The 21-year-old is revving up for his first full season in the Hankook-equipped FIA Junior ERC Championship, starting with his home event, next week’s V-Híd Rally Hungary.
“We are planning the full season, all six rounds,” said Herczig, who finished fourth in Junior ERC on Rally Hungary last year when the event was based on Tarmac stages in Nyíregyháza.
“That will be the first time we’ve done the full season so our main target is to finish all six rounds. But we would like to have some good results during the year, especially in Hungary. I would like a podium position in Hungary but I think it will be really, really hard because there will be some really fast drivers.”
Herczig has tackled selected rallies in and around Vezsprém, Rally Hungary’s new-for-2024 host city, including last December’s Mikulás Rallye. He also took a class win on the Vezsprém Rallye the previous August.
“I did two rallies there but there will be new stages for the ERC and they will also be new for me,” Herczig said. “So, I don’t know every stage of this rally but I do know my co-driver, Kristóf Varga, the same as last year. I also have driven my Peugeot five times. It’s a good car but this year we move to another team, HRT Racing. It’s the same team Nobert Maior won the championship with last year. They are a really good team and they know the car really well so they help me a lot.”
Herczig completed a two-day test in preparation for V-Híd Rally Hungary last month when he also found time to take a famous passenger for a ride, his father Norbert Herczig, a four-time Hungarian champion who scored three podiums in 39 ERC starts.
“My father was with me during the whole weekend and he was in the car also,” said the younger Herczig, who is studying a economics at university in Budapest. “He sat next to me and it was really, really good. He gave me some advice on driving and with the set-up also. And he was a really good passenger.”
V-Híd Rally Hungary opens the 2024 ERC season from 12 - 14 April.
Finland
Italy
Hungary