Gassner wins “Rallye Oberland”

14th March 2006

Last weekend, Schonau was the venue of the “ADAC Bayern Rallye Oberland”. Isolde attended the event as driver-advisor and witnessed a thrilling event on ice and snow.

Mitsubishi Lancer driver Hermann Gassner and his co-driver, Siggi Schrankl, contested the event as titleholders – and the experienced pairing successfully defended its title. Thanks to this success, Gassner also took the lead in the new “ADAC-Rallye-Masters” ranking. Following an exciting chase, Sandro Wallenwein and his co-driver, Pauli Zeitlhofer, who also raced a Group-A Lancer, crossed the line 4:13 minutes behind the winners to finish runners-up. Young guns Florian Auer und Jörg Bastuck won the Group N class and took third place overall (+4:55 minutes).

The participation of Giniel de Villiers represented a special attraction. With his VW Race Touareg, the South African, runner-up in this year’s Dakar Rally, completed the special stages and was clearly highly popular with the crowds. The participation of multi-Dakar winner Andreas Schulz was another highlight.

Due to snowfalls and heavy rain, the organisers, the “MSC Bayerischer Rigi”, had to work hard to prepare the track. Therefore, the show-start at Schongau’s “Marienplatz” was cancelled and replaced by a start in the paddock in Peiting. The competitors had to cover 13 special stages, a total mileage of 270 kilometres; a truly difficult task considering the adverse weather conditions. At the end of the day, Gassner was the most successful driver when it came to coping with the challenging situation, thus taking the lead in the “Mitropa Rallye Cup” the first round in the “Oberland”.

Isolde, a member of the organisation committee and driver advisor, was really happy with the course of the event: “Everything went just great. In spite of the bad weather, there were no delays. Therefore, one has to praise the organisers who worked hard all the week to prepare the track. Due to the conditions, it was a really demanding rally. All the drivers were enthusiastic, both the organisers and the crowds were more than happy. It was a great weekend.“

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