. The second round, the Werraland Rally starting in Bad Sooden-Allendorf, again had 120 teams entered and once again there were thrilling cadet duels to look forward to. After the third Stemweder Berg Rally, which started in Brakel, the field for the Lübeck Rally had already settled down somewhat. At the Hesse Rally, 90 teams still competed and the battle for points became increasingly fierce. In the meantime, more teams were disqualified for "unauthorized tuning".
The second half of the season began with the Vorderpfalz Rally, which was still contested by over 60 teams. Only at the end of the season, at the Allgäu Rally, could the winner be determined. It was an exciting season and at the same time motivation to establish this one-make cup as a permanent fixture in the annual rally calendar.
In the course of 1979, the new Kadett D with front-wheel drive and 75 hp came onto the market and was immediately integrated into the Kadett Cup 80, thus increasing the pace somewhat. Further expansion with the appearance of the Opel Corsa-A. From 1984, the Cup was renamed the "Opel Junior Rally Cup".
In 1985, the aim was to give young drivers the opportunity to compete on the circuit. Six rally and six circuit events were announced. The championship was then called the "Opel Junior Cup". Until 1989, there was the Opel one-make cup, which wrote a large and successful part of Opel motorsport history.
On Sunday, June 30, 2019, I invited all these passionate and successful drivers, co-drivers, team members, organizers, helpers, sponsors and fans to a meeting at the Opelvillen in Rüsselsheim and most of them accepted my invitation. The highlight of our meeting and a special treat for all those present was the presence of the two 1979 European champions, Jochi Kleint and Gunter Wanger, who drove up to the Opelvilla in their original 1979 Ascona.
Most of the Cup winners were also there. Edgar Kress, Erwin Weber, Claus Bettag, Charlie Beck, Harald Büttner, Jürgen Stöcklein, Horst Rotter, Hans Ostermayer, and many former Cup participants, including myself. Many of the former Opel motorsport mechanics were there, as well as many alumni of the former sponsors.
Speaking of which, many greetings also came from the people responsible for these companies today and we also expressed our appreciation by displaying the appropriate banners.
I would also like to say a special thank you to the owners of the cars from that era who came to Rüsselsheim especially to be there: Günter Eberlein (Kadett C Cup "WiPi", GG-CA 700), Nico Zitzmann (Kadett D "Cup"), Jürgen Grohs (Ascona B ex Erwin Weber, GG-CJ 613), Jens Daniel (Holzer-Manta, GG-CV 367), Fabian Becker (Ascona i2000, GG-CD 259), Hermann Kneer (Ascona 400 Kleint/Wanger, GG-CJ 690).
Many thanks to you all for this wonderful Sunday, which at 39° was also one of the hottest of the year, and for the joy you gave the fans present.
We will all remember the touching reunion scenes for a long time to come. Erwin Weber and Gunter Wanger, for example, have not seen each other for 25 years. Some Cup drivers met again for the first time in 35 years. It was like a class reunion. Simply great!
After the first meetings and conversations, there was a veal sausage breakfast, followed by coffee and cake. People talked, laughed, talked shop and showed their emotions. I only saw more happy people and everyone encouraged us to do something like this again. So, let's think of a suitable occasion to meet again.
Many thanks to everyone!
