At the last minute, Simon Wagner submitted his entry for the January rally taking place in the Freistadt area from January 5th to 7th. The state champion announced that he would definitely drive, but he didn’t yet know which car. In addition to his Skoda, with which he unsuccessfully pursued his first home win in the last edition, the 30-year-old has a second option. “To be announced” can be found in the official entry list.
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The Upper Austrian rally figurehead is tight-lipped regarding the background. As was heard from those around yesterday’s January Rally presentation in Linz, from which Wagner was absent for professional reasons, changes in Skoda’s motorsport marketing might be the cause. These marketing agreements regulate, for example, the support of individual pilots or which sponsor badges are allowed on a car and which are not. According to OÖN information, Wagner is no longer allowed to start with the sticker of “Autoland Hinterleitner”, i.e. the company that his father Friedrich runs as managing director and where his brother Julian (also drives the January rally) is employed. That’s not the point, says Simon Wagner without going into detail. The national champion only wanted to say this much: “I was only able to sleep well once more when I had put together a second car package.”
The starting list includes a total of 81 entries from eight nations. Although Hermann Neubauer, one of Wagner’s biggest rivals, is missing, Chris Ingram, a well-known name in the scene, appears. The British WRC2 driver is testing in the Mühlviertel for the Monte Carlo Rally, which takes place at the end of January and traditionally marks the start of the World Championship.
Hoping for Mrs. Holle
While the organizers had made major changes to the course of the route before the most recent January rally, this time the 18 special stages have only been minimally improved. “There are only small changes in three of them,” says Georg Höfer, managing director of the Mühlviertel cult rally. Club chairman Christian Birklbauer added that more wasn’t necessary, “because we got very good feedback.” There was only one thing the pilots were missing last January: the snow. Birklbauer: “Then the drivers’ hearts would melt.”
Author
Reinhold Pühringer
Sports editor
Reinhold Pühringer
