They have already scored 100 points – Walter Röhrl and Jochen Berger are clearly leading the overall standings when they arrive in the canton of Ticino in October 1974. At the 13th Rallye Internazionale di Lugano, the two Opel drivers can secure the European Championship title early. And it’s going well. Right from the start, they take pole position among the 52 competitors. The tough special stages in the mountains between Lugano and Lake Maggiore take their toll. One team after the other is eliminated – only 18 vehicles cross the finish line on October 13th. As usual, the Opel Ascona with Walter Röhrl and Jochen Berger is in the lead. After 1,000 kilometers, the duo crosses the finish line more than 10 minutes ahead of the second-placed team. With their sixth overall victory and 120 points – the highest number of points ever achieved up to that point – they won the 1974 European Rally Championship.
In record time: from young talent to rally ace
Walter Röhrl, born in 1947, had only appeared in the rally circus two years previously. After an injury, the ski racer decided to go into motorsport – in his own words, he consciously chose “rallying instead of circuit racing”. A decision that was absolutely right, as the future will prove. His breakthrough, which turned him from “nobody” (as he once said himself) into a surprise frontrunner in the rally circus, came in 1972. Röhrl played a dominant role in the Poland Rally, the Baltic Rally and the Olympia Rally. From 1973 onwards, the then 26-year-old drove for Opel – with Jochen Berger at his side. He gives Röhrl the route instructions and plays a significant role in the coming successes.
“Jochen was the best co-driver of his time,” says Walter Röhrl. Together, the two became vice-European champions (1973), European champions (1974) and won their first World Championship race in 1975. Berger died in July 2010.
After their sixth overall victory, the duo won the rally racing crown on October 13, 1974 – with the maximum number of points of 120. The regulations make it possible, as six rallies are counted.
“Driving through a special stage with Walter is safer than crossing the road in the city.”
– co-driver Jochen Berger –
Even back then, the co-driver was sure of Röhrl’s driving qualities: “Driving through a special stage with Walter is safer than crossing the road in the city.” He turns out to be right: in the same year, with just a few starts and almost the same number of overall victories, the two of them finish as runners-up in the European Championships in an Opel Ascona. For Röhrl, this proved to be the perfect springboard for the coming season with the recently founded Opel Euro Dealer Team.
And so, in 1974, Walter Röhrl and Jochen Berger attacked the competition with great ambitions. Their car is again a factory Ascona A. This has an engine that has been bored out to two liters with an overhead camshaft and crossflow cylinder head. This means that the car produces between 141 kW (192 hp) and 156 kW (212 hp). Special springs and special shock absorbers as well as internally ventilated disc brakes at the front and ventilated drum brakes at the rear adapt the chassis of the rally car based on the production model to the tough competition conditions. In his biography “Aufschrift” Röhrl remembers: “The engine was easy to drive. Power came from around 2,000 rpm and continued to 7,600 rpm. But I refrained from revving it up so high. My moral limit was 7,000 rpm. Mostly.”
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However, Röhrl/Berger have to be patient until their first big success of the season. At the 8th International Firestone Rally – the 5th round of the European Rally Championship at the end of March 1974 – the time had finally come. As the top team in the Opel Euro Dealer Team, the two achieved a superior start/finish victory after 1,517 kilometers and 19 special stages in the northern Spanish mountains. From then on, things happened in quick succession: just four weeks later, Röhrl/Berger took the lead right from the start at the Tulip Rally in the Netherlands. After 1,250 kilometers and 38 special tests, they achieved their next impressive overall victory in their Ascona. The local authorities cause a moment of shock: They suspect Röhrl of significantly exceeding the permitted speed limit. Fortunately, this turns out to be a mistake. The law enforcement officers did not catch the German duo with starting number 1 speeding – instead the Polish team with number 7 were caught on camera.
Further victories follow in the Hessen Rally, the Moldau Rally and the Danube Rally in Romania. At the 13th Rallye Internazionale di Lugano in Switzerland, the duo took advantage of their first opportunity and won the 1974 European Rally Championship. Walter Röhrl became European Drivers’ Champion – although three rallies were still to go. But after this success, Walter Röhrl has even greater ambitions. He writes: “With the European title I had achieved what I wanted. But one dream kept me going: winning the Monte Carlo Rally once in my life.”
The reliable one: No other car in the 1974 rally season was as competitive and as tough as the Ascona of the Opel Euro Dealer team.
The foundation stone was laid: at the fifth round of the 1974 European Rally Championship in the northern Spanish mountains, the Opel duo took their first victory of the season.
The start of Röhrl and Opel’s further rally success
In 1975, Röhrl achieved the first victory in a World Rally Championship race for himself and Opel, but in 1977 the exceptional driver and the brand with the Blitz went their separate ways. At this point in time, no one had any idea that their greatest sporting triumph was yet to come. In 1982, Röhrl returned to Opel. While Jochen Berger is manager of the motorsport department, his new co-driver Christian Geistdörfer also makes a decisive contribution to the success of the “Mission Monte Carlo” – along with the 191 kW (260 hp) Ascona 400. With Geistdörfer and the Ascona 400, Röhrl wins the legendary Monte Carlo Rally for the second time. A tailor-made start to the rally season, which ultimately culminated in a spectacular victory in the 1982 Drivers’ World Championship.
October 2024
Photos: Opel archive