The ADAC Opel Rally Junior Team had plenty of reason to celebrate at the second round of the Junior European Rally Championship (JERC) 2024. Calle Carlberg and Timo Schulz finished the demanding Rally Islas Canarias in second and third place, thus celebrating a double podium for the team led by Manfred Stohl and Luca Waldherr. After 13 tough special stages on the fast asphalt special stages on Gran Canaria, the champions of the ADAC Opel Electric Rally Cup “powered by GSe” of the 2023 (Carlberg) and 2022 (Schulz) only had to admit defeat to their brand colleague Mille Johansson, which completed the triple victory for Opel.
In their second JERC outing together, Carlberg and his Norwegian co-driver Jørgen Eriksen climbed onto a European Championship podium for the first time and were accordingly satisfied. “After the unfortunate start in Hungary, this strong result is a nice consolation,” said the 23-year-old Swede happily. “We tried hard to find a good rhythm on these super-fast tracks and not make any mistakes. We succeeded in doing that. The Corsa Rally4 ran perfectly, the team once again did a flawless job. To have scored our first points and secured our first podium finish in this strong championship is a great feeling and huge motivation for our home round in a few weeks' time.”
Schulz, who climbed onto a JERC podium for the third time in his career with co-driver Michael Wenzel and even briefly led the asphalt chase around Las Palmas on Friday morning, was also pleased with his performance. “We're delighted with the podium finish and the important points for the overall standings that we can take home from the island,” said the 24-year-old from Siersburg in Saarland. “However, I'm not completely satisfied because we were a little too careful with the tires both yesterday afternoon and this morning and lost contact with the front runners a little as a result.”
Opel Head of Motorsport Jörg Schrott praised his young drivers: “After the unfortunate season opener in Hungary, the guys didn't bury their heads in the sand, quickly shook off the disappointment and showed a very good performance in Gran Canaria. As always, the team did a perfect job and our Corsa Rally4s ran without any problems. The fact that three Opel crews ended up on the JERC podium makes us proud in view of the strong competition. I am very satisfied, the boys can build on this performance.”
The third round of the Junior European Rally Championship 2024 will take place from June 13-15 at the Royal Rally of Scandinavia around Karlstad in the Swedish province of Värmland. A challenging gravel competition awaits the Opel juniors there.
