The 1973 Polish Rally (formally the 33rd Polish Rally) was the seventh round of the inaugural

World Rally Championship The World Rally Championship (abbreviated as WRC) is the highest level of global competition in the motorsport discipline of rallying, owned and governed by the FIA. There are separate championships for drivers, co-drivers, manufacturers and t ...

season. Run in mid-July in southern

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

, this marked to only year in which Poland (or any member of the

Warsaw Pact The Warsaw Pact (WP) or Treaty of Warsaw, formally the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, was a collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland, between the Soviet Union and seven other Eastern Bloc socialist republic ...

) was part of the WRC calendar until 36 years later in 2009. This edition was also notable for the fact that of the 62 teams which began the rally, only three completed it, a record that stands today.

Report

In 1973, and for several years afterward, only manufacturers were given points for finishes in WRC events. Despite the misfortune of most of the teams,

Fiat Fiat Automobiles S.p.A. (, , ; originally FIAT, it, Fabbrica Italiana Automobili di Torino, lit=Italian Automobiles Factory of Turin) is an Italian automobile manufacturer, formerly part of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, and since 2021 a subsidiary ...

was able to finally gain a win for their

Fiat Abarth 124 Rallye The Fiat 124 Sport Spider is a convertible sports car marketed by Fiat for model years 1966–1985. Designed by and manufactured at the Italian ''carrozzeria'' Pininfarina factory, the monocoque, front-engine, rear drive ''Sport Spider'' deb ...

. As no other major competitors were able to complete the rally, the win was by a substantial margin, the German driver outpacing the next finisher by nearly three hours.

Results

Source: Independent WRC archive

Championship standings after the event

References

External links

Official website of the World Rally Championship

1973 Rally Poland
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Rallye-info
{{Rally Poland

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

Rally of Poland 1973 in Polish sport