FIA EHRC ROUND 4 – 21 Cars Entered for the 55th Mecsek Rallye
Round 4 of the 2022 FIA European Historic Rally Championship will be the 55th Mecsek Rallye in Hungary, which is based in the ancient city of Pecs. 21 cars will compete, with 20 eligible for championship points at the end of the event. There are 11 cars entered in Category 4, 5 in Category 3, 3 in Category 2 and 2 in Category 1.
CATEGORY 4 (1982 – 1990)
Manufacturers in the category for the newest cars include Alfa Romeo, BMW, Ford, Lancia, Renault, Subaru and Toyota.
Ville Silvasti is currently leading the drivers’ championship by just one point in the Lancia Rally 037, ahead of Mats Myrsell in the Ford Sierra RS Cosworth 4×4. In the Co-drivers’ championship Myrsell’s teammate Esko Junttila is ahead of Risto Pietilainen by 6 points and the two cars will be going head-to-head in Hungary.
There are three Hungarian crews competing in Category 4. Laszlo and Edit Mekler will be swapping their Lancia Rally 037 they ran in Round 1 for an Alfa Romeo GTV6, Peter Magoss and Victor Ban will be competing in a Subaru Legacy Turbo 4WD and Tibor Erdi Jr and Zoltan Csoko will be hoping for better luck than they had in Switzerland in the Ford Sierra RS Cosworth 4×4.
Reigning Category 2 champion Vojtech Stajf will be back out in his Toyota Celica GT-Four ST165 after the Czech driver suffered a blown turbo on the opening stage of his home event last month. He will be joined his fellow 2021 champion Vladimir Zelinka on the Mecsek Rallye. A second Toyota Celica will be out in Hungary, with Spanish crew Antonio Dezcallar and Bartomeu Fluxa Sureda.
Former champions Anders and Ingrid Johnsen are competing in Hungary with their Ford Sierra RS Cosworth 4×4, while Antonio Sainz and David De La Puente will be challenging for the victory in the Subaru Legacy Turbo 4WD.
The sole BMW M3 E30 on this event will be in the hands of Finnish crew Ari Kirvesmaki and Jukka Jamsen, with the distinctive Renault 11 Turbo of Carlos Sampayo Cao and Jorge Manuel Henriques back on the championship trail.
CATEGORY 3 (1976 – 1981)
Category 3 will see cars from Audi, Ford, Porsche and Volvo competing in Hungary.
Despite retiring in Switzerland, ‘Zippo’ is still leading the drivers’ championship by a healthy 12 points after three rounds in the Audi quattro. The Italian will be joined by his 2021 co-champion Denis Piceno in Hungary.
The Porsche 911 SC of multiple champions Karl Wagner and Gerda Zauner will be competing on their second event of the 2022 season, the Austrians looking for their first win of the season. Fellow Austrians Michael and Elizabeth Putz are also competing in their Porsche 911 SC and hoping for another good run after finishing second in Spain on the opening round of the season.
Hungary will be represented by the Ford Escort of Ferenc Wirtmann and Jozsef Kerekes and the popular Volvo 244 of Germany’s Siegfried and Renate Mayr will also be competing on their third rally of the 2022 season, with Renate lying in third place in the Co-Drivers’ championship, just 6 points off the lead.
CATEGORY 2 (1970 – 1975)
With all of the leading Category 2 contenders deciding to miss the Mecsek Rallye, there is an opportunity for the two cars entered to gather some championship points in Hungary. The Ford Escort RS2000 of Spanish crew Jesus Eduardo Diez Villarroel and Alejandro Cid Alvarez will be going head-to-head with the BMW 2002 Tii of Italian crew Pietro Corredig and Sonia Borghese.
CATGEORY 1 (1969 and earlier)
As in Category 2, the leading contenders in Category 1 have elected to miss Round 4 of the FIA EHRC in Hungary and the category honours will be a straight fight between the BMW 2022 Ti of Finland’s Sverre Norrgard and Ari Koponen and the Volvo 122 of fellow Finns Jari Hyvarinen and Jarno Ala-Turkia.