Pyhrn-Eisenwurzen Rally 2001

May, 4th and 5th, 2001

The Pyhrn-Eisenwurzen Rally is one event of the Austrian Rally Championship. It is held in Kirchdorf/Krems in Upper Austria. Mostly driven on asphalt the stages are quick and rather short and give spectators good spots to see their favourite driver. I was at a rally event for the first time but thank god my friend Martin is a rally pro and showed me all the good places, thanks for that :-).

DIESEL

Well i only did know one diesel driver in the field, my personal rally hero, David Doppelreiter. He had quite a good start and sorted himself in right behind the WRC’s. Not bad for a diesel, hu? Then in SP3 he spun twice, because it started raining heavily that time. A tire failure sorted him further back and he was 13th after day 1. On the 2nd day he again posted times short behind the WRC’s but finally had to quit after he crashed his Golf 4 TDI in SP13. Luckily nothing happened to him or his co-driver Cathi Schmidt. Cheer up, David, next time you’ll get them.

Ah, yes and i catched up some fotos from Davids old Golf 3 TDI (the one i was co-driver on last year), now driven by Andreas Waldherr, who won the diesel-class that day.

Class N & Kit Cars

Bunch of drivers here, some of them special. Beyond you’ll see

  • Hermann Gassner (Mitsubishi Lancer No. 5), he won the N-Group that day. Other pics are from
  • 2 colleguages from Per Carlsson (co-driver Raphel Sperrer, see below) with a yellow Mitsubishi Lancer (No. 9) and some pics from
  • Herbert Kowald (really loud Mitsubishi Lancer No. 10) and a
  • BMW rally car (No. 12) driven by Markus Moufang (how can he take tight turns? yeah right, waaayyy out :-), finally
  • Waldemar Benedict (tiny, but powerfull Fiat Punto No. 14).

WRC

First of all, last year’s champion, Raphael Sperrer. As local matador he should have won that event but tire and gear troubles threw him back a 49 secs behind the leader after day one. He removed the brakes over night (just kidding), closed the gap on day 2, but finally was short about 10 secs. After a bad day the second place still is one heck of an achievement, congrats! The last photo shows what close driving really means (despite the fact that the Peugeot 206 had no rear view mirrors on the finish ramp).

Another local matador is Raimund Baumschlager. The press favored him and his Ford Focus in a duel against Sperrer, but that was just hipe. He was 4-6 secs back every SP and so he finished 3rd. Nonetheless he knows every bit of road in Kirchdorf and therefore it was exciting to watch him drive.

Franz Wittmann really is one of the senior drivers in the field, and it was his 75. victory on this rally. He pushed from the beginning and could have rested on the 2nd day being in front, but Franz kept the car on the limit (as the photos show) and drove it to a well deserved win. Congratulations, may this win not be the last.

“Voraus”

V stands for “voraus” (engl. ahead) and features rally old-timers and safety cars.

  • S1 was the chief safety inspector, without him giving the OK the rally wouldnt have started.
  • S5, well ever saw a Beetle doing a rally? Interesting i think.
  • S6 THE Ford Escort driven by Eric Wallner (he seems to like drifting alot :-), spend a bit of money and you are in there on the next rally, everyone can buy the hot seat in this car.
  • 676 max.mobil (a telecommunications firm) was a sponsor and did bring there own car, a Porsche 911.
  • V1 was a one of 3 Renault Alpine in various motor variants.
  • V2, the most adventurous car in the starter field, a Lancia Stratos with a sound you would hear from miles away!
  • V5 was a Reanult 5 and a
  • Talbot closed the line of oldtimers as V6.
  • 0 was the last car of the V-cars, after it the WRC’s would take the SP.

These fotos show my point of view through the rally, to bad you cant hear the sound all these cars and the crowd around made :-). I was very impressed by the speed from the cars and the friendly spectators, you can nearly start a conversation with anyone. I guess i will take another chance for seeing a rally when Martin calls next time.