Although we put a lot of effort into, this season won’t really kick off properly… Yesterday, for Thomas and me Rallye Lavanttal ended with a loud bang (once again to early. After two retirements in Kempenich (front differential) and at Rebenland (alternator) we have to close the chapter Lavanttal Rallye once again without making it to the finish line – however, here’s a short resumee.

The rally startet Friday afternoon with great weather and a few clouds. We left for the first two stages with tyres way too soft which caused a really slippery second half in both of the stages in the first loop. In the service, we switched to harder tyres which resulted in two okay-ish but not satisfying stage times. For the night we found ourselves in P19 overall, which was actually okay considering the strong Rally2 opponents and the lack of knwoledge about the Kärnten stages.

Desaster kicked off the next morning. In heavy rain our factory-new rain tyres showed up as a mistake as we were not able to grain the surface on the really short transport sections. As a consequence, the grip level was really low in the first stage. The second stage of the day gave us a climb up to 1.400 meters of altitude. Right after the start heavy snow fall and in the higher sections glassy roads with even some snow-covered roads. In addition to that, our front left driveshaft broke after just two kilometers and made the behaviour of the Skoda completely unpredictable.

We made it to the service where our mechanics exchanged the driveshaft and mounted us some better set of tyres. The following SS7 should be the only one  satisfying for the entire weekend. In SS9 then a massive hit in a quick righthand on Gravel. 200 meters later, we had to face the damage – a broken wishbone and thus a wheel in blocking direction made a continuation impossible – Game over!

For me (taking Azores Rally in) this was the fourth retirement in a row. It should be about time to again finish an event. Next attempt: Rallye Erzgebirge in two weeks.