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ADAC Eifel Rallye Festival: An unforgettable weekend full of fun

• World Champion Thierry Neuville gains his first experience as patron
• Great success for the premiere of Daun Town Day
• ADAC board member Jörg Hennig: “This event is truly one of a kind.”

The typical Eifel weather showed who was boss at the thirteenth edition of the ADAC Eifel Rallye Festival (July 24th to 26th, 2025). Before the event, the traditional group photo with over one hundred and sixty original or faithfully reproduced rally cars and their teams was taken in the rain. However from then on, through the ensuing technical inspection to the final rally party on Saturday evening, it remained dry. Indeed the sun shone down on the international field of starters and the fans who had also travelled from all over Europe.
Just Europe? No! The James Blakemore/John Buffum team travelled from Vermont in the USA with their Ford Escort MK2. Geoff Mayes flew in from Kenya, making him the photographer who had travelled the furthest. In 2025, the Eifel Rallye Festival was once again not only the largest rolling rally museum, where fans could watch vehicles in action that are otherwise often only seen in museums, but the best attended. At the same time, it continues to develop into an international class reunion for the global rally scene.

Experience gained as patron
The reigning World Rally Champion, Belgian Thierry Neuville, was in Daun and took on the role of patron. “When Ernst (Kopp) and Otmar (Anschütz) asked me if I would consider to be patron, I first asked what a patron had to do,” Neuville explained with a wink. “They told me just be there and sign autographs. I thought, I can do that.” But he quickly added: “But I would have loved to say yes anyway. I like this special event, in which I have already taken part, but also attended as a fan.” Meanwhile, his two brothers, Yannik Neuville in a Toyota Starlet KP60 and Tom Heindrichs (BMW M3), put the fans in a good mood with their spirited driving in the route-opening cars.
Neuville’s World Champion colleagues Stig Blomqvist and Nicky Grist enjoyed their stay in Daun, as did Dakar winner Jutta Kleinschmidt and German champions Reinhard Hainbach, Harald Demuth, Kalle Grundel, Ruben Zeltner, Georg Berlandy and Mark Wallenwein. The VIP lounge was complemented by John Buffum (four-time US rally champion), Kim Boisen (Danish Histo-champion), Bruno Ianniello (five-time Swiss hill-climb champion), Philippe Camandona (Swiss champion), Jorge Ortigao (Portuguese vice-champion) and Ryan Champion (British vice-champion). There too were Austrian VW Beetle legend Herbert Grünsteidl, Safari legend Mike Kirkland, and two-time DRM 2WD champion and TV star, Nicky Schelle.

This event is a cultural treasure
Jörg Hennig, Sports Director of ADAC Mittelrhein e.V., and Sascha Söffing, his Head of Sports, were thrilled during their visit. “This is a truly extraordinary and very international event that is second to none. It radiates a fascination that extends throughout the entire region,” said Hennig. "The world is here, and the residents of the Vulkaneifel celebrate the Festival with barbecues along the stages. The rolling rally museum is a cultural treasure and one of the absolute highlights of our ADAC local club events. Personally, I am fascinated by the wide range of participating vehicles, from small to large as well as real rally rockets. It is these contrasts that thrill the international audience. As Sports Director, I am also amazed and delighted by how many people are involved on a voluntary basis in the organisation of the event by the MSC Daun. Two of our ADAC Mittelrhein sponsored drivers, Jonas Gundert and Cedric Fuchs, are even here to help out.”

Successful start with Daun Town Day
“The new Daun Town Day on Thursday was a successful start to our Festival. There were lots of fans in the Rally Mile and the presentation of the rally cars on the ramp was also well attended," said Otmar Anschütz happily. The head of the event’s organisation and chairman of MSC Daun added, “I am proud of our huge team of almost eight hundred helpers, each of whom makes this brilliant rally Festival possible by taking on their own area of responsibility and exercising their own role. Many thanks to the sponsors, licensing authorities, local communities, aid organisations and all other supporters.”

Awareness of rally history continues to grow
Reinhard Klein, head of Slowly Sideways and the man responsible for putting together the entry list from the many applications, was also very satisfied. "Our field of participants is getting younger, so we had more vehicles from the more recent rallying past at the start. For example, it’s really very complicated to keep the technology of some of the first WRCars alive,. Of course, this also causes minor problems in the starting order when more modern vehicles meet the cars from the 1960s. But our teams respect each other and treat each other with care.” Klein explains how much the teams now care about preserving history with an example: “Dieter Walterscheid spent years rebuilding his 1974 Toyota Celica TA22 and presented it here for the first time at last year‘s Festival. Then Pedro Ortigao, who was a works driver for Toyota in his native Portugal at the time, walked past. He simply made an offhand remark that the orange of the vehicle was a little darker than it used to be. Walterscheid repainted the Corolla and took part in this year’s event with the correct colour."
Mutual support is a matter of honour anyway. When a part in the gearbox broke on Bruno Ianniello and Thomas Fuchs’s Lancia Delta S4, they urgently needed a car lift to be able to work on the gearbox. Propelled at the end of a tow rope, they drove to the Renault Schäfer workshop in Daun and stopped. An electric car lift was immediately cleared, tools brought in and the workshop remained open until the repair was successfully completed. This meant that the fans were still able to enjoy that Group B rally car on the final demonstration stage, albeit with a slight delay.

Questions get in the way of making money.
Jürgen C. Braun, a reporter for the Trierischer Volksfreund newspaper, went round asking people in the Daun business community what they thought about the peaceful invasion of tens of thousands of fans and in excess of a hundred and fifty rally cars. What was the bottom line for them in this influx ? In almost all shops, the large crowds meant there was hardly any time for staff to answer questions. Nevertheless, the reporter was not shown the door. Quiet criticism of his presence only arose when a saleswoman remarked, “Your questions are a bit distracting when we’re trying to earn a living.”

Photo competition with attractive prizes plus a photo workshop by Tamron
With fifty-two entrants from six countries and two hundred and fifty-eight photos submitted, the 2024 photo competition was a great success. Reason enough then for the organisers of the Eifel Rallye Festival to continue this competition for their thirteenth edition. The conditions of participation and the registration form are now available at https://www.eifel-rallye-festival.de/de/Fotowettbewerb.html.
In addition to the prizes, which will be provided as usual by RallyWebShop (www.rallywebshop.com), the winner will receive a special treat. Lens manufacturer TAMRON is offering a shopping voucher worth €500 for the best photo.

More info can be found at: www.eifel-rallye-festival.de

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Contact for international media
John Davenport (UK)
Email: john.davenport@eifel-rallye-festival.de

Contact for international media
Jürgen Hahn (Germany)
Email: presse@eifel-rallye-festival.de