The penultimate tour station takes the German Rally Championship (DRM) up north to Süderbrarup. Around 35 kilometers south-east of Flensburg, 86 vehicles will start the ADAC Cimbern Rallye on September 30th and October 1st.

The reason for this record-breaking starting field is the participation of the best Danish drift artists, as the northernmost DRM stop is also an official run of the Danish Rally Championship. However, the top German teams will focus their attention on the domestic competition.

In the top class DRM, a thrilling battle at the top developed right from the start of the season. After five out of seven races, the first three vehicles are within just six points.

After third place in the ADAC Saarland-Palatinate Rally, the lead of championship leader Philip Geipel and his co-driver Katrin Becker-Brugger in the Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo has shrunk to five points. The duo does not have good memories of the ADAC Cimbern Rallye 2021, as they retired early on the penultimate special stage. “It was a driver’s mistake and it mustn’t happen this time if we want to stay up there. Unlike in Saarland, there is no gravel, but that’s not important because the top three have shown that they are fast on all surfaces . We want to fight for victory and create a good basis for the finale,” says 35-year-old Philip Geipel from Plauen.

Behind him lies Marijan Griebel in wait. The two-time DRM champion won the last three championship races together with his co-driver Tobias Braun in the cockpit of a Citroën C3 Rally2 and thus kept his chances of the title hat-trick. “In the two previous competitions, I knew the terrain well. In Süderbrarup, none of us has a home advantage. The rally is gentle on materials because it takes place exclusively on asphalt. That’s important for me, because after the failure in Sulingen I can’t cause further defects. An important factor will be the weather. Last year we hardly drove out of the service, it was already raining and a tire change was due. You have to be prepared for that in the north,” explains 33-year-old Hahnweiler.

Julius Tannert and Frank Christian in the VW Polo GTI R5 follow in third place, just one point behind. The 32-year-old Tannert from Zwickau: “After his three wins in a row, Marijan now has the best cards. If we still want to catch him, we have to get our first win of the season and win the Cimbern Rallye. You can’t fall back on experience from previous years, because the tracks are constantly changing there, but that applies to all drivers.” The winner of the ADAC Cimbern Rallye 2021 and fourth overall Dominik Dinkel will not start in Süderbrarup. In return, Dennis Rostek, fifth in the table and winner of the Gentlemen Trophy, wants to be at the forefront together with Michael Wenzel in the Skoda Fabia Evo Rally2.

The Geesthacht-based Martin Christ in the Opel Corsa Rally4 leads the DRM2 class for non-all-wheel drive vehicles with a comfortable lead of 30 points. But this interim result is deceptive. His brand colleague René Noller, who was second, retired once, but can cancel this result. Martin Christ explains: “If you clean up the table with the respective deletion results, my lead will decrease. That’s why there will probably not be a title decision at the Cimbern Rallye, unless René is unlucky again. This time, Lina Meter will be the announcement for me with which I finished second at the Grünhain Rally last weekend. We were able to test rain setups there and drive to Süderbrarup with a lot of anticipation and a good feeling, where I clearly won my class last year.” The use of Christian Riedemann in the DRM2 should provide additional excitement. The 35-year-old competed twice in the top class this season, finishing second once and fifth once. He also won the Cimbern Rallye 2020, which, however, did not take place as part of the German Rally Championship, and should become a strong competitor for Christ and Co.

Andreas Dahms and Paul Schubert in the Porsche 911 are unassailable in the lead at the DRM Classic and are also in second place at the DRM Nationals. Sebastian Wolf and Andreas Luther lead this category in the Mitsubishi Evo X with a lead of only three points. Tarek Hamadeh-Spaniol in the Citroën C2 Challenge in third place and Christopher Gerhard (Mitsubishi Lancer EVO X) and Rafael Klein (BMW E36 M3) in fourth and fifth place also have good chances of overall victory.

The participants of the ADAC Cimbern Rallye have to complete ten special stages. Four with a length of a good 45 kilometers on Friday, six more special stages over a distance of almost 87 kilometers follow on Saturday. Narrow roads with tight curves and blind crests are the hallmark of the North German DRM stage. The start takes place on Friday at 4:31 p.m., and the second stage begins on Saturday at 10:16 a.m. The ADAC Cimbern Rally ends at 4:42 p.m. on Saturday.

Highlights of the ADAC Cimbern Rally on n-tv

The highlights of the German Rally Championship can be seen exclusively on free-to-air television on n-tv. Every weekend after the racing events, the news channel broadcasts the 30-minute DRM magazine “PS – DRM Deutsche Rallye-Meisterschaft” on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. Alternatively, the magazine can be accessed free of charge at any time in the n-tv media center or the RTL streaming platform.

ADAC Cimbern Rallye

Saturday 08/10/22 12:10 p.m

Sunday, 09.10.22 06:30 (rev.)

ADAC 3-city rally

Saturday 10/22/22 12:10 p.m

Sunday 10/23/22 6:30 am