October 2025 made history.
The Rallye International du Valais is the largest and most demanding rally in Switzerland. In previous years, this rally was part of the European Championship.
Stage Reconnaissance
On the weekend before the rally, it was time to recon the different stages and write the corresponding pacenotes. The weather during recce was very pleasant, and we were able to drive the stages in good visibility.For the recce, we used the Subaru 😉
A big thank you to Max Langenegger, who drove ahead of us during recce to make it easier for us to find the different stages. 🏁
The Rallye:
Wednesday, October 22, 2025
Wednesday evening, 9:00 PM – the night before the start of the rally.
Our service team from Autohaus Richter had already set up our service area upon their arrival on Wednesday evening. This way, we had no stress the following morning!
After setting up the service area, we all drove together to our accommodation.
Thursday (23. October 2025)
Thursday – the first day of the rally!
Today’s schedule included the technical and administrative checks, the shakedown, and Special Stage 1!
Brake Line Issues / Technical Inspection and Shakedown
During the technical inspection, two issues were flagged that we needed to fix before the start of the rally. First, the power cable for the left rear light was routed outside the roll cage. This is not allowed, as in the event of an accident, the cable could get pinched and potentially cause a fire.
The second issue was the steering wheel adjustment lever, which needed to be secured with a screw to prevent it from coming loose during intense driving.
Both issues were immediately fixed by the Autohaus Richter service team, and we passed the technical inspection! 🥳
After the shakedown, we knew we still needed to bleed the brakes a bit more.
First Stage – NIGHT Stage! 🌙✨
Stage 1:
Martigny Zone Industrielle
This stage was a 9-kilometer night loop. Our confidence in the car kept growing, and we were even able to overtake another car on the course!
We were very happy with our first ever night stage in rallying.
Friday, October 24, 2025
Friday – the first full rally day! Today, six stages are on the schedule, covering a total of 80 competitive kilometers.
The Anzère, Nax Région, and Hérémence stages are each run twice.
Anzère was a narrow and technical stage, with a bit of snow on the higher mountain sections beside the road.
Nax Région was a very fast stage, resembling a hill climb but much longer. Our friend and competitor Alphonse Kilchenmann described the stage as “like a hill climb, but times five,” and we couldn’t agree more!
On Friday, Anzère was my favorite stage, alongside the fast Nax Région.
What was exciting here was that many teams switched to slick tires due to the weather change, as there was little to no rain. We, however, stayed on the rain tires because we weren’t familiar with the slicks yet and felt comfortable with the rain tires. On the fast Nax Région stage, the tires started to slide a bit towards the end as the front-drive wheels got a little hot. 😉
After the first rally day, we went to bed very happy but slightly nervous. We were, however, a bit disappointed when we later received the news that the 30 km Les Cols stage, scheduled for Saturday, had to be shortened to 18 km due to weather conditions (snow). In hindsight, though, we think it was the wiser decision.
Saturday, October 25, 2025
On Saturday morning, we started the rally in a different order, as the starting order was based on the previous day’s results.
This meant we started directly in front of our friends Max Langenegger and Henrik Stucki. It was pretty cool because we could always chat about the rally and the upcoming stage.
Fabian was most excited about the first stage in the morning, as it is definitely the most intense stage of the rally.
“Les Cols” starts through the Valais vineyards on narrow, winding roads before climbing up to the Col des Planches.
The remaining stages on Saturday went really well! We were able to steadily move up in the overall standings.
Here are some onboard clips from Saturday:
The End of the Rally – Our First Victory!
The final stage of the Rallye du Valais, which led up to Champex Lac, had to be tackled under extremely challenging conditions. It was dark and very foggy. Yet, we successfully completed this last stage with flying colors.
Our very first proper rally trophy! 🏆 🔥
This success placed us 54th in the overall standings!
Thank YOU!
A huge thank you goes to Autohaus Richter Hardheim in Germany for their professional and incredibly caring support during the rallies, to Hannah, my co-driver, who feels more and more confident in her role at every rally, and to my motorsport friends and family who were fully dedicated and passionate throughout!
THANK YOU VERY MUCH!
See you at the Rallye Südliche Weinstrasse at the end of February!
If you want to follow the Zeller Racing action until then, you can watch all our full-length rally onboard videos on YouTube: