Draft report: Brose Motorsport at the Wartburg Rally

Dominik Dinkel and Christina Fürst have defended their lead in the German Rally Championship (DRM) after finishing third in the Wartburg Rally. Marijan Griebel and Alexander Rath won the fifth of eight races in the DRM by a margin of 20 seconds. Their rivals Christian Riedemann and Michael Wenzel in a Skoda came second.

The Chairman of the Brose Group was also in attendance to lend his support to the Brose team. Michael Stoschek (Ahorn) and Dieter Hawranke (Kassel) presented a Lancia Stratos Group 4 car, which was built in 1974, to the around 25,000 spectators. The team lined up as a non-participating pace car in the Legends category and got the crowd in the mood for the starter behind it.

After a cautious beginning, Dinkel/Fürst ended the Friday session in the rally over 13 trials and 129.5 kilometers in third, 21 seconds behind the leaders Griebel/Rath.

The Saturday began with sweltering heat, until light rain made conditions on the route difficult shortly before midday. Dinkel/Fürst used trials 6 to 10 to cut the deficit to the second-placed team to 1.8 seconds. However, the team chose a combination of soft and medium-hard slicks for the afternoon so as to be ready for an imminent rain shower. Yet the rain did not materialize and so Dinkel was forced to reduce his pace after the first third of the 16.3 km “Cosmodrom” trial, thereby losing 10 seconds on his opponents. Dinkel/Fürst gave their all again on the final two trials. They clocked a third-best and second-best time in them, with a minimal gap to the winners, and captured four important bonus points on the final trial, the “Hohe Sonne” power stage.

Dominik Dinkel and co-pilot Christina Fürst are optimistic going into the final three races: “We won the Lower Saxony and Three Towns Rallies last year. The routes there suit us down the ground. We intend to fight tooth and nail to hold onto our lead in the DRM until the end of the season.”