Up-and-coming German driver Hermann Gassner is backed by Red Bull on the Super 2000 World Rally Championship this year: The stepping stone to the very top level of world rallying. Before the Acropolis Rally in Greece got underway, he ran us through some of his lucky numbers…
27...
“This is my permanent competition number on the Super 2000 World Rally Championship. I think it’s a nice number and it’s also the very first time that I’ve had a permanent number of any sort; so it’s a sign that we’re heading in the right direction I think!”
8...
“This is my family’s lucky number. My father, who is also called Hermann Gassner, won the German Rally Championship in his own car in 1995 and the car had an ‘8’ at the end of the number plate. Since then, all our cars have had an ‘8’ at the end of the number plate: it’s like a tradition.”
20...
“I became the youngest ever driver to win the German Rally Championship back in 2009, when I was aged 20. That was a nice achievement, and since then I have been able to compete on the World Championship with Red Bull. So it was an important achievement.”
2000...
“Super 2000 is the category that I am driving in this year, with a Skoda Fabia. It means that the car is two-litre and normally aspirated, with four-wheel drive. Compared to the Group N cars that I used to drive, the Fabia S2000 is a much more focussed car that you can adjust to really suit the conditions. For example, in Greece the roads are very rough and rocky - maybe it’s the roughest rally I have ever seen - and there is a lot we can do with the suspension to help.”
7...
“This is the number of events I am competing in this year and so far it’s gone pretty well. I’ve already done the rallies in Jordan and Italy. Next we have Greece, Finland, Germany, France and Spain. I love all the rallies, but I’m probably looking forward to driving at home in Germany the most.”
2...
“I’ve chosen two because there are two of us in the car: me and my co-driver Kathi Wuestenhagen. We’re a real team and we help each other all the time. One of the areas that we’ve worked on most recently is our pace notes: it’s essential to have good notes and that has improved our overall speed a lot.”
106...
“I worked out that this was the number of nights that I’m spending away from home this year. We’re really busy with rallies, tests and promotional appearances but I always want more. As you progress further up your career, it becomes two-thirds of the time away from home. I won’t be complaining though as it will mean that we are doing the full World Championship!”
GEPA Pictures
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