Motorsport: Day of the foreigners in Jura
European champion Simone Faggioli dominated the action at the Swiss European Mountain Championship race in St-Ursanne. Joël Volluz survived a horrendous accident unharmed. Reto Meisel won the touring car category without a training run. The best news from Swiss motorsport on Sunday was not a success story, but the all-clear following Joël Volluz's accident. The man from Valais hit the fastest section of the track in [...]
The best news from Swiss motorsport on Sunday was not a success story, but the all-clear following Joël Volluz's accident. The driver from Valais hit the crash barriers on the fastest section of the track in the infamous Les Grippons bend at over 200 km/h without braking, causing the Osella FA30 to smash into a thousand pieces. Joël Volluz miraculously survived the horrendous crash unharmed on the day before his 25th birthday.
"The car touched down at the apex of the corner and became uncontrollable as a result," said the 25-year-old, explaining the accident, which means the end of the season for him if he doesn't get a replacement car. Because the last competitors in the race cars were caught out by a downpour in the first race, Joël Volluz wanted to set a top time to close the gap on Marcel Steiner, who had started well ahead of him in the dry, in order to take the win and full points in the Swiss championship.
First SM victory for Marcel Steiner with the new sports car
In the absence of SM leader Eric Berguerand (who will never compete in the Jura again), Marcel Steiner finished fourth overall and won the SM classification for the first time, but was worlds behind Simone Faggioli with the LobArt Mugen. The Italian mountain pro improved his own record with the Norma sports car by a full second to 1'42.11 on the track, which was extended by eleven to 5080 meters, and took the day's victory with a similarly fast second time with an average of 182.6 (!) km/h. With David Hauser (Dallara GP2) from Luxembourg and Christian Merli (Osella) from South Tyrol, who was also slowed down by the rain in the first race, the other podium places also went to foreigners.
The duel for the touring car victory was exciting. Reto Meisel rolled out after a few meters in the first practice run, drove home and returned in the evening with a repaired car. The jury gave the go-ahead for the start without a practice run, whereupon the man from Aargau set the best TW time in the Mercedes SLK 340 after a cautious first run in 2'00.085 - 0.015 above his own E1 record from 2006 on the shorter track. Ronnie Bratschi also achieved a hammer time in the Mitsubishi, after his first run, which he had started twice, had been somewhat unsuccessful. He was only beaten by 0.24 seconds, but remains ahead of Reto Meisel at the top of the Touring Car Hillclimb Championship.
www.rangiers.ch
Photos: Ramon Hänggi, Peter Wyss
