The ADAC Eifel Rallye Festival (27 to 29 July 2023) is history, the teams have dismantled their colorful tents in the city center of Daun, which has been transformed into a rally mile.
The more than 160 original and faithfully recreated vehicles from the history of rallying once again attracted tens of thousands of fans from Europe and beyond to the Volcanic Eifel. The VIP teams around world champion Stig Blomqvist, Rauno Aaltonen, Bruno Thiry, Kalle Grundel, Nicky Grist, Harald Demuth, Rui Madeira, Rudi Stohl and Niki Schelle fulfilled countless autograph requests.
WRC star Thierry Neuville traveled from the tests in Finland to be present at the spectacular appearance of his brothers Yannik Neuville and Tom Heindrichs in the Ford Fiesta WRC and Citroën DS3 WRC, which he himself used to drive in the WRC. Many arranged to meet at the Eifel Rallye Festival for what is probably one of the world's biggest class reunions in historic rallying.
Everything was as usual, even the weather had a few rain surprises in store at the beginning, but then adapted to the good mood of the participants and fans. "Rally sport is an outdoor sport, even a little rain doesn't stop a real fan," said Bruno Thiry, explaining the huge number of fans along the stages.
Enthusiastic and speechless Reinhard Klein
"I'm thrilled and speechless," said Reinhard Klein (Cologne), the head of Slowly Sideways, who puts together the field of participants. "The rush to our festival, the variety, the renewed increase in the quality of the vehicles. More and more people are taking the history of rallying seriously, they are practically living it and emulating their personal heroes. And they simply have fun together across all national and language borders. Our aim is to offer the right platform for this - and we seem to be getting better and better at it."
Thierry Neuville puts it similarly: "Here at the Eifel Rallye Festival, you only find people who live for this sport. But not just the older ones, some of whom have experienced it live, but more and more younger ones. For all of them, this festival is the absolute highlight."
The multiple world championship runner-up adds: "It's a huge pleasure for me to see my two brothers having fun here in my former cars. These wonderful pieces of sports equipment are mostly kept in the garage, so it doesn't do any harm to see them being moved around here in the right way. What's more, it's completely stress-free on the demonstration tracks, as it's all about fun and not about time."
Yannik Neuville confirms: "These have been the best days of my life so far and the festival was the perfect stage for it."
Impressive discipline from participants and fans
Organization manager Otmar Anschütz from the organizing MSC Daun also confirmed that the joy of the festival spread to everyone involved and ensured a consistently good atmosphere: "It's really impressive to see the discipline of the spectators and participants at this festival. This huge crowd of spectators and the gigantic field of participants and there were no problems at all. In addition, the real tightness in the rally mile so that as many teams as possible could take part. No matter where - it was discussed briefly and there were simple, amicable solutions everywhere. Simply brilliant cooperation."
Anschütz added: "I would like to take this opportunity to thank the local residents for their great understanding in putting up with the 'siege' of Daun and the surrounding area and the restrictions. A big thank you also goes to our more than 700 volunteers. Without them, such a major event would not be possible."
There was a brief pause right at the start of the shakedown in Bodenbach on Thursday. A fan collapsed in the spectator area. Two nurses who happened to be present immediately began resuscitation and fought for his life. The shakedown was interrupted immediately and the organizer's rescue service was on site so that the doctors could take over further care and the fan was transported to hospital. From there came the positive signals that the patient had probably survived this event without any lasting damage.
The stories of the stars
At the Welcome Evening on Thursday with the open-air cinema by cult filmmaker Helmut Deimel, presenter Markus Stier elicited exciting and very entertaining stories from the VIP guests in attendance.
With four WRC victories to her name (three times with Michelle Mouton and once with Pierro Liatti), the Italian Fabrizia Pons is the most successful woman in the history of the World Rally Championship. In the Eifel, she navigated world champion Stig Blomqvist in the Audi Sport Quattro S1 over the demonstration tracks. "I still drive more than 20 rallies a year, I just can't stop. There are a lot of women in rallying now, but I'm still waiting for the new top team that consists only of women. She added: "The victory in 1997 in the Impreza with Liatti at the Monte was nice, also because it was the first success with the new WRC cars. Otherwise, success in the Monte was not so important to me, I would have preferred to win the Safari, but that never worked out."
Rauno Aaltonen, who won there in 1967 in a Mini Cooper, added to the myth of the Monte Carlo Rally. "The Monte is not the most difficult rally, but it is by far the most prestigious - and it has the best prize money." After the Mini Coopers in the top three places in 1966 were disqualified due to non-standard filaments in the headlights(!), Aaltonen had prepared perfectly for the '67 edition. "I practiced the longest special stage in the Ardèche for two weeks, day and night and in all weathers. In the competition, I was two minutes faster than everyone else. But the organization thought there was a mistake in the timekeeping and deducted two minutes from my time, but it was still enough to win."
During the evening, Professor Rauno Aaltonen gave the first lecture on driving physics in rallying: He had won his home event at the 1000 Lakes in Finland in 1961 with a Mercedes 220 SE. "That was my father's road car with a standard engine. I built my own underbody protection, which was mounted on rubber. When landing after the many crests with a fixed underbody guard, the driver always blacks out briefly due to the hard impact. That wasn't the case with the rubber-mounted protection. In addition, I always tried to land like a cat on a wheel and at an angle. I adjusted the suspension and lost a little less time on each jump. In the end, that was enough to win against the many Saab cars."
World champion Nicky Grist won the RAC Rally in 1993 and 1997. In the 1993 world championship year, he sat alongside Juha Kankkunen and drove the original Toyota Celica from the world championship year himself in the Eifel. In the 1997 victory, he sat alongside Colin McRae. "That was a special victory when you win at your home race together with a fellow countryman. But no matter what, at the RAC it was always important to have good heating in the car."
Bruno Thiry, the long-time WRC driver and 2003 European champion, drove an original VW Golf GTI from the 1987 Safari from Wolf-Dieter Ihle's collection. The newly retired driver has often attended the festival as a spectator, and now it finally worked out for him to take part. "I still have a project in my garage for my retirement - an original Citroën Visa Mille Pistes from Group B. It hasn't moved for a very long time. It hasn't been driven for a very long time."
In 1986, Kalle Grundel was on the verge of his first WRC victory. At the Acropolis Rally, he led by over two minutes in the Ford RS 200 until an unsolvable problem in the service caused him to retire. "I cried like a baby in that situation." Looking at John Wheeler, who was also present and responsible for the RS200 project at Ford, he added: "During a test, John and I discovered how you can win with the RS200. When the track is as tough as in Greece, you just have to drive faster, it can take it."
Rally globetrotter Rudi Stohl ("everything is always different in Africa") and Rauno Aaltonen shared some stories from Africa. Aaltonen's story of a tough test of friendship with his long-time co-driver Lofty Drews, which also made Drews smile in Daun, was met with great laughter. "There were brackets at the back of the Capri for the feet and at the top of the roof for the hands, so that the co-driver could stand on them when driving through mud holes and thus increase the pressure on the drive axle. We also called this 'the French toilet' because of the strange position of the co-driver. A wave in the mud hole caused Lofty to be thrown over the car headfirst into the mud. But I couldn't stop, otherwise we would have got stuck. So Lofty had to wade through the mud after me. When he got into the car, he was covered in mud, only his teeth were still gleaming white."
Winners even without best times
One of the secrets of the Eifel Rallye Festival's success is the lack of timekeeping. Nevertheless, winners are always crowned at the grand finale on Saturday evening. Just according to different criteria, which nevertheless caused many surprises and beaming faces.
The prize for the best original vehicle went to Robert Whitehouse with his Lancia Rallye 037, the vehicle driven by Fabrizio Tabaton at the 1984 San Remo Rally. The now very valuable vehicle will mainly only be on display in the museum. The prize was presented by Yvonne Mehta, who had also navigated Whitehouse through the Eifel.
The 'Champion's Choice', the choice of the VIPs present, went to the beautiful Lancia Delta S4 of Rolf Wyss and Oswald Backes. The prize was presented by world champion Stig Blomqvist.
The 'Best replication' prize for the best replica was awarded to the Belgians Adalbert Engler / Eva Smets for their Ford Mustang by rally professor Rauno Aaltonen.
For the first time, the 'Sideways Star' for the 'most lateral' participant did not go to a team from the advance car squad. In a close decision among many contenders, the jury opted for Yannik Neuville and co-driver Joshua Sonnet, who moved the Ford Fiesta WRC in an impressive manner. The prize was presented by drift expert Niki Schelle.
Josef and Monika Schöderle's very rare Opel GT from the 1973 German Rally Championship was recognized as the most beautiful vehicle at the 2023 edition of the festival. The prize was presented by two-time DRM champion Harald Demuth.
Team Portugal received a special prize. The four teams brought their vehicles to the Eifel together on a car transporter. Led by 1995 Group N World Champion Rui Madeira in the Mitsubishi Lancer, they also received their prizes of honor from Kenyan safari legend Mike Kirkland, Paolo Pimentel Torres (Datsun 160 J), Carlos Pinho (Ford Escort RS Cosworth) and Victor Lopes in the Citroën CX.
3007 euros for Nestwärme e.V.
Petra Moske, founder and 1st chairwoman of nestwärme e.V. Germany, received a further 'building block' for the creation of a hospice for children. The auctions of the rides with Stig Blomqvist, Harald Demuth, Bruno Thiry, Harri Toivonen and Niki Schelle raised 3007 euros. "You are the greatest," Moske called out to the fans on the welcome evening. Otmar Anschütz, Head of Organization of the Eifel Rallye Festival and Chairman of the organizing MSC Daun, handed over the cheque on behalf of the organizer. "It is a cherished tradition that we also support organizations such as Nestwärme with our festival. The bidder for the ride with Stig Blomqvist came to us from Tokyo, which is proof of the international interest."
Further information and pictures can be found on the ADAC Eifel Rallye Festival website.
