Valuable experience gained for Claire Schönborn at demanding Rally Poland

Valuable experience gained for Claire Schönborn at demanding Rally Poland

Claire Schönborn has banked essential mileage after finishing twelfth in the Junior category at a notoriously challenging Rally Poland, the third round of the FIA European Rally Championship (ERC).

Driving an Opel Corsa Rally4 alongside co-driver Michael Wenzel, Schönborn navigated constantly changing grip levels and bumpy asphalt to secure a clean run on what was only her second tarmac rally in the machinery.

Based in Katowice rather than its traditional gravel hub of Mikołajki, this year’s Rally Poland proved exceptionally demanding. The itinerary featured 15 scheduled stages covering 187 competitive kilometres, including the spectacular Katowice street stage, the legendary Przegibek test with over fifty hairpins, and the ultra-narrow Gmina Jasienica. Two of the stages were ultimately cancelled for the ERC Juniors due to heavy accidents involving other crews, highlighting the treacherous nature of the roads.

Despite the tricky conditions, the ADAC Opel Junior Rally Team driver stayed mistake-free throughout the weekend.

“Rally Poland was anything but easy and, unfortunately, the potential for heavy accidents was high – you could see that from the number of incidents,” Schönborn reflected. “Under those circumstances we drove a clean rally. But also one that – I’ll be honest – is probably among my weakest in terms of performance. We’ll take that away as experience and will now analyse what we can do better. Above all, I couldn’t get to grips with the changing grip levels on the very bumpy stages and never really found a rhythm. Congratulations to Teemu Suninen, my coach, who won the rally.”

Overall victory at the event went to Schönborn’s driver coach, Teemu Suninen, alongside co-driver Antti Haapala in their Škoda. Suninen praised his pupil’s approach to the difficult weekend.

“What an eventful weekend,” Suninen noted. “Rally Poland was extremely demanding, above all because of the constantly changing conditions, which could only be judged with a great deal of experience. For a newcomer like Claire Schönborn that was a genuinely big challenge, and she handled it very well. The rally may not have gone the way she wanted, but it was a very important one for her development.”

It was also a highly successful weekend for the wider ADAC Opel Junior Rally Team, with Schönborn’s teammates Tom Heindrichs and Jonas Schmitz celebrating their first win in the ERC Junior category.

Schönborn will return to action in mid-August, competing in the all-electric ADAC Opel GSE Rally Cup at the ADAC Rallye Saarland-Pfalz.

Kerry Motorsport News maintains its strong mutual support with Opel Ireland across a range of projects.

/