A defective drive shaft prevented a victory!
On 5 / 6 April 2019, the 2nd round of the Lavanttal Rally, which also counts as part of the Austrian Rally Championship, took place. After the 3rd of a total of 12 special stages, Michael was leading in the 2WD and the junior classification. Afterwards the driveshaft went on strike and due to the repair he got a 5-minute time penalty.
This caused Michael to fall back to 23rd place in the 2WD classification and to 9th place in the Juniors. However, fully motivated he succeeded in spite of this time handicap, a sensational catch-up chase and rolled up the field from behind.
He finally landed in 5th place in the ORM 2WD classification and in the Juniors still in 2nd place.
“That’s just the way this sport is, you’re never safe from a technical defect. That also makes it very exciting.”
“We have nevertheless learned a lot and performed well”