Wagner's Eurosol team wins ERC Mechnical Feat of the Year

With polling now closed and all votes counted, FIAERC.com is excited to announce the various winners, starting with the award for the most impressive car fix of 2022.

Having scored 67.2 per cent of the vote, Eurosol Racing Team Hungary’s heroic repair of Simon Wagner’s battered Škoda Fabia Rally2 Evo following his crash on Rally Islas Canarias last May is the ERC Mechanical Feat of the Year for 2022.

Co-driven by Gerald Winter, Austrian Wagner was enjoying a strong run on the first all-Tarmac round of the ERC season having won the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria - Disa superspecial to hold a top-five placing after three stages.

But it all went wrong for the Junior ERC graduate on stage four when he ran wide on a sweeping right-hander and struck a rockface. Once the car had been returned to service, Wagner’s Eurosol mechanics quickly got to work and, amazingly, had the Fabia fully rebuilt ready for Saturday’s final leg, which Wagner completed with the fastest time on the San Mateo Power Stage.

“Eurosol is a very good team with very good mechanics. But it’s not even just about the mechanics, it’s to have all the spare parts with you in the truck,” Wagner said. “Spare parts cost a lot of money and some teams have to save money by not carrying all the spare parts needed but Eurosol had all the spare parts. They had another two cars running on this weekend so it was a big, big effort.”

Wagner, now 29, began the 2022 ERC season with a breakthrough podium on Azores Rallye and had been expected to challenge for more success on Rally Islas Canarias, making a return to action following his leg one crash even more important.

“There was never a doubt the car would be fixed because I knew they would do it somehow,” said Wagner. “The only question was if it would re-pass scrutineering, which of course it did because everything was fine with the car. But the team didn’t just repair the car, they gave me a car that could fight for the stage victories, a straight car with four straight wheels. I was proud of my guys, like I have been since 2018 when I joined Eurosol, because thanks to them we could win the Power Stage.”

The repairs to the cars of Javier Pardo (Azores Rallye), Filip Mareš (Rally di Roma Capitale), Ken Torn (Rally di Roma Capitale) and Adam Březík (Barum Czech Rally Zlín) were also short-listed for the Mechanical Feat of the Year accolade. See below for the final results and visit FIAERC.com soon to find out who was voted as the Most Improved Driver of the Year for 2022.

Meanwhile, Wagner is preparing for the 70th-anniversary ERC season by contesting his home event, the Austrian championship-counting Jänner Rallye, from today (January 5) until Saturday. WRC2 stars Adrien Fourmaux and Grégoire Munster are among his opposition.