Clark Revival: Victories for Amweg and Weibel
FAST HISTORIC RACERS At the Hockenheim Historic, also known as the Jim Clark Revival, Thomas Amweg (Formula 2) and Bruno Weibel (Formula Junior) celebrated brilliant victories. Other Swiss drivers were also convincing. Around 18000 spectators braved the cold and the rain showers to attend the Hockenheim Historic "Jim Clark Revival" at the Baden Motodrom on the last weekend in April. In the process, [...]
Around 18,000 spectators braved the cold and the rain showers to attend the Hockenheim Historic "Jim Clark Revival" at the Baden Motodrom on the last weekend in April. They witnessed some Swiss drivers in the best of moods.
From the mountain to the circuit
In the 26-strong Formula 2 field with 1600cc and two-liter engines, the Thomas Amweg with the Ralt RT1-BMW from Phimmoracing - which he piloted for the first time on the circuit and with which he won the Arosa ClassicCar 2016 for the first time - the Swiss flag is flying high. And how!
After a rain shower before the first race, all the drivers had treaded tires fitted - except for two Brits. The man from Aargau was able to hold on to first place until the middle of the race, but the track dried out rapidly, whereupon his lead melted away. Martin O'Connell (Chevron B40) and Mike Griffiths (Ralt RT1), who had started on slicks, had to let Amweg go.
The joy about the podium was nevertheless great ("I would never have thought that the tire poker of the two Englishmen would work out") and was even surpassed the next day in the second race. On a completely dry track, Amweg stayed on the heels of pole setter O'Connell and overtook him with a superb maneuver. The decisive lap towards victory can be seen in the following onboard video on Thomas Amweg's Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/amweg.thomas/videos/10218800922724321/
O'Connell then also had to concede to the German Wolfgang Kaufmann (March 782). Amweg outdistanced both of them by more than 20 seconds to the finish.
Two victories for European champion Weibel
Bruno Weibel continued at the wheel of the Lotus 22 where he was at the end of the 2018 FIA Lurani Trophy for Formula Junior race cars - at the top. In both runs on a dry track, Manfredo Rossi di Montelera (Lotus 22), Mark Shaw (Brabham BT6) and Weibel delivered a great three-way battle with several lead changes.
On Saturday, the owner of Schaffner Racing won in Urdorf after 13 laps on the GP circuit with a lead of just under half a second over the Scot, and on Sunday by seven tenths over the Italian. The European champion thus also decided the overall standings in his favor. In addition, Weibel turned the fastest junior race lap in a personal best time of 1'58.816.
Fast sports car drivers
In the small field of CanAm sports cars, the Thurgau native was Marco Werner invincible with a massive McLaren Trojan M8F with an 8.1-liter V8 engine. Felix Haas but remained breathing down the neck of the three-time Le Mans winner with the smaller Lola T294. With a gap of 6.2 seconds in the first and not even 94 hundredths in the second run, Haas' two second places with a huge lead over the twice third-placed Wolfgang Henseler (Lola T210) were clear.
There were two Swiss double victories in the field of the FHR Gentle Drivers Trophy. In the first race Markus Jörg in the Lotus XI Le Mans the Felix Haas in the Lola Mk1 by almost 24 seconds and more in half an hour. In the second run, Haas only let himself be distanced by 3.1 seconds.
Müller with a lot of verve
In the large field of British touring cars and GT cars (Triumph Competition and British HTGT) was Urs Müller with his Lotus Elan 26R the fastest Swiss. After 6th place overall and second in class behind the German Rainer Bastuck on a Marcos 1800, only double winner Philippe Vermast (LUX) on a larger TVR Vixen 2500 was ahead of the man from Basel in the second race.
With an Austin Cooper S won Franz Durrer in the race, which was only contested on Saturday, the class victory.
