News
The winners of the event
One of the key elements of the event is that there is no competition and no sportive winners. Thus winners were selected by a jury of experts in different categories. The Nissan 240RS of Achim Loth and Sebastian Jeub was selected as the "Best original rally car". This original Safari Rally car was a complete wreck before Loth brought it back to Europe and restored it so nicely.
The prize for the "Best replication" went to the Fiat 131 Abarth shared on the stages by Walter Röhrl and Timo Salonen. The car was built completely new from a road car shell by Kevin Theaker of Rally Sport Developments. The English company designed and produced all the special parts itself and have already made three others.
Austrian film-maker Helmut Deimel was garlanded as "Rallying Ambassador" for his outstanding rally films such as The Evolution of Rallying Vol. 1 and 2.
The five champion drivers Röhrl, Munari, Mikkola, Blomqvist and Salonen also selected their favourite rally car and gave it the "Champion's choice" award. This went to the original 1977 Monte Carlo Rally winning Lancia Stratos owned by Guido Avandero.
Europe's biggest classic car magazine, Oldtimer Markt, gave out its own prize, the so-called "Durchhalte-Pokal" (Endurance Cup) for a team that really had to fight to get to the finish of the Festival. This was awarded to Friedhelm and Julian Pinnen and their Talbot Sunbeam Lotus. After they had broken the Talbot's steering following a hard landing on the Bosch Super Stage, the owner immediately drove to Duisburg (180 km north of Daun), picked up a new steering and came back. On Saturday morning, the new steering was built into the car and the father-and-son-team drove the rally to the finish.
Enda Garvey from Northern Ireland was less lucky. The winner of the "Unlucky fellow award" had brought a Peugeot 405 T16 and a Toyota Corolla WRC but could hardly drive these. One reason was that the Pikes Peak Peugeot - the highlight of the Festival Parade - refused to run at the start of the stage thanks to a faulty petrol pump. The other was that, Garvey and his whole family were suffering from stomach problems.