German Rally Championship: 6th place for Dinkel/Winklhofer

Highly motivated, the Brose Rally Team Dominik Dinkel / Pirmin Winklhofer travelled to the "51st ADAC Rally Stemweder Berg" (10.-11.06.) in Lübbecke, East Westphalia.

Unfortunately, the first event of the new Ford Fiesta Rally2 Evo was marked by technical difficulties. This forced the team to switch to maximum damage limitation after the first seven special stage kilometres.

The problem: When the handbrake was applied, the pump for disconnecting the rear axle drive failed. This had serious effects on the rear differential and the Fiesta went from being a four-wheel-drive car to a front-wheel-drive car. Top times could not be achieved with this. Although the four-wheel drive was restored by the technicians, the Brose team had to do without the important handbrake function for the rest of the competition.

Nevertheless, giving up was not an option: "If we couldn't win any more, we at least wanted to get as many DRM points as possible," explained Dominik Dinkel. "Rally driving without a working handbrake is extremely difficult because the targeted locking of the rear wheels, which is no longer possible, is a steering aid. At junctions and narrow hairpin bends, we sometimes even had to manoeuvre or swerve far away from the ideal line in a time-consuming manner", the 29-year-old driver from Upper Franconia concluded his report.

With sixth place overall and thus 15 DRM points, the team was still able to do a little damage limitation and maintain DRM intermediate third place.

"Considering our technical handicap, the gap to the winning time is within limits. It is also remarkable that we were able to keep eight competitors in our RC2 class behind us. Of course, we are counting on the unlucky streak being over now and finally being able to show what we are capable of," said Dinkel/Winklhofer at the end of the rally.