Lübbecke, Germany – This past weekend marked the fifth round of the ADAC Opel Electric Rally Cup, held in conjunction with the German Rally Championship at the Rallye Stemweder Berg. With a full grid of 12 Opel Corsa Rally Electric cars, featuring teams from six different nations, the rally kicked off on Friday evening at 6 PM and concluded on Saturday evening at 7 PM. The participants tackled ten special stages covering 100 kilometers, facing a variety of challenging conditions that included both asphalt and gravel sections.
For the Infypower chargebyte e-Rally Team, comprised of driver Johannes Wittenbeck and his co-driver Maximilian Kugler, the rally weekend couldn’t have started better. In the very first special stage, which spanned 14 kilometers, they achieved their best stage result in the Cup to date – a second-fastest time. This impressive performance garnered immediate attention and propelled the duo into second place overall, right behind the championship leader.
Johannes Wittenbeck was very pleased with the strong start: “After the rallies in France and Austria, we had to reacquaint ourselves with the many 90-degree turns. But it seems like we quickly got back into the rhythm on Friday evening and were able to show that we can compete at the front!”
Throughout the weekend, Wittenbeck and Kugler maintained a solid pace and consistently held a strong fifth place overall. A unique approach was taken this weekend: for the first time, Johannes Wittenbeck was not informed of his times and results throughout the event, allowing him to focus entirely on driving. “Of course, that didn’t quite work after the first stage,” Wittenbeck admitted with a happy smile, “but after that, I fully concentrated on driving until Saturday evening and didn’t worry about the gap to the competition.”
As a result, the team managed to hold onto fifth place until the end of the rally, bringing home valuable points. This Top 5 finish marked their best overall result in the Cup so far, showing further improvement after their sixth place at the Rallye Weiz. “We’re not going to set the fastest times overnight. But we want to gradually build up and work on consistent faster times,” said the 26-year-old rally driver.
Austrian championship leader Luca Pröglhöf, once again with co-driver Christina Ettl, extended his lead in the standings with another victory. Behind them, the Germans Christian Lemke and Jan Bemmann took second place, while the French brothers Anthony and Adrien Rott completed the podium. Wittenbeck and Kugler were only kept off the podium by the Opel Spain team of Álex Español and Daniel Rivera. The next rally in the Cup will take place from September 5th to 7th at the Rallye Mont-Blanc Morzine in France.