Season opener for the ADAC Opel Rally Junior Team in the European Rally Championship. Calle Carlberg and Timo Schulz want to fight for the podium in Hungary. A challenging gravel rally awaits the best European rally juniors.
The Junior European Rally Championship (JERC) kicks off the new season next weekend with the ERC V Rally Hungary. 17 teams from 12 nations will compete for points and trophies in the challenging gravel rally – and right in the middle of it all is the ADAC Opel Rally Junior Team, which is strongly positioned for the first competition against the best rally talents in Europe. With the Swede Calle Carlberg (23) and the German Timo Schulz (24), the champions of the ADAC Opel Electric Rally Cup 2023 and 2022 will be at the wheel of the two Corsa Rally4 entered by Stohl Racing and Waldherr Motorsport. Rally Hungary was already on the JERC calendar last year, but was moved from Nyíregyháza to Veszprém, not far from Lake Balaton, for 2024.
JERC newcomer Calle Carlberg, who relies on the instructions of his Norwegian co-driver Jørgen Eriksen (30) in the cockpit of the Corsa Rally4, can hardly wait for the season to start in Hungary: “I’m really looking forward to my European championship debut. The tests over the last few weeks have gone very well and I’m really keen to get going. We hope to be able to keep up with the high pace in the JERC without taking too many risks. The special stages in Hungary look pretty rough, so it will also be important to be strategic and smart.”
Timo Schulz from Siersburg and co-driver Michael Wenzel (47, Mehlingen), on the other hand, are about to start their second season in the Junior European Championship. After strong performances both on the gravel, which he was unaccustomed to, and especially on asphalt, the Saarland native has big plans for the 2024 season: “It’s great to get the action started soon! Our aim is to transfer what we learned during last season into hopefully good results. Not least when we won the Barum Czech Rally Zlín, we saw that we can also keep up at the front in this strong competitive environment. That’s what we plan to do at all rallies in 2024. It’s cool that five of the six events are new to the JERC calendar. I always look forward to getting to know new routes and new events. And I’ve got a really strong team-mate in Calle, so I’m sure we’ll push each other. I’m looking forward to it!”
“We are competing with two very strong driver crews, an experienced support team and a fast rally car – our goals are correspondingly ambitious,” emphasizes Opel Motorsport Director Jörg Schrott. “As always, the competition is tough and the task challenging. But that is exactly our aim: we want to compete with the best and beat them if possible. In the JERC, we have already succeeded five times, and it would be great if an Opel driver could once again join Emil Bergkvist, Marijan Griebel, Chris Ingram, Martins Sesks and Laurent Pellier on the list of European Junior Champions at the end of the 2024 season. I think both Calle and Timo have what it takes.”
13 challenging special stages over a total of 212.4 kilometers are on the program of Rally Hungary. The event kicks off on Friday evening (April 12) at 18:05 with the “Királyszentistván” show stage, which is only 2.05 km long. The real action starts the next day at 9.48 am with six special stages, including the 27.4 km long “Kislötér”. The decision will be made on Sunday from 9.27 am with six more fastest time trials, with the final “Power Stage” starting at 5.05 pm.
Rally fans can follow all the action on the paid channel wrc+ and find live timing on www.opel-motorsport.com
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