With a double victory from the Stuttgart brothers, Sandro and Mark Wallenwein starts the new German Rally Championship 2012. By the ADAC Pfalz-Westrich-Rallye this weekend starts the 2012 season. Some stages here were driven on WRC Rallye Deutschland stages, like “Bosenberg”.

After 15 special stages with a total distance of 147,3km Sandro Wallenwein could win the German Rally Champion of 2011, the first of seven rounds of the season. His younger brother Mark was very close behind him, with a arrears of only 3.1 seconds with his own Skoda Fabia S2000. The last place on the podium was German legend Hermann Gassner with an Evo X. The fastest 2WD pilot was 2011 WRC Academy driver Christian Riedemann with a Citroen DS3 R3T. With his good performance he finished the rally on a fourth place overall.

The success from Sandro Wallenwein was made on Friday afternoon stages, where the weather was foggy and on some places very tricky. “It is a hot fight, more is not doing” reported Sandro before the last stages. His brother had the hole weekend problems to use his new car – that is why he could not win this event. It is a pity from him, because the last two years the drove his car in the German Championship and on some IRC round in 2011.

Some other favourite of the rally win had very many troubles – first of all it was Rubens Zeltner who retried after stage 1. The gearbox on his 911 GT3 was broken, the same with Peter Corazza on his Evo IX. The endurance driver Timo Bernhard finished his rally with the Porsche 997 GT3 on stage 10, after he hit some big rocks.

Very happy was Riedemann in the finish: “Through that very difficult condition I never thought that I could win the class and would be on the TOP5.”. He drive this year with the ex Co-Pilot from Abbring, Belgium Woman Lara Vanneste.

The next round of the DRM 2012 will be in the north, in the near of the Denmark border with the “ADAC Wikiniger-Rallye (Schleswig-Holstein)” from 23-24.March 2012.

On this event it could be possible that WRC driver Mads Ostberg will drive with a Ford Fiesta RRC has a development of his driving style on tarmac. We will inform you, if that will be true. Maybe he will drive some DRS (German Rally Series) event – then he can use his Fiesta RS WRC.

The result of the Pfalz-Westrich-Rallye 2012:

1.	S. Wallenwein / Poschner	Subaru Impreza N16	1:36:34,5
2.	M. Wallenwein / Kopczyk	Skoda Fabia S2000	+ 3,1
3.	Gasnner / Tannhäuser	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X	+2.28,2
4.	Riedemann / Vanneste	Citroen DS3 R3T	+3.37,6
5.	Hunzinker / Wahl	Subaru Impreza N16	+5.07,0
6.	Herbold / Thielen	Citroen DS3 R3T	+5.12,5
7.	Gengler / Gengler	Subaru Impreza STI R4	+5.43,4
8.	Mohe / Becker	Renault Megan R.S. N4	+6.03,8
9.	Rexhausen / Clemens	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX	+6.17,8
10.	Streicher / Bellantuono	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX	+6.53,3

DRM-Champions Standings after 1 of 7 Events:

1. Wallenwein S./Poschner (Subaru Impreza N16, Div. 2) 40

2. Wallenwein M./Kopczyk (Skoda Fabia S2000, Div. 1) 33

3. Gaßner/Thannhäuser (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X, Div. 2) 27

3. Riedemann/Vanneste (Citroën DS3 R3T, Div. 3) 27

5. Herbold/Thielen (Citroën DS3 R3T,, Div. 3) 20

2WD-Standings after 1 of 7 Events:

1. Riedemann/Vanneste (Citroën DS3 R3T, Div. 3) 27

2. Herbold/Thielen (Citroën DS3 R3T, Div. 3) 20

3. Broschart/Piro (Citroën C2R2max, Div. 4) 15

4. Dinkel/Heinze (Suzuki Swift Sport, Div. 5) 15

5. Griebel/Rath (Opel Astra GTC, Div. 6) 15