The ADAC Opel Rally Junior Team wants to attack in the title fight

Start of the second half of the Junior European Rally Championship season in Estonia. The Opel Juniors Carlberg and Schulz want to make a step forward in the European Championship standings. The fast gravel stages in the Baltic State will be highly demanding for the teams.

The Delfi Rally Estonia kicks off the second half of the Junior European Rally Championship (JERC) season next weekend. The best rally talents in Europe can expect an extremely challenging but equally appealing task around Tartu, the second largest city in Estonia. 14 gravel special stages covering a total of 187.64 kilometers are on the agenda for the three days of competition from Friday to Sunday. The competition is once again solid: 20 Rally4 cars are on the entry list, 13 of which are entered for the Junior European Championship.

For the two crews of the ADAC Opel Rally Junior Team, the stakes are getting higher and higher. After two second places on Gran Canaria and at his home event in Sweden, Calle Carlberg and his Norwegian co-driver Jørgen Eriksen are in third place in the overall JERC standings, 33 points behind overall leader Mille Johansson in another Opel Corsa Rally4. “We’ve had two strong rallies recently, but if we want to be in contention for the title, now is the time to go one better,” says the 23-year-old Carlberg. “So far we have always left a certain margin of safety, and now we want to exploit the Corsa Rally4’s high limit even more. I’m really looking forward to Estonia. The rally looks different to any I have contested before. The fast gravel sections with the sometimes extremely large jumps will demand everything from us.”

His German team-mate Timo Schulz (24, Siersburg), who once again listens to the instructions of his co-driver Michael Wenzel and is in sixth place in the interim standings, is also aiming for a top position in the northernmost of the three Baltic states: “We want to build on the good performances in Gran Canaria and Sweden and present ourselves in the best possible light in Estonia. We learned a lot in Sweden in particular, which will help us on the fast gravel stages. I hope we can build on the good results of the last special stages in Sweden. The tracks in Estonia look cool – very fast, very loose, with lots of crests and jumps. That promises great pictures and lots of fun in our Corsa Rally4.”

Things get underway on Friday evening from 19:35 local time (CEST plus one hour) with the usual Super Special Stage in the city center of Tartu. Saturday is then packed with nine special stages between 8.00 and 20.00 local time. The decision will be made on Sunday with four more time trials. The finish in Tartu will be reached at around 3 p.m. local time. Rally fans can follow the spectacular action on the paid channel wrc+ / Rally TV and find live timing on www.opel-motorsport.com and www.adac-motorsport.de.