After the first day of inspection, the drivers of the ERC- start in Freistadt are talking about a sensational challenge awaiting them from Friday till Sunday. The fans can look forward to a fast-paced motor sports feast.

The trials of the January Rally 2014 are inaugurated. Practically the entire field of starters used yesterday's first chance of inspecting the course around Freistadt in Upper Austria to check it out and to write their handbook for a perfect race on
Saturday and Sunday. Today, the trials can be test-driven a second time to confirm yesterday's notesor to fine-tune them.

Austria's Champion Raimund Baumschlager is impressed: "One thing can be said. This will be the fastest January Rally we ever drove. Owing to the fact that it is dry almost continuously it will all be quite speedy. But proper attention to icy patches is definitively called for". European Champion Andreas Aigner sounds the same warning:"The line between full grip and no grip at all will be a very fine one. One does not know howroad conditions will develop, especially after it gets dark and with lower temperatures.This will be a delicate and ultra-fast task for us" Today's "appraisal"-day will be relatively stress-free for the protagonists, but as of tomorrow (Friday), it will be rather turbulent, at least for the 13 ERC priority drivers who will be starting.

At 10.30 A:M, the Qualifying at the Shakedown in Freistadt/Trölsberg - this year for the first time in Freistadt - begins for the Poles Robert Kubica and Kajetan Kajetanowicz; the Czechs Vaclav Pech, Pavel Valousek, Antonin Tlustak, Jan Cerny, Roman Odlozilik, Jaromir Tarabus; the Austrians Andreas Aigner, Raimund Baumschlager, Beppo Harrach; the Latvian Vasily Grayzin; and Frenchman Robert Cosani.

From 9.30 A:M till 10:30 A:M, the drivers can go over the course three times before the 1,99 -kilometer test special trial is to be completed once, based on time. Afterwards they will drive into the Parc ferme. At 4.30 P:M at the Freistadt City Square, the public drivers' presentation will take place , during which the participants in the Qualifying can choose their starting position from the
fastest one down, one after another.Subsequently, on Friday at 5.15 P:M, Robert Kubica ( WRC2-World Champion), Raimund Baumschlager (eleven-times Austrian State Champion, three-times January Rally winner),

Vaclav Pech (five-times Czech Champion, three-times January Rally winner) and Robert Consani (ERC winner 2012 ), will be available for the representatives of the media for questions and answers regarding the start on Saturday of the first ERC race of the 2014 season during the Pre-Event Press Conference in the Media Center of the January Rally (Wirtschaftskammer WKO/Chamber of Commerce Freistadt, Linzer Strasse 11).

Friday after the Shakedown, four other January Rally stars will be heading for Rainbach-Kerschbaum, five kilometers from Freistadt. 2WD-European Champion Zoltan Besseny from Hungary, Production-Cup European Champion Andreas Aigner, Polish Champion and Waldviertel-Rally Winner Kajetan Kajetanowicz, and the internationally experienced driver Ekaterina Stratieva from Bulgaria will be available there for a photo shootingat 2.00 P:M.. The horse-drawn railway , so popular during the Emperor's time and revived in Rainbach in 1986, will serve as a nostalgic-romantic backdrop for today's HP-tamers.

The 31st International January Rally will be inaugurated on Friday at 7.00 P:M with the Ceremonial Start at the Freistadt City Square. The first car will enter the Special Trial Pierbach 1 on Saturday at 8.11 A:M. After a total of 18 evaluation trials, the winner of the first FIA European Championship run should be known by Sunday at around 5.00 P:M.