Press Information

Press release 2016 - 02

New stages for the ultimate Group B supercar show

This year, the roaring from the cars and crowds will be louder than ever at the Eifel Rallye Festival (July 21-23, 2016). The three-day event is celebrating the ever-popular Group B supercars thirty years after they were banned from international rallying. The organisers are working hard to reach their ambitious goal set for the sixth running of the event. "We are trying to get examples of all top-class Group B cars to the Eifel Rallye Festival", says Reinhard Klein. The head of Slowly Sideways is in charge of entries and is delighted that the rush to get an entry to the event is as high as ever. "We only have to look at the entries coming in to realise that our event is getting increasingly popular internationally. Owners from all over Europe want to bring new and rare rally cars. We are especially proud that we will have cars and prototypes at the Eifel Rallye Festival that have not been seen before in public."

The attraction for some of those rare cars is the 'Festival Parade', a new playground especially designed for fragile rally cars that are not able to drive the whole three-day event with its 100-plus kilometres of special stages. The Parade concept that was launched in 2015 will be enlarged for 2016. The cars taking part in the 'Festival Parade' will not only tackle the 'SS Hilgerath' on Friday night (ca. 19.30 h), but also the second running of the 'Kelberger Land' stage on Saturday (13.00 h).

And this is not the only change awaiting the crews and spectators visiting the 2016 Eifel Rallye Festival. Two special stages will be run differently this year. "To increase the attractiveness of the 'Kelberger Land' stage, it will be run as a closed-loop stage in 2016 encompassing two village crossings in Borler and Bodenbach", explains Peter Schlömer, the Head of the Organising Committee and Chairman of the MSC Daun. Another change involves the 'Lehwald' stage traditionally run as the final stage of the event. Due to road works, the route has had to be changed drastically. The cars will, for example, reach the famous spectator point known as the 'Lehwald Arena' from the opposite direction and they will be seen three times instead of twice. Peter Schlömer is happy to be able to announce that the "route of the 2016 Eifel Rallye Festival is confirmed and the permissions of all municipalities and villages involved have already been granted. This is only possible thanks to the excellent cooperation and support from these communities."

Spectators who are keen to visit the Eifel Rallye Festival can already obtain their tickets and programmes no matter in which European country they live. This makes it easier for them to plan their trip and avoid queuing on the day of the Festival. "The spectators coming to Daun can expect a Group B show the like of which has not been seen before. No rally fan should miss this opportunity", says Christian Geistdörfer whose former driver Walter Röhrl is once again the Patron of the event. "I can also recommend to anyone thinking of coming to book hotels and get tickets well in advance."

While visiting the 'Rally Mile' in the heart of Daun is free of charge, there are various admission tickets needed for those who like to see the action on the special stages. The range offered goes from one-day tickets right up to full weekend tickets. The pre-sale of tickets and programmes is open until July 08, 2016 from http://www.eifel-rallye-festival.de/en/rallye-shop.html.

Eifel Rallye Festival 2015 DVD

Anyone who wants to relive the unique atmosphere of the 2015 Eifel Rallye Festival and watch the event from different perspectives can do so by getting this DVD. It features great action scenes, spectacular on-board footage and interesting interviews. This comprehensive review of the 2015 event focuses on the theme of "originality" and contains extended footage of some of the more spectacular original rally cars and details of their individual histories. Furthermore, it features the drivers who had also driven these cars in period such as Walter Röhrl, Sandro Munari, Hannu Mikkola, Stig Blomqvist and Timo Salonen. Running time of the main feature is about fifty minutes but there is bonus coverage that includes footage of all the cars entered. The DVD can be ordered for € 19.95 from www.rallywebshop.com.

More information on: www.eifel-rallye-festival.de
Visit us: www.facebook.com/EifelRallyeFestival
Follow us on Twitter: @eifelrallyefest
Use our hashtag: #EifelRallyeFestival

Contact for international media
John Davenport (UK)
Email: john.davenport@eifel-rallye-festival.de

Sebastian Klein (Germany)
Email: sebastian.klein@eifel-rallye-festival.de

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