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ADAC Eifel Rallye Festival 2022 – Der Run auf die letzten Plätze

  • 10th Eifel Rally Festival from 21 to 23 July 2022
  • For the anniversary event: Four new stages
  • Safety first: Tracking system for all vehicles

Only ten days after the entry list for the Festival opened, the organisers already had more than one hundred and thirty registrations. "Simply impressive, a fantastic response. After an involuntary break of two years, the participants are probably awaiting our Festival just as eagerly as we are," beams Reinhard Klein (Cologne) after the first interim result. When the earth shakes again around Daun in the Volcanic Eifel on the weekend of July 21st/23rd, 2022, a very special Festival edition will take place. At the tenth edition of the largest rolling rally museum, nearly everything will revolve around the 50th anniversary of the World Rally Championship. "When putting together the starting field, we will make sure to have the most important representatives from all eras of the World Rally Championship in Daun," adds Klein, who as the head of Slowly Sideways is responsible for selecting the start list. As before, only originals or faithful replicas of cars from rally history will be present in Daun. The fans can look forward to an exciting mix from the history of rallying. Many prominent contemporary observers and participants have already confirmed their attendance at this worldwide family reunion of this spectacular branch of motor sport. As always, the exact list will only be available once the confirmations have been made. But this much can be said in advance - the list of participants will contain familiar faces as well as many new ones.

Prelude at the Shakedown in Bodenbach
For the shakedown, which is a last opportunity before the Festival starts to check that all is working as it should, the teams meet on Thursday afternoon in Bodenbach. In the middle of the village, there is a service area around the community centre. Here the fans can look over the shoulders of the participants during the final preparation of their cars. The route of the shakedown leads over parts of the former stage 'Kelberger Land', in Borler while on the outskirts of Bodenbach itself there are organised spectator places with a great view of the stage.

Everything new on Friday
Friday will be – at least as far as the demonstration stages are concerned – completely new. The Superstage in the afternoon will take place between Steineberg and Demerath with one of the major spectator points located alongside the spectacular gravel section. The evening stage will be held at Demerath and was last driven in a similar form in 2017. There is a big plus for the fans here as they will be able to park once and watch twice since for the two main spectator points in both the afternoon and evening, there is a common parking area. But also from the other spectator areas, it is only a few hundred meters for the fans to walk from the afternoon to the evening stage.

An additional highlight on Saturday
In addition to the classic 'Lehwald' mixed surface stage and the familiar route on the Risselberg around Niederstadtfeld, there will be an additional highlight on Saturday. The new loop is located between Köttelbach and Mosbruch and bears the name of the nearby Hochkelberg. After the start in the middle of Köttelbach, the stage goes over narrow and demanding asphalt roads towards Mosbruch and back again where, in Köttelbach, a spectacular route through the town awaits the participants. From the centrally located spectator points, the fans can watch a large part of the stage.

Great support from the participating communities
These extensive changes to the overall route of the Festival and the additional opportunities open to the fans were only made possible thanks to the great support of the participating villages and communities. "The Eifel Rally Festival attracts up to 40,000 international fans to the Volcanic Eifel and has become one of the biggest events in the region," explains Anschütz. "Some of the communities even approached us with finished concepts for a stage through their area and gave us massive support. The local clubs are also involved, taking on important tasks ranging from organising the parking spaces to providing catering for the fans".

Tracking system by 4rally.eu - more safety for all participants
The Eifel Rallye Festival is a pure demonstration event without any time classification. From the beginning, however, all safety measures were taken as if it was a full national and modern rally. The specifications of the FIA or the DMSB are implemented in the best possible way in connection with the many years of experience available within the organisation. In order to further optimise this concept of safety, 4rally.eu is now also used. The satellite and mobile phone-based tracking system is successfully used in the World Rally Championship. "Even though we have been offering a very high safety standard for years, we cannot rest on our laurels and must constantly develop further. 4rallye.eu is now the logical extension of our concept", explains Martin Dimmig (Darscheid), the man in charge of track safety. Pascal Neuens (Daun) is also looking forward to using this tracking system in his function as deputy: "This way, we always have an overview in the control centre of where the competitors are at any given moment. In addition, following vehicles are warned in case of a breakdown and we can contact the participants directly via an in-car display". The proving run for a tracking system was completed at the last event in 2019 by a testing squad under the leadership of Jürgen Lenarz (Sarmersbach), who subsequently reported: "By combining mobile radio and satellites for data transmission, it manages to ensure a permanent connection with the participants even in the Volcanic Eifel, which is full of mobile phone dead spots.”

 

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