70 years: All the best, Fredy Amweg!

Alfred Amweg, Ammerswil - these three A-words are repeatedly at the top of the rankings in the annals of every traditional Swiss hillclimb race. He has won his home race, the ACS hillclimb slalom in Reitnau (which only mutated into a real hillclimb race after his retirement), 19 times. Once again, the Aargauer even took the day's victory at the Bernese on the Gurnigel.

Career start in the mini-race car
The late Arnold Amweg sr. passed on the racing bug to his son of the same name, whom everyone just calls Fredy. They completed the ACS license course together, his father, who had switched from racing, in the Brabham F2, which had been newly created in their agricultural machinery workshop in Ammerswil from a pile of scrap given to him by Clay Regazzoni, and his junior in the BMW 700 mini-racing car he had knitted himself.

Initially cheating his way into the field without a license, Fredy soon entered legally and in 1969, one month after his 20th birthday, missed the first day's victory at the hillclimb slalom in Reitnau by just six tenths in a Brabham BT16. Two years later, Amweg then celebrated his first overall victory at his home race in a Tecno F2.

The cadi as sponsor
Things only really started to look up in the double sense of the word when the fulfillment of his duty to his fatherland proved to be a stroke of luck. Because he often asked his cadi for leave, the latter knew about Amweg's car races and promptly became the main sponsor. At first, Fredy was able to buy Silvio Moser's Brabham BT38 with the money from the Vileda company, but he soon had a hard time with it against Roland Salomon's new March-BMW in 1973. So Amweg was also allowed to buy a new March car from England for 1974 and to drive it in the Gertsch Vileda Racing Team. In addition to the Swiss championship, Amweg also competed in a few Formula 2 European Championship races.

Building your own Formula 2 race car
The Aargauer only concentrated on the mountain when the racing team was dissolved and he was once again left to his own devices. In their time of need, the Amwegs built their own Formula 2 racing car, which Fredy drove until 1978, but increasingly lost out to the competition. On the advice of a Welsh competitor, he looked to the French constructor Tico Martini, who offered special mountain monoposti at affordable prices.

With the BMW engine from his retired Amweg chassis, Fredy Amweg was now well equipped. From 1979 onwards, the Amweg/Martini combination was hard to beat and, as before with the March-BMW, he also took a number of stage wins at major hillclimbs abroad.

Trendsetter with a Formula 3000
Thanks to the prize money, the mountain king was able to pursue his hobby almost without hesitation with the support of his father. At first, the competition almost pitied his switch to a Lola F3000, because they were now driving around his ears with their tried-and-tested Formula 2s. As the fox got on better and better with the power of the V8 three-liter on the mountain and won in rows, pity turned into suspicion before it dawned on everyone that the future belonged to the Formula 3000 class on the mountain.

End with 50
Before the boom really took off in Switzerland and neighboring countries, the trendsetter hung up his helmet at the end of 1998 after around 30 years. A retirement with an announcement. "I'm quitting at 50," he told himself and everyone who wanted to hear it - and he stuck to it. Especially since there was nothing left to win in sport. Of his 220 or so stage victories, countless course records and 15 times winning the Coupe der Schweizer Berge - the forerunner of today's mountain championship - two personal bests remain in his special memory. Both at the European Championship race in St-Ursanne and on the Gurnigel, he rode the targeted vintage time: 1'49 - today, two decades later, only a few manage that with comparable material.

The name lives on in racing
His three children Sabine, Thomas and Manuel have long since followed in his footsteps. After her father's retirement, Sabine received paternal support in the Mazda MX5 Cup and then, as a mother, drove a Renault Clio with her husband Frédéric Yerly in a few endurance races on the Nürburgring. The man from Freiburg has also long been a household name in racing. Most recently, Yerly won three VLN races in the TCR class in 2019. Manuel Amweg won the Toyota GT86 Cup at the Nürburgring in 2016 and 2017. His older brother Thomas switched from circuit racing (Formula Renault and Formula 3) to the mountain like his father once did, where he is now also one of the fastest in the country in a Lola F3000.

There's no question that the experienced and now 70-year-old dad will be on hand to offer advice and support, and will also be on hand to help out at the Ayent-Anzère hill climb next weekend.

Happy birthday, dear Fredy!

facebook.com/groups/amweg.motosport