Hombachtal Rally: Dinkel causes a stir

All new - that was the starting position for 28-year-old Patrik Dinkel, who competed with Pascal Bächmann in the Ford Fiesta Rally3 at the 11th NAVC Hombachtal Rally around the tranquil town of Geisig in the Rhine-Lahn district.

In changeable weather conditions, the team led the event for a long time and missed out on overall victory by just three seconds."My regular co-driver Anna Hinrichs is a member of the organizing rally community and helped with the organization, so I was able to realize the long overdue joint start with my friend Pascal," explained the Dinkel youngster. As his own Mitsubishi was not yet 100 percent ready for action, he took the opportunity to test the Ford Fiesta Rally3. "After just a few kilometers and a few tweaks to the suspension, we felt right at home - the car brakes and steers like a Rally2 - the only shortcomings are in terms of performance," said the duo enthusiastically.

A rain shower at the start of the rally turned the gravel sections into muddy passages and demanded maximum concentration from the participants. With a clear best time of 6.9 seconds over the eventual overall winners Thomas and Max Plum in the Mitsubishi Evo, the Ford Fiesta Rally3 made a perfect start to the event. Over the course of the day, the track gradually dried out and allowed the competition to move up: "Unlike the DMSB events, the NAVC regulations allow more technical freedom - such as larger air intakes on the turbo engines, which provides around 100 extra horsepower, especially on the converted Mitsubishi or Subaru," said Pascal Bächmann, explaining the differences between the associations.

"We started the final stage with a 1.4-second lead and remained fault-free throughout the day. We ran into a competitor once and lost a few seconds as a result - but the same thing happened to our opponents - in the end we were three seconds down, which is absolutely fine! We had a very nice weekend with fair rallying," said Patrik and Pascal at the award ceremony, expressing their complete satisfaction.

"The next few weeks will be dominated by professional training - but at the same time, we're making plans for the upcoming events! Our Mitsubishi will be ready in the next few days - so the start at the Main-Kinzig Rally in Wächtersbach on July 19 is fixed! We'll try to be at the start of the 30th Grabfeld anniversary on July 5...", says Patrik, looking to the future with motivation.