After winning the tradition-steeped Barum Czech Rally Zlín, the ADAC Opel Rally Junior Team with driver Timo Schulz (24, Siersburg) and co-driver Michael Wenzel (47, Mehlingen) in their Opel Corsa Rally4 will start the sixth and final round of the 2023 Junior European Rally Championship (JERC) at Rally Hungary with a lot of confidence. Although a repeat of last year's title win is no longer possible for the five-time Junior European Champion team, the goals of both the cockpit crew and the entire team around rally legend Manfred Stohl are nevertheless ambitious. And undoubtedly not without good reason.
As the most successful driver of the last two JERC rounds scoring 54 points, Timo Schulz is in fifth place in the interim standings before the season finale. In purely mathematical terms, even the runner-up title would still be possible. "We don't want to concern ourselves with arithmetic," the man from the Saarland waves it off. "We proved in Italy and the Czech Republic that the Corsa Rally4 and we have the potential to compete for victories and podiums even in this strong competitive environment. This will also be our full focus in Hungary. We can then do the math on Sunday evening."
The Rally Hungary will be the venue for a round of the Junior European Rally Championship for the first time. The rally center is located in Nyíregyháza, a city with 120,000 inhabitants, some 240 kilometers from the Hungarian capital Budapest in the extreme northeast of the country close to the borders with Romania and Ukraine. The event is declared as an asphalt event, but also includes some gravel sections. Schulz: "I don't know the rally at all, but of course I studied the stages as well as possible in advance. The many tight, fast sections should suit us and the Corsa Rally4 again. It's definitely going to be a challenging, super-exciting event that I'm really looking forward to."
The ADAC Opel Rally Junior Team will even have two cars on the grid at the season finale. In addition to Schulz/Wenzel, Norwegian Ola Nore (22), currently third in the JERC interim standings, will also be driving a Corsa Rally4 run by Stohl Racing. His co-driver is Rune Eilertsen.
As always, some of Europe's strongest juniors will be in the field in Hungary. A total of 25 vehicles, including seven Corsa Rally4, are on the grid in the RC4 group, nine of which are entered in the JERC. 12 treacherous special stages over a total of 180 kilometers are on the program. The rally already starts on Friday at 6 p.m. with a 2.4-kilometer short "Super Special Stage" on the Rabócsiring in Máriapócs, before things really get going the other morning from 9:23 a.m. with seven special stages. The decision will be made on Sunday from 9.12 a.m. with four more special stages, and the final "Power Stage" will start at 3.05 p.m.
Rally fans can follow all the action on the paid-for channel wrc+ and find live timing at www.opel-motorsport.com
