Kalle Grundel and Bruno Thiry at the start!

The Alsace Rallye Festival is the meeting place for Champions every year. Three months before the event, the first two names have just been announced: Kalle Grundel and Bruno Thiry will be among us.

 

Kalle Grundel
Kalle Grundel, the most Mediterranean of Nordic drivers, can boast of being one of the few to have driven the majority of four-wheel drive B groups as an official team. He was crowned German Champion in 1985 at the wheel of a 205 Turbo 16 entered by the importer. The same year he replaced Ari Vatanen at 1000 Lakes and RAC. The following year Ford called on him to take the wheel of the RS200 and Lancia hired him for a freelance with the Delta S4 on the occasion, once again, of the 1000 Lakes. From 1988 to 1991 he returned to the German Championship, this time with a 309 GTI, the A groups replacing the B groups banned from competition. On the occasion of the Alsace Rallye Festival, he will find the two cars used in the German championship, found and painstakingly restored by their owners who will make them available to him.

Bruno Thiry
Many manufacturers have placed their trust in Bruno Thiry and he can be proud of 5 WRC podiums. But it is with Peugeot that he will obtain consecration by being crowned European Rally Champion in 2003 with the 206 WRC, winning 5 victories in the process. He will end his professional career at the end of 2004 after a final season in the ERC at the wheel of the C2 S1600. But he continues to regularly put on the helmet to participate in historic events. Thus, this year he will be at the start of the Alsace Rallye Festival at the wheel of an Alfa Roméo GTV6. The one with which Yves Loubet participated in the Boucles de Spa in 1986, navigated by Ange Pasquali, future sporting director of the Toyota F1 team. There is no doubt that the Belgian driver will enchant spectators with his spectacular passages punctuated by the melodious sound of the V6 engine.