co-driver Manfred Hiemer

After the contract with Ford ends, Armin Schwarz uses the year for new orientation. The most important happenstance: “It was a lucky coincidence that the professional co-driver Manfred Hiemer was back on the market, so to speak, after Erwin Weber's retirement. We had wanted to contest the German Championship together in 1987 but things somehow didn't work out. But in 1998 we talked a lot on the telephone and it all came together the following year.“ To stay in training, Armin contests various rallies, like in Spa, in Lebanon, on Madeira and Gran Canaria. “I wanted to keep up my training so I accepted invitations to rallies. We drove in Spa but only managed one stage. In Lebanon I had the chance to drive a Peugeot. That was a welcome change. We started in Madeira and Gran Canaria.“ At the RAC Rally in Britain the pair secure seventh in a Ford Escort WRC.