Kramer’s gravel gains key in Junior ERC

The FIA Junior ERC Championship rookie rounded out the top 10 category finishers on the fast-paced gravel event last weekend aboard the Hankook-equipped Peugeot 208 Rally4 he shares with co-driver Jeannette Kvick.

But the result was secondary to the experience Kramer gained, even though the financial investment required to compete in Karlstad has left the Austrian talent facing a shortfall in budget for the remainder of the Junior ERC season.

“On Tarmac our pace is already on a decent level, we know that from our previous season in the Croatian championship where we were able to win the 2WD class overall,” said Kramer, a second-generation rally driver. “For sure it would be great if we could also drive some Tarmac events in the Junior ERC to show our potential on Tarmac but, in the moment, it’s just quite hard with our budget. We still hope to generate some more sponsors to finish the season.”

Kramer, who had taken part on three gravel events prior to BAUHAUS Royal Rally of Scandinavia, finished 10th in the Hankook-supported category in Sweden, an improvement on his P11 from Tet Rally Liepāja the previous month.

“The stages were very fast but we were learning a lot and the feeling was getting better all of the time and also our pace was getting better so I was happy,” said Kramer, who overcame an overshoot and gearbox issues during the second leg of the rally. “Our improvement is very good, but we took it step by step to try not to do any mistakes. The rally was a totally different story to what we had done before. There was a lot of grip, the stages were quite narrow, very fast roads and with all the crests. It was just amazing to drive.”