Rally title hunt

Even his brother needs help against Waldherr

Luca Waldherr is breathing down the champion's neck after his third podium finish in a row.(Bild: Harald Illmer)

Third race, third podium finish for Luca Waldherr in the national rally championship. After third place in the Lavanttal, the Lower Austrian is breathing down the neck of champion SImon Wagner - the defending champion now even needs help from his brother.

A spin on the gravel of the Eitweg circuit probably cost Waldherr his second place in a row. "When you drive at this level, it can happen," explains Luca, "I switched on my brain on the second day. Manfred Stohl advised me to drive home the points for third place instead." Only then was Julian Wagner able to overtake the driver from Krumbach. And thus kept his brother Simon's back free.

Is Waldherr now so dangerous for the champion in his first year with the all-wheel drive Citroen C3 Rally2 that he has called in the family to help? Waldherr just smiles: "I want strong opponents anyway. The more, the better." However, he has a decisive disadvantage compared to the competition: "We certainly have the fewest test kilometers." But: "Nevertheless, we are not without danger. At the first rally this year, we were over a second per kilometer behind the leaders, now it was only 0.19 seconds."

Luca Waldherr attacks the defending champion in his first full year in the all-wheel drive classification.(Bild: Jochen Fessl - rallyepics.at)

Of all things, the long break until the next state championship round, the Murtal Rally around Judenburg on June 14 and 15, is a disadvantage for Waldherr: While the competition uses the time for testing, Waldherr cannot afford a real test run. "Only on the Thursday before the rally will we be able to do 20 km again. But we are eagerly looking for sponsors so that we can do some proper testing."