Passau, Germany – The Bavarian Infypower chargebyte e-Rally Team, with Johannes Wittenbeck and Maximilian Kugler, celebrated an exciting finale at the 2024 ADAC Opel Electric Rally Cup during the Central European Rally near Passau. This rally, which was also part of the WRC series, included six challenging stages spanning 110 kilometers, putting drivers to the test under extreme conditions.
The event had a full lineup of 14 cars, including guest starters like Tom Heindrichs, the leader of the Rally4 Stellantis Cup Benelux and half-brother of WRC front-runner Thierry Neuville. The team faced tough conditions from the start on Saturday morning, with dense fog reducing visibility to just 20 meters at times, demanding full concentration from all drivers. For Wittenbeck and Kugler, the rally began slower than expected after an incident involving the Spanish Opel team, led by Sito Espanol, halted their first stage at 50% completion. “We didn’t want to take too many risks at the start and focused on a steady, clean pace. A WRC event can push you to your limit fast,” commented Wittenbeck. Despite the challenging conditions, the first day went well for the team as they achieved a top-5 time and finished the day in 6th place overall, only one second behind the Austrian team in 5th and 5.5 seconds ahead of their closest rivals in 7th.
On Sunday, under beautiful sunshine, the team tackled the final two stages. Before these stages, the electric Opel teams received a special honor with an exclusive parade through the market square in Hauzenberg, where crowds gathered to get close to the rally cars and even sit inside them. In the final stages, Wittenbeck and Kugler maintained their solid pace, securing 6th place overall among 14 starters. Excluding the VIP guest drivers, they even achieved 3rd place among Cup teams – their first podium in the Cup standings. In the 2024 championship, they claimed 5th place overall out of 12 competitors, narrowly overtaking the French team led by Emma Chalvin by a single point thanks to extra points from the Power Stage.
Wittenbeck reflected on the season with satisfaction: “We made a lot of mistakes early in the season, which made it unnecessarily tight for us to secure a top-5 finish in the championship. But we’re very pleased, and I’m extremely proud of the entire team for this achievement! We’ve made big improvements, moving up 7 spots in the overall standings compared to last year!” Kugler highlighted the team’s positive development, saying, “Johannes and I have only been driving together since mid-season, but we’ve managed to sync up quickly, and the harmony in the car couldn’t be better!”
Last weekend marked an exciting end for the world’s only fully electric rally brand cup. The Central European Rally in the Opel Cup was ultimately won by Belgium’s Tom Heindrichs and Jonas Schmitz, followed by the German team of Christian Lemke and Jan-Eric Bemmann in 2nd place, and the Dutch duo Fabian Kamermans and Stefan Müller in 3rd. Austrian driver Luca Pröglhöf, along with Christina Ettel, secured the championship title in the previous round at the Rallye Coeur de France in France.