Berg-Pokal: Martin Bürki's most difficult race day

RECORD WIN DUE TO MISTAKE After his most emotionally difficult race in the Jura, Martin Bürki, whose friend and customer Jürg Beiner (photo) died, leads the Swiss Mountain Cup alone. This will change again already on Sunday in Oberhallau. Martin Bürki is a perfectionist, whose mind is always 100 percent on the job. At the St-Ursanne hill climb - [...]

Editorial - August 22, 2019

Their best sporting moment together: At the 2017 Interlaken slalom, Jürg Beiner (right) wins the overall touring car classification and his mentor and friend Masrtin Bürki takes another step towards the eventual title win with a class victory.

Martin Bürki is a perfectionist whose mind is always 100 percent on the job. At the St-Ursanne - Les Rangiers hill climb, this was different. After a long and final hospital visit the previous week, he had the certainty that his long-time friend and racing colleague Jürg Beiner would not survive the weekend. In the night to Sunday Bürki received the expected bad news. The Graubünden strawberry producer and family man succumbed at the age of only 56 to a cancer diagnosed only a few months ago.

A record victory in honor of the deceased
As a member of MB Motorsport, personally coached by the team boss for years, Jürg Beiner wanted to participate in the Slalom-SM this season with an optimal BMW M3 GTR V8. His greatest success, apart from several class wins, was the overall touring car victory at the 2017 Interlaken slalom in a Lancia Delta S4 rented from Bruno Ianniello. AutoSprintCH and Galledia Fachmedien AG would like to take this opportunity to express their sincere condolences to the bereaved family.

No 1600 touring car has ever been as fast as Stephan Burri at this hill climb. Unfortunately, this only brought him full points for the IS Trophy.

Despite the grief, Bürki drove his E1 Polo with concentration for a few minutes in the first run on race day and, like many others, set a class record. The fact that he was exceptionally not as fast as Stephan Burri with a Polo in the Interswiss group that was equally good except for its extra weight was secondary. Because Bürki experimented with higher wheels in the second run in order to conserve material (less high revs), it stayed that way.

On the Gurnigel it comes to the direct duel
Burri himself also won in record time in the IS-1600s, confirming his lead in the Interswiss Trophy standings. This is also his big goal in 2019. For the Mountain Trophy, the previous co-leader in the Mountain Trophy only received half points because the class consisted of only four competitors instead of five.

The same is now happening to Bürki in Oberhallau, although there would be enough E1-1600 cars in the country. Because he is aware, as is Auto Sport Schweiz, that many IS cars do not actually comply with the regulations and that nothing has happened so far despite a warning from the sports authority in the spring, he draws the consequences. Bürki adapts his VW Polo to the IS regulations and competes directly against Burri at the Gurnigel.

Thomas Zürcher quickly got used to driving a Renault Clio III again. Now he is tipping the scales in the Mountain Cup.

Victorious return of Thomas Zürcher in the Renault Classic Cup
Philipp Krebs, previously the third driver at the top of the standings, had to settle for a narrow defeat in the Renault Classic Cup at the European Championship round. After his accident with the Tatuus-Abarth F4 in Anzère, Thomas Zürcher decided to return to the highly competitive one-make cup, which he had won five times in a row until 2016. To this end, he rented from Denis Wolf the Clio RS III that he had purchased from Meverick Gerber immediately after Anzère and added to his fleet as the third rental vehicle for customers.

If Krebs hadn't messed up the first race in his Clio II Cup, Zürcher wouldn't have been ahead by half a second in the end. If Krebs successfully strikes back in Oberhallau, the Renault driver will take over the sole lead in the standings. If Krebs finishes second with simultaneous wins by Bürki and Burri, the trio will once again be jointly ahead in the Mountain Cup.

Happy gang: Philipp Krebs, Thomas Zürcher and Daniel Borer, who returned to the mountain after two years with a strong third place in the Renault Classic Cup.

Hussar ride from Ruedi Fuhrer
The two-liter drivers can never complain about a lack of opponents. In Group IS, Patrick Vallat with the VW Golf 2 16V not unexpectedly kept the upper hand over Manuel Santanastaso in the BMW 320 and all the others on his home track. Already in the rain of Anzère the driver from Jura was in front.

In the E1-2000, Fabien Houlmann from St-Ursanne in a Peugeot 205 and Ruedi Fuhrer in a Honda CRX F20 shone in the first race with their 2'13 times. The man from Brienz kept his nerve afterwards and won his class in the fastest race of the year, as in previous years, while the local hero still fell behind Sébastien Coquoz in the Opel Kadett. Because he missed the registration deadline, Ruedi Fuhrer will be absent next weekend for the next big battle in this E1-2000 class, which has the largest number of participants and is otherwise well-staffed.