The S2000 has its engine back and we are back in the 4-wheel-drive game! Last weekend Saarland-Pfalz Rallye around St. Wendel took place. As Saarland-born for me this is certainly one of each season’s highlights, but the course of the season so far dampened our anticipation – too much shit happened this year and especially after the total disaster at Rallye Mittelrhein only finishing was in our todos.

Friday evening saw the same openers like the year before. With Haupersweiler-Hof a former world championship stage and the renowned Windpark circuit an absolute legend of a stage. After 4 stages – by the way winning the height and width contest with 1,50m and 32m – we found ourselves overnight in the top 10. We would never have dreamt of coming back on such a high note.

Saturday went technically completely unspectacular for us – finally! – only a sleepy start in the morning and some handmade mistakes screwed up our result so that we “only” finished in P13 at the end. Anyway we are more than happy with this. This was mentally definitely necessary and brought fresh courage for the rest of the season!

For me, things move on in 2 weeks in Italy. For the first time I will compete aside Austrian Walter Pfeffer. Walter already contacted me during the winter break and was looking for a professional co-driver for a few rallies in Italy. Finally we managed to find a spot in both calendars. A Hyundai i20 R5 will be run for us by Friulmotor at Rally del Friuli Venezia Giulia. With Thomas, I will move on in Slovenia end of September.