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Austrian Alpine Rally is an unknown rally in WRC terms because it is amongst those events that ran only once at the championship level. On it's own however, rally had long and glorious heritage. First held in 1910, it predates even legandary Monte Carlo Rally and alongside Coupe des Alpes was the most prestigious mountain race until it declined after World War 2.
By the time it was run as an WRC event in 1973 season, route did not go to the mountains any longer despite reference to Alps in the name. Instead, stages were held on fast and smooth gravel roads near Baden, west of Vienna.
As events of the 1973 edition demonstrate, rally organisation was something of an enigma. Contemporaries reported that some parts of the organisation worked well, in fact so well as only traditional german efficiency could manage. Examples include stages timed to a tenth of a second - which was to be implemented on WRC level 25 years later - and advanced communications system which allowed stage times to be transmitted to HQ at Baden only seconds after the car had finished the stage. But at the same time there were enormous confusion about various things and above all the route. Two stages were transferred and one cancelled, location of time controls was unclear both to competitors and to marshals and confusing alternative road sections.
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| 1973:
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Warmbold, Achim
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BMW 2002Tii
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81.49 km/h
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Driver wins
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Warmbold, Achim (1)
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Manufacturer wins
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BMW (1)
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