After two difficult years without a large audience, the 24 Hours of Nürburgring will once again be a unique folk festival this weekend. With only 135 teams, the 50th edition impresses less with mass than with class. A good two dozen teams with their sports cars from the GT3 king class SP9 or Cup-X (KTM and Glickenhaus) can hope for victory or the overall winner's podium.

Two Bernese factory drivers on one car
From a Swiss perspective, one car stands out. The Audi with start number #22 will be driven by two Swiss works drivers, Nico Müller and Patric Niederhauser. What's more, they are Bernese canton colleagues whose careers have a lot in common.

For this reason alone, it's a special race for them. Niederhauser even gets a second chance at the podium because he is also entered in the Audi #24, which is also factory-supported.

Only one Swiss winner in 49 competitions since 1970
In no other endurance race are so many factors decisive for victory and defeat, so a lot is possible for them or other strong compatriots.

Since 2015, Nico Müller has been the only Swiss to ever stand at the top of the podium and therefore knows all too well what it takes to achieve this. Ricardo Feller will also experience this as a driver in the Audi #5 at his Nürburgring debut.

Philip Ellis from Zug and Raffaele Marciello from Ticino will also share a Mercedes-AMG GT3 with start number #12 for the first time. Brand colleagues from Switzerland are Julien Apothéloz (#55) and Yannick Mettler (#34).

Octane wins race against time
In the Ferrari 488 GT3 #26 of Octane126 Jonathan Hirschi and Simon Trummer are part of the driver quartet with the Germans Luca Ludwig and Björn Grossmann. After an accident through no fault of their own at the 24H Qualifiers (shot down by a competitor) on May 7-8, the team from Wallisellen built a new car in just two weeks.

Their start alone is a success. However, due to unfair classification of the Ferrari (slowest top speed of the GT3 cars), a top result will only be achieved with a lot of racing luck and consistency.

Broad Swiss presence
At least on group or class wins many other teams with Swiss cast apart.

• Frédéric Yerly and Jasmin Preisig/Gustavo Xavier (VW Golf TCR #10 and #310, SP3T)
• Alexander Walker and Miklas Born (Aston Martin Vantage GT4 #81 and #82, SP10),
• Stanco/Stanco/Stanco (Seat Leon #113, SP3T)
• Manuel Amweg (KTM X-Bow GTX #162, Cup-X)
• Hofor Racing (BMW M3 GTR #200, SP6)
• Fabienne Wohlwend (BMW M4 GT4 #220, SP8T)
• Zünd/Zünd/Schyrba/Frei and Calamia/Jacoma/Pampanini (Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 #251 and #264, Cup3)
• Ranko Mijatovic (BMW 330i #33, VT2 RWD)
• Marco Timbal/Ivan Reggiani/Nicola Bravetti (Porsche Cayman GT4 #633, AT)

The complete current start list is available here.

Television marathon and livestream around the clock
There's a reason why we're mentioning the starting numbers. The free TV channel RTL Nitro will broadcast the entire race (start at 4 p.m. on Saturday) live with preliminary reports starting at 1:40 p.m., as well as the top-30 qualifying session on Friday evening starting at 8:15 p.m. The race action around the Nürburgring will be captured by 60 cameras.

On the YouTube channel and the organizer's homepage, the entire event, including all the supporting races (except WTCR), has also been broadcast live and free of advertising since Thursday. Under this Link there is also the livetiming and a liveticker.

So you are well informed around the clock, especially when you see the often only briefly faded in starting numbers. In the current gallery you can find some cars of the Swiss participants who were on the road in two practice sessions on Thursday.

Race premiere of Alexander Fach in Monaco
The Monaco GP is also a season highlight for all Formula 1 drivers and the drivers in the supporting races. Live from the principality, Oliver Sittler and F1 expert Marc Surer will be reporting on SRF zwei from 3.55 to 5.05 p.m. on Saturday from qualifying and on Sunday from 2.50 p.m. from the seventh round of the 2022 World Championship.

Monaco is also a special thrill for Alexander Fach. The 20-year-old from Schwyz is tackling his second Supercup race in his father's Porsche team. With a 16th-place finish in Imola, the Swiss GT3 champion got off to a good start in this top-class championship five weeks ago, as did his teammates Lorcan Hanafin and Jukka Honkavuori. The two juniors Fach and Hanafin have also cut a very good figure in the Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland so far, with loud victories and podium finishes in the rookie classification.

In German-speaking countries, the TV channels Eurosport 2 and Sky Sport will show the race live on Sunday from 12:05. A live timing is available at this Link.

24h-race.com

f1.com

After five rounds of the Suzuki Swiss Racing Cup 2022, it is as good as certain that the champion will be Fabian Eggenberger or Marcel Muzzarelli. Their performances so far at the wheel of the new Swift Sport 48V Hybrid have been too convincing for there to be a laughing third.

Two challenging routes
However, the two longest and most difficult slaloms in the calendar still follow. Next Saturday on the extensive army grounds in Bure, more than 100 gates spread over 5255 meters of track await the participants. The early conclusion will then be on June 25 with the equally challenging slalom on the armory site in Chamblon above Yverdon-les-Bains.

Eggenberger and Muzzarelli know both courses inside out. At the last race so far in 2019 in the Jura, "Muzz" won despite a goal error in the second race run, while the current Cup leader "only" finished fifth after a töggel in the first run and a safety run in the second.

In Chamblon, where despite the shorter course the run times are almost half a minute longer, the garage owner from Dübendorf took revenge. Muzzarelli finished 2nd and took the title at the end of the season with the points of Drognens (2nd) and Ambri (1st).

No more head problem with Eggenberger
As good as both are at the moment, nothing will change in this hierarchy. Especially since Eggenberger, in contrast to last year, is also in the best mental shape.

Fabian Eggenberger: "Yes, I feel freer in my mind this year. I don't study so much anymore, I can get in the car and perform."

Eggenberger even copes with the handicap of sharing the Suzuki with Heiko Leiber (which affects the car and concentration).

Fabian Eggenberger: "Obviously my aggressiveness is right. Fortunately, the car allows this driving style. Now I'm trying to keep driving like this. The important thing is simply to stay ahead of Muzz."

Unusual result of the multichampion
The defending champion, who won in Bière at the start of the season, finished second in Saturday's race in Ambri for the third time in a row before the ten-time winner of various one-make cups finished fourth on Sunday, his worst result (which some others would be happy about) in years. In his Suzuki time, which began in 2019, this has never happened before...

The otherwise so cool elective Thurgauer did not complain about the defeat itself, but how they came about in the last races.

Marcel Muzzarelli: "It bothers me to be three times so close behind Fabian. In Frauenfeld it was 55 and four hundredths, here 16 and 14 hundredths. But I would never have run such a 1'49 time here on Sunday."

Sandro Fehr shows nerves of steel
With the aforementioned dream time, Sandro Fehr won his first race in more than three years on Sunday in Ambri, when he was the first winner with the new Swift Sport at the season opener in Interlaken.

His realistic goal for the season is the third medal position in the championship, which Patrick Flammer and Michäel Béring will still challenge him for.

Sandro Fehr: "In the first race run I was still trying something out, in the second I was more aggressive. It was perfect, although I was more nervous than I've been in a long time after setting the best time in practice."

First podium motivates the Jura native
While last year's winner Patrick Flammer felt satisfaction after the disappointing sixth place in Saturday's race the other day as second, Michaël Béring (gallery left) was enormously happy about his first Suzuki podium.

Michaël Béring: "I knew I had the potential, but I wasn't ready in my head. Now I'm looking forward to my home race in the Jura, where I had already won in the touring cars."

Debrunner up, Steiner down
Jean-Claude Debrunner (center gallery) finally made progress. Most recently in Frauenfeld, the driving instructor from the Limmat Valley doubted himself. As double sixth in Ambri, he was closer in time to the podium he so longs for.

The Flammer Speed Team, whose car was shared this time by Alexander Ullrich and Reto Steiner, did not really get going. As a set points driver for the Glarus team, Steiner fell short of his expectations after scoring errors in both races on Saturday and 8th place on Sunday. Last year he did much better in Ticino.

Respect for Tremp's achievements
Gautier Henchoz made a clear improvement in the standings. Last year's newcomer from Gollion achieved his best results to date with two seventh-place finishes.

Rolf Tremp (gallery on the right) was also satisfied with his Ambri rankings (P8 and P12), although he had caused the surprise par excellence with sixth place in Frauenfeld on the previous Saturday. The AHV senior is struggling with his health, which makes his fighting spirit and perseverance all the more remarkable. In the Toggenburg duel with vehicle partner Roli Graf, the score is 4:1 in his favor.

Cheer up, Giulio!
Giuliano Piccinato, on the other hand, is only a shadow of his former self and can't get to grips with the Swift Hybrid at all. He could do whatever he wanted, he was always the same speed, complained the former production car Swiss champion and multiple Northwest Swiss champion.

On Sunday, the Bättwil garage owner experienced his lowest point as 16th and penultimate, whereupon he spoke of quitting. Cheer up, Giulio, you can't go out like that...

Interim ranking Suzuki SRC 2022

auto.suzuki.ch/suzuki-swiss-racing-cup

With two best times in the first of the two races in the Swiss Slalom Championship at the Ambri airfield, Fabian Eggenberger secured his third victory in a row on Saturday. Defending champion Marcel Muzzarelli, however, had to admit defeat by just 16 hundredths.

Sandro Fehr keeps his nerve
On Sunday on the counter-clockwise course, Sandro Fehr achieved his first victory in a long time. The Rorschach native had already been the fastest in the morning practice. With a fabulous time in the second run ("I was so nervous and am now enormously happy") he ousted Patrick Flammer from the top spot in the second race run.

The previous day's winner Fabian Eggenberger had to settle for third place on Sunday. However, it was important for him that he was able to keep Marcel Muzzarelli behind him once again, albeit only just. The Zurich native thus extended his lead in the standings after five of seven races from four to five points.

Michael Béring on the podium for the first time
Thanks to an improvement of almost 1.5 seconds in the second run, Michael Béring achieved his first longed-for podium in Saturday's race. He thus knocked Fehr off his throne and Flammer from fourth to fifth place.

With two sixth-place finishes, Jean-Claude Debrunner achieved his best hybrid results to date, as did Gautier Henchoz with two seventh-place finishes.

Background report on the race

The detailed report with votes and analyses will follow in the course of the next week on our homepage.

auto.suzuki.ch/suzuki-swiss-racing-cup

equipebernoise.ch

A victory is particularly valuable when it is achieved against strong opponents. And when it happens for the first time, it is the most beautiful. Lukas Eugster was even moved to tears by this certainty on Saturday, at the first of the two slaloms at the Ambri airfield, which were impeccably organized by Equipe Bernoise.

Philip Egli appears on the court after all
The St. Gallen native from the canton of Appenzell received unexpected pressure from Philip Egli. The record day winner had cancelled his registration before the event.

Because he was able to repair the cracked intake manifold on the engine in Dallara F394 in the short time available using special glue, Egli nevertheless turned up for the two championship races in Ticino - only to suffer his first defeat since October 2019 in the first race on Saturday at the same venue.

Philip Egli: "I had a good and then an enormously good second race run until I was waved off with the yellow flag shortly before the finish. The race replay was then even faster until the wedel, where it then no longer fit. At some point this day had to come. I like to begrudge Lukas, he took his chance."

From mountain championship runner-up to slalom day winner
In 2017, Eugster made a name for himself for the first time as runner-up in the then newly launched Berg-SM-Junior. In 2018, he entered slalom racing with a Formula Renault and was already competing for absolute top places in a Ligier sports car the following year.

After he had been so close to the first day's victory three years ago in Ambri in his last race before the Corona compulsory break (which was finally snatched from him by Marcel Maurer), it worked out now. In the onboard video you can see his winning run with 115.3 km/h average speed.

His relief was correspondingly great.

Lukas Eugster: "I had put myself under pressure after the race in Frauenfeld went completely to shit. You try weekend after weekend and you start to doubt yourself. I knew that Ambri was my chance, because on this fluid course the car reacts extremely well mechanically and aerodynamically."

Because Eugster knows how to use this advantage despite the lack of power - instead of the E2 race engine, which broke down before the start of the season, a Honda CN power unit has been installed - he was allowed to take the biggest trophy at the Nationals for the first time.

Strong performances by Zürcher and Riva
Egli's only first running time was only 42 hundredths slower, and Yves Hängärtner lost 1.16 seconds in the Dallara-Egmo GP3, which is visibly rather overpowered for slaloms.

Thomas Zürcher in the finally clean-running Tatuus F4 with the 1170cc turbo engine developed by LRM in Italy had to give way to Egli in the two-liter class for his part by only nine tenths. And local hero Tiziano Riva, in contrast to last October, used new tires on his old Reynard 92D F3000, which resulted in a time only 1.12 seconds slower than Hängärtner.

Successful revenge
The next day, on the exact same but counter-clockwise course (2730 meters) with 55 gates, Hängärtner rolled out in the first training run due to damage in the gearbox mechanics and therefore started his journey home to Biel prematurely.

While Eugster and Riva struggled with a too low wheel lock and lost time at the only slow spot, the slope bend, Egli already set the rate in training. The Glarner confirmed this performance with two clear best times, which brought him the 41st national slalom victory ahead of Eugster, Riva and Zürcher. In retrospect, he was only annoyed by the five lost SM points from Saturday...

Cheers for Drack, Sawatzki and Geering
As in Frauenfeld a week ago, the fastest driver with a roof over his head was Patrick Drack from Aargau in the courageously and skillfully driven Porsche 991 GT3 Cup. In the InterSwiss cars, Bruno Sawatzki celebrated group victory on both days over Christoph Zwahlen, both with Porsche 997 GT3 Cup.

In the IS two-liter class, Marco Geering in the Opel Kadett 16V won the great three-way battle with Manuel Santonastaso (BMW 320) and Jürg Ochsner (Opel Kadett). For the unleashed Geering the fifth Ambri triumph in a row!

In the Renault Classic Cup, Denis Wolf won both races ahead of Marc Beyeler. In the first event since winning the title twice in 2019 (RCC and Berg Cup), Philipp Krebs decided the older Clio II class, consisting of only two cars, in his favor with the third-best Renault times.

There were only three...
Nine riders came to Ambri with 40 points after full class victories in Bière and Frauenfeld. In the meantime there are only three with a clean slate, and after next Sunday in Bure there will be at most one left - Martin Bürki.

The defending champion won superiorly in the E1-1600 in the VW Polo with a mixture of attack and conservation of material, and Christian Darani in the Fiat X 1/9 attacked as always in the E1-2000. In third place, Nicola Fankhauser in the Honda Civic also prevailed for the fourth time in Group A up to two liters. All others had to accept a points deduction on the first and/or second Ambri day.

Everything is working again for Martin Bürki
Runner-up Darani will be missing in Bure, however, because he saw the three weekends off after the Slalom SM calendar was published in the winter for the end of May/beginning of June and planned family vacations in Italy.

But because the Ecurie des Ordons postponed its race to avoid a clash with the La Roche-La Berra mountain race on July 18/19, the Ticino native is now the loser. Family comes before sport for him, and with it the title dreams disappear.

And because Fankhauser will not have the class in the Jura, only Bürki still has the chance of a clean slate - the ninth title in the slalom championship, which will then be decided on June 26 in Chamblon, is ready.

All rankings of both race days can be viewed at the link below.

equipebernoise.ch

The second DTM season with GT3 sports cars got off to an extremely encouraging start for Nico Müller at Portimão on May 1. With his eleventh career victory, the first in Team Rosberg's Audi R8 (see highlights video), the Bernese pro hoisted himself to second place in the championship after the first race weekend.

His ambitious goal for the coming weekend is nothing less than to take over the top spot in the standings. The overall leader is the Italian Mirko Bortolotti (Lamborghini) with 35 points ahead of Müller (28) and the Austrian Lucas Auer on Mercedes (26).

A real courage curve
However, a special task awaits him and his DTM colleagues at Lausitz. Only the GT3 sports cars of the DTM will enter Turn 1 of the EuroSpeedway Lausitz. This is a long, slightly banked left-hand bend that can accommodate two, three or even four cars side by side.

The angle of inclination is not as great as in American steep curves. That's why it doesn't go full speed, but at around 250 kilometers per hour it's faster than on any of the eight racetracks on the 2022 DTM calendar. All 28 drivers and the only female driver in the field are brave enough to tackle it with a slight lurch of the gas pedal, but they also admit to having to take their hearts in both hands. One or two wall impacts last year proved just how tricky this corner is.

Nico Müller: "Last year, I almost wet my pants in this corner."

New territory for "Ricky" Feller
Ricardo Feller wants to lay a foundation stone with two points wins for top 10 finishes in Portugal, which he wants to build on with the ABT team.

Ricardo Feller: "I have good memories of the Lausitzring. The track variant with Turn 1 is new to me, but I love high-speed corners. From there, I can hardly wait to start there."

The two DTM races, which start at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, will be broadcast live by ProSieben (broadcast starts at 1 p.m.). In addition, the streaming platforms will show ran.de, ServusTV On (servustv.com) and DTM Grid (grid.dtm.com) almost completely dominated the Lausitzring action.

The spearhead is missing in the ADAC GT Masters
The Swiss teams and drivers got off to a similarly good start to the 2022 ADAC GT Masters as Müller did in the DTM on April 23/24. Because last year's champion Feller's priority is the DTM, only his German ADAC GT team partner Jusuf Owega will be defending the championship lead with the Belgian with Dries Vanthoor at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg.

On the other hand, Raffaele Marciello (Mercedes), Patric Niederhauser (Audi) and Emil Frey Racing hope to build on the results of Oschersleben. The man from Ticino comes to Styria in second place in the standings, "Nidi" in fourth and the best-placed Lambo from Safenwil (Perera/Rougier) in fifth.

Everything live on TV or Internet
With a total of 56 points to be awarded in the two qualifying sessions and races, their gap to Owega (37 points) of seven, eight and nine points is kept within limits, so that there could still be a leader of the standings from Switzerland after the second ADAC weekend.

All ADAC GT Masters races will start at 1 p.m.. TV partner NITRO will broadcast them live from Lausitz on Saturday and Sunday from 12.30 p.m. onwards. The highlights of both races are broadcast on the same race day on the YouTube channel of the ADAC GT Masters. The two races for the Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland (with Alexander Fach from Schwyz), which both start at 2:40 p.m., will also be broadcast live on TV on NITRO.

On the Internet, the races can be viewed in livestream on RTL+, and adac.de/motorsport can be tracked. On the informative ADAC Motorsport website and on sport.com the GT4 Germany, Formula 4 and TCR Germany, which also feature Swiss participation, will also be broadcast live.

More overtaking maneuvers at the Spanish GP
The Formula 1 teams will tackle the sixth round of the 2022 World Championship in Spain on Sunday. The Circuit de Catalunya will be a good test to see whether the new technical regulations for 2022 have really made it easier for the cars to follow one another and thus overtake better. The teams are very familiar with the GP circuit in Barcelona from tests in the spring, but overtaking maneuvers are a challenge here.

After the convincing victory over Ferrari in Miami, this will not prevent world championship leader Max Verstappen from risking every overtaking maneuver if he is not in front from the start. 23 of the 31 Formula 1 races to date at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya have been won from pole position, proving just how important qualifying is.

After Valtteri Bottas' brilliant fifth-place finish in Miami, Alfa Romeo Sauber in Hinwil is therefore hoping for a continuation of the top performances of its driver jewel as early as the allocation of grid positions.

Qualifying as recording on SRF or live on ORF
Because the parallel broadcast of the Ice Hockey World Championships in Finland and the Athletics Diamond Meeting in Birmingham have priority for Swiss television, Saturday's qualifying will only be shown in a recording from 5 to 6:15 p.m. on SRF info.

ORF1 will broadcast the qualifying session live with German commentary and news from 3.25 p.m. until around 5.25 p.m. With Michael Weinmann and GP expert Marc Surer as commentators, SRF zwei will then be live on Sunday from 14.20 to probably 16.50.

dtm.com

adac-gt-masters.com

f1.com

A defect discovered during a check-up of the Dallara F393 EPR-5 on Tuesday evening forces Philip Egli to cancel the two National Slaloms of the Equipe Bernoise in Ambri next weekend. The Glarner, who lives in the canton of Zurich, still has a Dallara F394 with an Opel engine at home.

Philip Egli: "Unfortunately, I can't prepare the replacement car in such a short time and have to use the next weekend for it. But the Sunday after next in Bure we'll be back on the grid, then with the original Formula 3 car."

End of a winning streak
Last Sunday, Egli celebrated his already 40th day's victory at national level during the ACS Auto Race Days in Frauenfeld. He suffered his last defeat on October 6, 2019, then against Marcel Maurer.

The Bernese is taking a break from racing in 2022 and would have accompanied his long-time adversary as a helper, as Philip's dad Rolf was off on a vacation trip to Frauenfeld.

Maurer would have beaten Egli in the first of the two slaloms in Ambri last year. However, he was blamed for a scoring error that he had not committed, which we will see in this Report explained in detail.

Great opportunity for Egli's opponents
So it is certain that there will be a new winner of the day. This will probably be either Lukas Eugster or Yves Hängärtner. No question, both would rather fight out the bouquet with than without Egli.

Frauenfeld pechvogel Eugster has often been on the overall winners' podium, but never at the top. Hängärtner already took stage wins in 2017 with a Tatuus-Honda F-Master, but with the ex-Jenzer-Dallara GP3 with a specially developed 1750cc turbo engine from Eggenberger Motorenbau (around 500 hp) it would be a first.

The 2730-meter, fluid course on the Ambri airfield, which is driven clockwise on Saturday and counterclockwise on Sunday, suits Hängärtner's new overall package better than Bière and Frauenfeld. However, this also applies to the Ligier-Honda sports car of the aggressive St. Gallen native, which is designed for aerodynamics and is just under half as powerful.

Tiziano Riva and Tom Zürcher could also be the winners. However, the Ticino driver has too little slalom experience at the wheel of the old Reynard F3000 to seriously challenge the aforementioned duo. And Zürcher has yet to recover from a meniscus operation and also doesn't have much practice with the Tatuus-LRM-Abarth.

Reversed signs in the Suzuki Cup
Points are also at stake twice in the Suzuki Swiss Racing Cup. In Frauenfeld, Marcel Muzzarelli suffered two narrow defeats against the completely unleashed Fabian Eggenberger, who thus snatched the top spot in the standings from him.

Marcel Muzzarelli: "I had no chance, even though Fabian did a double start with Heiko Leiber and put more strain on the car. I've always had a hard time in Frauenfeld. I think a slightly rougher driving style is better there."

In Ambri, where he secured the title with a win in October 2021, the Thurgau native could turn the tables again. But the Cup leader wants to use the momentum.

Fabian Eggenberger: "Now Muzz is under pressure. For me, it's different than always having to catch up."

Watch out for Fehr, Flammer and Steiner
Sandro Fehr is also feeling the wind in his sails after finishing 3rd and 4th in Frauenfeld. And Patrick Flammer ensured the first victory of a hybrid model last October in Ambri, which he wants to confirm this weekend. Rico Thomann's place in the second Swift, scored for the Flammer Speed Team, will be taken by Reto Steiner, who amazed with his performances in Ambri in 2021.

A total of around 400 riders are registered for both race days. Start lists and schedule are available on the homepage of the organizer, a livetiming under this Link.

equipebernoise.ch/current

Around 270 drivers, divided into ten fields, found ideal conditions on both race days in beautiful early summer weather. For the second time in the still young season, points were at stake for the Swiss Slalom Championship and other racing series.

After Chamblon now also in Frauenfeld the record series winner
Philip Egli emerged as the day's winner - for the 40th time at a National Slalom - in his optimum Dallara race car. The Glarus resident missed last year's best time on the 3.2-kilometer course with 49 gates by 19 hundredths, but he was still overjoyed.

Philip Egli: "I didn't manage both race runs without any mistakes, so I'm glad that it was still enough. But a time under two minutes was impossible. This victory was important to me, because to have won seven times in a row at the same race is special."

Not a good day for Lukas Eugster
Yves Hängärtner in the Dallara GP3 and Lukas Eugster in his Ligier-Honda challenged Egli for the day's win, as they had done two weeks earlier in Bière (and next weekend at the double-header in Ambri). Hängärtner, however, did not bring the power of the turbo racing car with around 500 hp to the ground well enough on the angular course.

And the man from St. Gallen made a scoring error in the same place in both runs, which earned him an unprecedented defeat in the sports cars at the hands of Antonino Scolara in an Osella Junior.

Third place overall went to Jannis Jeremias in a Tatuus Formula Renault after Eugster's lapse ("That was somehow not my day"), although he could only contest the first race run before a helper's mishap (front spoiler demolished).

Drack on Zack
Fifth overall behind Scolaro and fastest driver with closed race cars was Patrick Drack in a Porsche 991-II GT3 Cup from Group E1. In both runs, the 45-year-old from Aargau beat Christian Darani's touring car record set last July by three and two hundredths respectively.

The Ticino native himself was only 24 hundredths slower than Drack in the Fiat X 1/9 and confidently secured another class win in the E1-2000. Not quite able to match last year's best time was Simon Wüthrich in the VW Golf Turbo 4WD, despite the best acceleration values of all 115 competitors who started, so that he also had to concede to Danny Krieg in the Porsche 991 GT3 Cup, the former Supercup champion car from Fach Auto Tech (2014 with Earl Bamber), in the largest E1 cars.

Thurgau home wins for Zwahlen and "Santi
Faster than both was Christoph Zwahlen in the older Porsche 997 GT3 Cup, with which he prevailed in the Interswiss group against brand colleagues Bruno Sawatzki and Willi Jenni.

After changing the broken battery in his BMW 320 Si, Manuel Santonastaso could only contest the second race run. In the process, the nerve-strong man from Thurgau caught Marco Geering in the Opel Kadett, who had previously been leading in the IS-2000, by six hundredths.

Bürki furious, Schläpfer wins Renault Cup
Martin Bürki in the small VW Polo achieved two fabulous times under 2'15 minutes for the first time. Apart from Darani, the slalom champion left all the two-liters behind him in the low-torque 1600cc car.

In the Renault Clio Classic Cup, Michale Schläpfer made everything clear in the first heat, so that a goal error in heat 2 did nothing to change the clear victory over Denis Wolf and Marc Beyeler. These two were separated by just three hundredths.

All ranking lists and further information can be found on the homepage of the ACS Thurgau.

acs.ch/en/sections/thurgau/motorsport/auto-renntage-frauenfeld

At the season opener in Bière, Marcel Muzzarelli was in a class of his own. His opponents in the Suzuki Swiss Racing Cup, where fractions of a second usually decide the podium places, seemed perplexed. Two weeks later, someone took revenge in a similarly convincing manner.

Duel for victory, four-way fight for the podium
During the 22nd ACS Thurgau Auto Race Days in Frauenfeld, Fabian Eggenberger struck back twice in warm early summer weather. In the morning race on the 3.2-kilometer course with 49 gates, however, the Zurich native was only able to distance himself from the Grisons native, who has been living in the canton of Thurgau for 17 years, by four hundredths.

Patrick Flammer, already third in Bière, and Sandro Fehr also stayed within the same second with a running time of just over two and a half minutes.

Change at the top of the table
In the afternoon Eggenberger once again got everything out of his Suzuki Swift Sport 48V Hybrid and distanced Muzzarelli by more than half a second. His always aggressive driving style paid off this time, while the finer and more efficient driving style of the champion was again "only" enough for second place.

The defending champion enviously acknowledged that he had no chance against the well-mannered challenger, although the winner had to deal with stressed brakes and tires due to the double start with Heiko Leiber. With the double strike Eggenberger took over the championship lead from Muzzarelli, now the score is 58 to 56 in his favor.

Fehr stays on the ball
Sandro Fehr seemed as satisfied as the double winner about the last podium place in the second race and the minimal gap of six hundredths to "Muzz". Without a mistake in the last corner, however, he would have beaten the champion. In the standings, Fehr maintained the third intermediate place.

After a gate error in the first run of race 2, Patrick Flammer drove a bit too much for safety in the final run and, to his own surprise, lost more than 2.5 seconds. As a result, Rico Thomann in the second Suzuki in Flammer team colors moved up from fifth in the first to fourth in the second race - the best result so far for the 2019 Swiss Junior Mountain Champion.

The 6th and 7th places of Cup senior Rolf Tremp (69) were also strong, while the 7th and 5th places of Michaël Béring, who like Thomann has one season of hybrid experience, did not quite meet his expectations.

Background report on the race
The detailed report with votes and analyses will follow in the course of the next week on our homepage.

auto.suzuki.ch/suzuki-swiss-racing-cup

author-days.ch

Thus, the increasingly broad-based racing company RacingFuel from Horgen, headed by brothers Wani and Ferruccio Finkbohner, has decided to become involved in the European offshoot of the famous American NASCAR.

Three Swiss in the two Chevrolet Camaro
The Racingfuel Motorsport team is fielding two Chevrolet Camaro cars driven by four drivers, some of them well-known. The internationally successful professional Lucas Luhr shares the #58 car (gallery left) with Christoph Lenz. The German drives in the top EuroNASCAR PRO class, the Swiss in EuroNASCAR 2.

In the second Chevy #94 (center gallery), Bruno Staub and Roger Mettler are two drivers from Switzerland. For all of them, this racing series is new territory. But because the European races - unlike in the USA, where speedways dominate - are held exclusively on conventional circuits, it is no witchcraft for experienced and talented race drivers.

A new driving experience
However, the archaic racing touring cars with unit chassis, silhouettes of the Chevrolet Camaro, Ford Mustang and Toyota Camry and around 400 hp V8 engines do not feature any driving aids such as ABS and ESP or semi-automatic transmissions.

Therefore, they are a new experience for all Racingfuel pilots.

Christoph Lenz: "At the moment, the challenge is to get to know the peculiarities of the Nascar car so that we can exploit its full potential."

Veteran Maggi finally wants to win
Against the Racingfuel quartet, Giorgio Maggi is an old hand despite being only 24 years old. The driver from Nidwald is already tackling his fourth EuroNASCAR season at the Valencia Circuit in Spain, his third in the PRO class.

For 2022, Maggi has allied himself with Race Art Technology. The Italian-Swiss team based in Balerna TI is fielding a Toyota Camry (gallery on the right) for him.

Maggi's goal for the season has to be his first win, after a second-place finish in Croatia in 2020 and two other top-five finishes were his best results to date. Last year, Maggi scored three wins in the Junior Trophy for riders aged 25 and under, finishing seventh overall.

No fewer than 37 EuroNASCAR cars with female drivers (5) and male drivers from 22 nations are on the starting list for Valencia. All qualifying sessions and races on Saturday and Sunday (one per class and day) can be seen live on the YouTube channel of the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series, as the series is correctly called.

New GT team from Liechtenstein
Other international races attract viewers to YouTube. For example, the 12 Hours of Hockenheim, the fourth round of the 24H Series. According to the current starting list, Switzerland will be represented only by Jasmin Preisig with the Audi RS3 LMS TCR from Wolf-Power Racing.

Maniack Racing, a team from Liechtenstein with a Mercedes-AMG GT4, is a newcomer. It is supported by Autorama Motorsport from Wetzikon. The drivers are Martin Wachter and Dario Pergolini from Liechtenstein and Constantin Kletzer from Austria. Pergolini is also team manager and, like Stefan Tanner from Autorama, a shrewd race engineer.

Part 1 of the half marathon will be completed on Saturday from 1:50 p.m. to 7:55 p.m., and Part 2 on Sunday from 2 p.m. to 7:55 p.m., before absolute engine silence must prevail at the Motodrom. Here are the direct links to the Livestream and to the Livetiming.

Ricardo Feller with the Kangaroos
There's more automotive sport on YouTube from the Bathurst 12 Hours in Australia. In the first round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge, Aargau GT works driver Ricardo Feller is competing in a local team supported by Audi Sport. Here the direct Link.

Not only the 6.2-kilometer Mount Panorama Circuit is considered unique, but also the race, which starts on Sunday morning at 5:15 a.m. local time (9:15 p.m. Saturday CEST) in the dark.

Niederhauser and Marciello in the GT3 points chase
On the YouTube channel of the worldwide GT organizer SRO, the two sprint races of the GT World Challenge Europe at Magny-Cours will also be shown with German commentary this weekend. The first on Saturday evening from 7 pm, the second on Sunday at 3 pm.

Representing the Swiss colors are Patric Niederhauser with Frenchman Aurelien Panis in the Saintéloc Racing Audi R8 #25 and Raffaele Marciello from Ticino with Bulgarian Timur Boguslavskiy in the Mercedes-AMG #89.

ELMS with Delétraz, Scherer and Frey
On Sunday, the Imola GP circuit will be the venue for the second race this year for victories and points in the European Le Mans Series, to be seen on the YouTube channel  of the race series. The start of the race over four hours is at 11.30 am.

The opening race in mid-April at Le Castellet was won by the LMP2 team with defending champion Louis Delétraz from Geneva. Fabio Scherer in LMP2 and Rahel Frey in a Ferrari in the GT class are also aiming for podium finishes.

Formula E double run in Berlin
Finally, it's quieter at the two Formula E World Championship races on the Tempelhof circuit in Berlin. These can be seen on free-to-air television in Switzerland on MySports One and ProSieben, and on the Internet at Ran.com to see.

Both races with preliminary reports and subsequent analyses on Saturday and Sunday from 2.30 to 4.30 p.m. (start at 3.04 p.m.). A livetiming is available here.

After scoring nil points in the last two races in Rome and Monaco, Edoardo Mortara has slipped from the top of the standings to fifth place. Sébastien Buemi, who finished eighth in Monaco in the Nissan - as good as only in Mexico before - is in a disappointing 14th position. His problem is his poor performance in qualifying so far.

Mercedes driver Stoffel Vandoorne traveled to the German capital as the world championship leader after his Monaco victory.

racingfuelmotorsport.com

euronascar.com

24hseries.com

bathurst12hour.com.au

intercontinentalgtchallenge.com

gt-world-challenge-europe.com

europeanlemansseries.com

fiaformulae.com

Around 60,000 fans attended the multi-day motorsport festival at the Road Atlanta Circuit in the US state of Georgia on the second weekend in May. The highlight on Saturday evening was the Formula Drift duels on a section of the slightly uphill and downhill circuit.

For The Drift Force, the racing team from Nidwalden founded by Joshua Reynolds (gallery left) and Yves Meyer (gallery center), the second race of the season turned out to be another unforgettable experience in the premier class of this spectacular discipline, even though the sporting expectations could not be met.

Long journey across the pond
Due to the worldwide logistics problems in the transportation industry, Joshua Reynolds' Toyota GT86, which had already been shipped from Switzerland to California several months ago, only arrived a few days before the event. It was only thanks to the efforts of the entire team and its technical partners that it was possible to get the car to the starting line at all without prior test bench trials.

Yves Meyer: "We suddenly had to ship Josh's car to the USA three weeks before the agreed date, and then the container arrived in Los Angeles twelve weeks late. It then had to be transported from there to Atlanta in just a few days. Because we had changed the electronic system at home without being able to test it, we had to do this on site. Without the enormous help from Maptec in Romanshorn, we wouldn't have been able to get the Toyota up and running."

The newly installed KW Competition suspension also had to be set up for the track. However, as there was no prospect of success in the short time available, the team withdrew the car (gallery right) after training.

Small mistake with consequences
Only then was Toyota Gazoo Racing Switzerland able to concentrate on Yves Meyer's GT86 with the support of its American partner team. The four-cylinder turbo engine with over 900 hp, which runs on E85 and NX nitrous oxide, ran perfectly, but after a gearshift error, it only just qualified for the first elimination of the top 32 in 32nd place in the field of 38 drivers.

According to the regulations, Meyer faced the fastest qualifier in the sixteenth-place final. The Swiss driver was by no means without a chance against Matt Field in a Corvette C6. Because his front wheel got caught up with the front wheel of the Chevrolet in the chase run and both cars spun as a result (see video), this meant the end for Meyer despite a strong lead run.

Yves Meyer: "Without the small driving mistake, I would have qualified better. The fact that I ran into Matt Field, who is practically our team-mate, was a coincidence. Our battle could have ended in my favor if I had hit him ten centimetres further in front or behind, which is not forbidden."

Toyota leads the championship
Despite the problems in Georgia, Yves Meyer draws a positive conclusion.

Yves Meyer: "Our Toyota GT86 is awesome, even though it is one of the older cars in the field. We have the pace to keep up with the top drivers. So it's up to us to realize this potential. We now want to take this flow to the next race."

The third round of Formula Drift will take place on May 20 and 21 at the Orlando Speed World in Florida. Norwegian Fredric Aasbo, who won the final round at Road Atlanta in his powerful Toyota GR Supra, will be the championship leader. Toyota also leads the interim standings in the manufacturers' standings.

thedriftforce.com

instagram.com/thedriftforce

formulad.com