What a debut for Tom Heindrichs in the ADAC Opel Electric Rally Cup “powered by GSe”! At the season's grand finale, held as part of the Central European Rally, the 20-year-old, who is the half-brother of WRC leader Thierry Neuville, celebrated his first victory in the world's first electric rally one-make cup alongside co-driver Jonas Schmitz. Even though, as a guest driver, he received neither points nor prize money, the young Belgian was speechless when he crossed the finish line in Passau: “I never expected this! During the first few kilometers, we thought: Oh dear, where will this lead? But then we quickly found our way around the car and improved continuously. We dedicate this victory to the team around Philipp Reich and Johannes Fürst, who made this possible and were just as motivated as we were. We learned a lot and had a lot of fun in this great atmosphere. I take my hat off to Opel and ADAC. They have built up a great cup here, a perfect entry-level platform for professional rallying.”
Christian Lemke and Jan-Eric Bemmann crossed the finish line just 4.7 seconds behind the Belgians, taking the full points for the overall standings for the third time this season. “It was a tough rally”, confessed the pilot from Northern Germany. “We got off to a bit of a slow start yesterday, especially since my seat adjustment was not optimal, so that I even lost feeling in my leg on one stage. Today we were able to work our way forward again and get the full points at the end. All in all, we can be very satisfied. The finale here as part of the WRC round was a great event, superbly organized, the stages were great, everyone was in a good mood, it was really fun.”
In the overall standings, Lemke consolidated his fourth place and even closed the gap on the Spaniard Alex Español. The latter's chances of winning had already suffered a severe setback due to a slip and the subsequent repair to his Corsa Rally Electric on the first special stage. At least the Opel Spain driver made up for it by winning the final “power stage”. Third place went to young Dutchman Fabian Kamermans, who thus put himself in an excellent position in the three-way battle against his compatriots Hank Melse and Esmee Den Hartigh for a cockpit in the 2025 ADAC Opel Electric Rally Cup.
The brothers Anthony and Adrien Rott, who were on course for victory until the last special stage, had a huge setback when they skidded off the road in the “Power Stage” and fell back to tenth place. Driver Anthony was inconsolable: “It was a very difficult rally that started pretty well for us and went really well until three kilometers before the finish. Unfortunately, we then made a small mistake that cost us the victory! It's very hard to end this last rally like this, but we'll keep our heads up. What remains is a good performance over the entire season.”
At least the duo from Alsace secured the vice-championship title behind Austrian Luca Pröglhöf, who was sidelined by an atypical pneumonia in the season finale.
The Waldherr Motorsport team quickly found a very adequate replacement in Daniel Mayer. Without much preparation, the 24-year-old Viennese took on the challenge and finished fifth behind German guest drivers René Noller/Stephan Schneeweiß. Johannes Wittenbeck and Maximilian Kugler as well as the Frenchwomen Emma Chalvin and Amandine Borderie secured positions 6 and 7. In the final ranking, the 23-year-old FFSA Academy driver finished fifth overall as the best female participant – with the same number of points as Wittenbeck, who is ranked behind Chalvin due to a poorer individual result.
Jörg Schrott, Head of Opel Motorsport, drew a positive conclusion from the last Cup race of the year: “The ADAC Opel Electric Rally Cup presented itself perfectly in front of the impressive World Championship backdrop. The 16 Corsa Rally Electric cars offered the approximately 90,000 spectators a good show. The fight for victory was just as exciting as in all the races of the season. We had numerous fast guest drivers and more than 30 enthusiastic guests from the Opel dealer organization in Germany and Austria, as well as our sponsor Total Energies here. We put on a great presentation of our Cup in front of a large audience in the middle of the city of Hauzenberg, the atmosphere was something very special. I am very satisfied with the finale and the entire season. Electric rallying works, it's fun and it provides a perfect platform for young talents to develop.”
Final standings ADAC Opel Electric Rally Cup “powered by GSe” after 8 rounds
1. Pröglhöf 216 points. 2. Rott 188. 3. Español 170. 4. Lemke 154. 5. Chalvin 113. 6. Wittenbeck 113. 7. Pottier 77. 8. Hangodi 66. 9. Baudet 65. 10. Kamermans 61. 11. Melse 37. 12. Bayer 36. 13. Den Hartigh 36. 14. Felke 13.
