Main-Kinzig Rally: Dinkel twins take overall victory

The 15th ADAC Main-Kinzig Rally, with start and finish at the Messepark in Wächtersbach, celebrated a brilliant comeback after a two-year forced break due to the pandemic. Patrik and Marcel Dinkel used the event for their first joint start and prevailed against the assembled competition in the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9RS.

With the three almost completely new start-finish stages "Klesberg", "Hitzkirchen" and "Leisenwald", which had to be mastered in two runs each as usual, the organizer met the taste of the participants and spectators. In beautiful summer weather with pleasant temperatures around the 25 degree mark, it came to the battle of the generations, in which ultimately the juniors could prevail against the experienced!

Three teams shared the best times - seconds thriller for the overall victory

With the first best time of the day, Patrik and Marcel Dinkel took the lead right at the beginning. In the following stage it was the veterans Rudolf Reindl / Michael Ehrle who showed their ambitions for overall victory at the top of the time table. With the second best time of the day, the Dinkel twins fought off the attacks of the competition and reached the half-time break with a razor-thin lead over their brand colleagues Reindl / Ehrle and John Macht / Yasmin Kramer.

"The stages are really good and offer something of everything - especially the gravel passage on SS3 is huge fun!", Patrik was enthusiastic before the start of the 2nd loop. "The competition is breathing down our necks by just 2.9 and 3.9 seconds respectively - anyone who makes a mistake with this level of performance will be out of the race for overall victory," said Marcel, looking ahead to the restart later in the afternoon.

While the Dinkel brothers were able to successively extend their lead to almost 10 seconds with two further best times, Reindl/Ehrle stopped their vehicle with ignition misfires. Second-placed John Macht also reported similar problems in the final kilometers, but reached the finish in the yellow Evo 6 ahead of his father Roland Macht with Robert Nikol, who visibly flourished in the white-and-blue Evo 9 and stood together on the podium. "I'm almost more happy for my dad than for me," John was visibly moved at the award ceremony followed by a celebration in the marquee. Werner Mühl and Stefan Pfister took a strong fourth place overall in the rear-wheel-drive BMW E46 M3.

The top drivers in the NC3 class had their usual exciting battle, with Tom Kässer / Stephan Schneeweiß in the Honda Civic Type R beating the series winners Hans & Max Limpert in the BMW E30 320is by 3.5 seconds. In the near-series Group G, Jochen Baumhauer / Fabian Knese in the Audi TT RS were the measure of all things and finished within the top 10 overall.

Next start at the Rally Sprint in Untergrönigen

After the good results in the last weeks, the next start is already imminent for Patrik Dinkel. On July 30, he will take part in the Rallyesprint in Untergrönigen.