Eifel Rallye Festival: Preparations are in full swing

• Unique field of participants from the history of rallying
• Support for the environment: The festival plants trees
• Available to order now: programme booklets and tickets.

Preparations for the twelfth edition of the Eifel Rallye Festival are now in full swing. Participants, fans and the organisers are all looking forward to the weekend of August 15th/17th 2024. The Festival traditionally begins with a shakedown for the rally cars and their crews which will once again be held around Bodenbach on Thursday from 3:00pm onwards. The Festival’s Welcome Evening on Daun's Laurentiusplatz just adjacent to the Rally Mile and which starts from 8.30pm is an event that has achieved cult status. The introduction of the stars, who will be giving a lot of internal details and background information about their careers, will be accompanied by suitable film clips from the archive of specialist filmmaker, Helmut Deimel. Friday’s activities start at 8.00am with the technical scrutineering in the Rally Mile that is open to the public. Then from 11.00am to 12.00pm the stars will congregate in the Laurentiusplatz to fulfil countless autograph requests. Later, the first of the two loops of the Peugeot Super Stage Hochkelberg will start shortly before 2.00pm with the second taking place that same evening.

On Saturday, three challenging stages, each used twice, are on the teams' timetable and these run throughout the day starting from 9.00pm. The fans will be spoilt for choice between the spectacular 'Mantaloch', the spectator hotspot 'Lehwald', and the 'Ueßbachtal' – it's a good thing that each of these stages will be run twice since it gives spectators a chance to visit more than one. Finally, to round off the day, fans and teams will celebrate the finale from 7.30pm in the Rally Mile with live music and further activity on the stage in Laurentiusplatz.

On the untimed special stages, the advance cars open the field and prepare the fans for what is to follow with their spectacular driving style. They are followed by the original or faithfully reproduced contemporary witnesses from the history of rallying. "There are already some very special treasures to be seen in the VIP group that follows the advance cars," says Reinhard Klein (Cologne), who as the head of Slowly Sideways is responsible for the composition of the starting list. Stig Blomqvist will be driving the original Quattro A2 which he drove to victory in Sweden in 1984 and then went on to win the Word Rally Championship of that year. This car comes from the Audi Tradition treasure trove. The original Audi Sport Quattro S1, driven by Harald Demuth, also comes from the Ingolstadt-based company. The double World Champion, Marcus Grönholm, will take it in turns to drive two original WRC cars from his career, a Toyota Corolla and a Peugeot 206. Harri Rovanperä will 'demonstrate' in an original Peugeot 307 WRC, followed by Bruno Thiry in a Ford Escort RS Cosworth from the Group A era. Nicky Grist will once again bring the Toyota Celica ST185 to Daun, the car in which he co-drove to the WRC title with Juha Kankkunen in 1994. Also original is the Peugeot 205 T16, which Kalle Grundel used to win the German Rally Championship title in 1985. The equally original 'Salzburg' Beetle 1302 S that Herbert Grünsteidl will drive spectacularly around the tracks has less power but is very capable of motoring in a ’slowly sideways’ manner. The Nissan 240RS, which Mike Kirkland drove in the 1983 East African Safari, is also a very rare example of a genuine “last Century” rally car, this time a Group B 240RS.

New to the VIP lounge is Bruno Ianniello, better known as 'Rocket Bruno'. The Swiss hill climb motorsport icon has been an avowed Lancia Delta S4 fan since 1997. He has already brought his Delta S4 to the Eifel in previous years for Miki Biasion and Niki Schelle to drive. Now the self-made entrepreneur is, for the first time, taking part in a rally himself. Co-driver Thomas Fuchs will show him the way round on his debut. They will be driving an S4, just as Fabrizio Tabaton and Luciano Tedeschini drove it in the 1986 Sanremo Rally. Ianniello summarises briefly: "I'm really looking forward to my first rally."

Support for the environment: The Eifel Rallye Festival launches reforestation initiative
The Festival hrillin, the MSC Daun, has collected over €80,000 for good causes at the eleven previous editions of the Eifel Rallye Festival. The flood victims in the Ahr valley as well as many social organisations have been supported by this means. This year, the MSC is breaking new ground with an initiative that proves that historic motorsport and sustainability can go hand in hand.
The MSC Daun will plant a tree for each of the two hundred vehicles taking part in the Festival, thereby making an active contribution to environmental protection. The initiative in Daun aims to offset the Festival’s carbon footprint and contribute to global reforestation.
“We love motorsport, but we also love our planet,” says Otmar Anschütz, Chairman of Motorsport-Club Daun e.V. “With this initiative, we want to show that motorsport and environmental protection don’t have to be in opposition. Every tree we plant is a step towards a more sustainable future for our planet.”
Talks were held in advance with the mayor of Daun, Friedhelm Marder, and with Jan Reinert, the forester responsible for the municipal forest areas. The town of Daun spontaneously decided to support this measure and, without further ado, made a suitable area available. As this is located in quite close to the MSC club office, the travelling distances to the planting campaign in Autumn are quite short and, as tie goes by, the motor sports enthusiasts of Daun can directly observe the growth of ‘their’ trees. Under the expert guidance of forester Reinert and the staff of the Daun forestry office, the members of MSC Daun and the hrilling team will plant native and, above all, certified trees that have been specially selected for their positive effects on climate change.
“With this campaign, we are also trying to demonstrate foresight,” says club chairman Otmar Anschütz. “The area provided by the town is large enough. We are planning to create an ‘MSC Daun Forest’ here in the next few years. Our club invites all motorsport and environmental enthusiasts to join the initiative and participate in future planting campaigns. Together, we can help to shape a green future without having to give up thehrilll of motorsport."

The Eifel Rally Festival - Timetable

Thursday, August 15th, 2024
15:00 – 19:00	Shakedown in Bodenbach
From 20:30	Welcome Evening in the Rally Mile, Open-air rally cinema with cult filmmaker Helmut Deimel
Friday, August 28th, 2024
From 08:00	Vehicle scrutineering, Rally Mile in Daun
11:00 – 12:00	Autograph session with VIPs
From 13:58	Hochkelberg 1
From 17.58	Hochkelberg 2, by night
Saturday, August 29th, 2024
09:00 – 16:00	Special stages in the Vulkaneifel region
In between the stages	Throughout the day, rally car servicing in Daun Rally Mile with many other attractions
From 19:30	the Rally Party in the Rally Mile

Pre-sales of programme booklets and tickets are underway
Following last year's positive experience, the sale of the programme booklet and tickets will be organised via the RallyWebShop again this year. This means that it is once again possible to offer day tickets in advance as well as weekend tickets. The RallyWebShop also offers payment options via PayPal or credit card. All details can be found here:
https://www.rallyandracing.com/rallywebshop/eifel-rallye-festival-2024/.

Eifel Rallye Festival 2011-2022 - The official book
If you want to bridge the time until the next Festival in an entertaining way, you can do so with the official book about the first ten editions of the Eifel Rallye Festival: The highlights of each year are described on more than three hundred pages. There are rally cars that have never been seen since they last competed. In addition, there is a unique cross-section of rally history with the classics from Mini and Volvo PV544, to Group 4 legends like the Stratos and Ascona 400, then the unforgettable Group B monsters, the stars of Group A from Lancia to Subaru and finally the spectacular World Rally Cars. The book’s bilingual text (German and English) and the many photos are completed by numerous tables and overviews of starters and rally cars. The Festival’s long-time patron, Walter Röhrl, summarises his impressions of the Festival in a foreword. Here is the ordering link to obtain copies of this remarkable book from the RallyWebShop:
https://www.rallyandracing.com/mcklein-store/buecher/eifel-rallye-festival-2011-2022-das-offizielle-buch?c=1194

 

Info for all journalists:
Accreditation is still possible until 03.08.2024 at:
https://www.eifel-rallye-festival.de/en/Accreditation-Info.html

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