Berg-SM: A final with surprises
MOUNTAIN RACING Because his last title rival did not compete, Frédéric Neff (pictured) was already crowned 2017 Touring Car Hillclimb Champion before the start of training for the final race at Châtel-St-Denis-Les Paccots. Joël Grand in the two-liter race car emerged as the surprising winner of the day in changeable weather conditions. All's well that ends well. Finally a hill climb that went off without a serious accident. Heavy rain made sure of that [...]
All's well that ends well. Finally a hill climb that went off without a serious accident. However, heavy rain during the third round of the race caused the race to be stopped. A sensible decision, as the continuation would not have changed the classification anyway.
The first training run on Saturday afternoon had barely finished when light rain set in. After that, dry spells alternated with showers for the rest of the weekend, with the 2.5 km long track from the northern highway bridge in Châtel-St-Denis up to Les Paccots always damp or completely wet somewhere.
For this reason, former top driver Roland Bossy, who is now team principal, decided to leave his protégé Joël Grand's Tatuus-Honda Formula Master on wet tires for the first race, even though the Formula 3000 drivers had fitted slicks for the drying track.
This was the basis for the surprising victory of the 30-year-old from Valais. Grand set the fastest race car time as the rain set in; only the two E1 touring car drivers Thomas Kessler (Mitsubishi) and Romeo Nüssli (Ford Escort), who had previously driven on a less wet surface, were slightly faster.
In the second race, with the track still wet, Grand set the fastest time in the entire field, just ahead of Eric Berguerand in the Lola-Cosworth. Last year's champion, who was dethroned by the absent Marcel Steiner at the Gurnigel, had put in a terrific performance in the rain in the first race with slicks (6.4 seconds down on Grand), but this only helped him to win the class.
Shortly before Grand, Nüssli was able to oust Kessler from the top of the touring car rankings. After two of the three scheduled runs, Grand was 20 thousandths ahead of Nüssli and 6.7 seconds ahead of Berguerand.
Because heavy rain set in shortly before the end of the third run of the Interswiss cars, this was the deciding factor. The race organizers rightly decided to abandon the event, which resulted in a classification after two runs.
Schnellmann's absence meant the title for Neff
The 2017 Swiss Hill Climb Championship thus ended with a surprising one-day victory for a two-liter racing car driver ahead of three touring car drivers. The third-fastest driver with a roof over his head was Frédéric Neff, although he no longer needed to drive that fast....
The Porsche driver from Moutier was already the new touring car mountain champion before the start, as Roger Schnellmann did not show up for the final race. There was not enough time to repair his Mitsubishi, which had suffered a slight accident on the Gurnigel. His absence at the last moment paved the way for Romeo Nüssli to take third place in the final SM, which the man from Aargau could only achieve with a group victory. Our congratulations!
Giuliano Piccinato was also able to celebrate. The 54-year-old garage owner from Bättwil also won the seventh race in the SuperSeries up to two liters with his Honda Integra Type R. He thus secured the mountain trophy for smaller displacement vehicles and historic cars as desired.
