German Rally Championship: Dinkel extends lead

Well-organized, faultless and tactically skilful, the Brose Rally Team Dominik Dinkel / Pirmin Winklhofer extended their lead in the German Rally Championship (DRM) at the 3 Cities Rally two weeks before the finale in Saxony.

In the perfectly prepared Ford Fiesta Rally2, they took second place overall among the more than 100 participants at the extremely demanding event, which also counted towards the European Rally Trophy and Austria's Rally State Championship. The field of starters, which had to complete 13 special stages (SS) over more than 170 kilometers on the two rally days, some of which were located in the Bavarian forest around Freyung as well as in the Austrian Mühlviertel, was correspondingly high-class. "We knew we were in for a difficult mission" says 28-year-old Dominik Dinkel from Upper Franconia. "On the one hand, we naturally wanted to prove our speed in the international field, but on the other hand, with the German championship in mind, it was important not to take any unnecessarily high risks, avoid mistakes and become the best DRM team."

The Brose Rally Team took a controlled, fast approach to the first three stages on Friday and was only 5.8 seconds behind leader Simon Wagner (AUT/ Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo) in third place overall after this first loop and had already opened up a 20.9-second lead over fourth-placed Marijan Griebel in the Citroen C3 Rally2.

The second run over 2 special stages (SS) went into darkness. Unfortunately, the mounted extra lamp tree caused problems. "Straight ahead the visibility was fine. But the illumination of the curves was not optimal" explained Dominik Dinkel. That cost time, but not places. However, the gap to the top, where Austria's rally aces Simon Wagner and Hermann Neubauer fought a duel, increased to 17.7 seconds. The lead over fourth place remained constant despite the light handicap, only shrinking by a tenth of a second. So the strategy for day two was clear. The motto was to drive cleanly through the race. The team only wanted to attack on the power stage (SS 12). There, of all places, a slow puncture slowed them down, and they had to cover the last 500 meters to the finish on a bare rim.

On the final stage, ZM Racing teammate Hermann Neubauer slipped off the track, which lifted the Brose Rally Team to second place at the end. "After this demanding, long rally, in which Pirmin and the Zellhofer squad did a perfect job, our focus is now fully on preparing for the final "AvD Sachsen Rally" (October 28-30). There we want to win the DRM title", Dominik Dinkel looks ahead with full motivation.