Drognens: Holiday for Bürki and Maurer

The best late summer weather ensured optimal external conditions at the Drognens slalom, whose course is identical to the one in Romont in June. The top times of the best skiers were correspondingly fast - especially those of Marcel Maurer and Martin Bürki.

At the wheel of his Tatuus-Renault Midland, Maurer already underlined his ambitions for the day's victory in practice with his personal best time, three seconds ahead of long-time rival Philip Egli.

Under pressure from the Bernese, Egli promptly touched the sixth gate in the first race run, resulting in a ten-second penalty on his submitted best time.

No one has ever been that fast at the Romont/Drognens
While Maurer remained almost 1.5 seconds above his training best in his first run, he beat it by almost seven tenths in the second. 1'51.377 - no one has ever been so fast on the 2910-meter long hill-and-talk course on the Drognens armory course.

Maurer's joy was correspondingly great.

Marcel Maurer: "In the first race run I had mounted the wrong tires and had extreme understeer. For the second run I mounted other slicks and then gave it my all. It went perfectly. The victory and my first track record are a nice compensation for the retirement last week in Paccots."

Egli was unexpectedly clearly beaten at the wheel of his Dallara F393-EPR-1. But the man from Glarus had an explanation for the gap of around 2.5 seconds.

Philip Egli: "After my mistake in the first run, the second had to be fast and valid. Unfortunately, I was stopped and got a run replay. With tires that were no longer fresh, I was still able to salvage second place."

Whether it would have been enough for Egli, who played it safe, to win against the furious Maurer without a run repetition remains to be seen.

Third place in the day's classification and thus his first overall podium went to David Papagna in the Gloria C8P ahead of Lukas Eugster in the Formula Renault.

Darani lures Bürki out of his reserve
With another twenty for the class win in the E1-1600, Martin Bürki managed to secure his sixth SM title in the slalom. MB didn't leave it at that, but also punched the touring car fastest time on the asphalt in the second run with his green VW Polo - congratulations!

He was spurred on not only by his personal ambition, but also by the best time set by Christian Darani in the Fiat X1/9 in the first run. In the second run, however, the man from Ticino overdid it, but his first run time was at most enough for second place overall in the touring cars and victory in the E1-2000 ahead of Patrick Flammer in the Suzuki Swift Evo).

Third fastest touring car driver and first in E1+3000 was Jürg Beiner in a BMW M3, his second victory after Bière.

Albin Mächler, however, had to admit defeat by only 20 thousandths in the less optimal BMW M2. Mächler's first practice time from the morning in cooler temperatures was only beaten by Bürki in his second race run.

Who will be runner-up?
While the championship is decided, the other two medal places will be decided among three people on October 7 in Ambri. Not only Egli conceded the second defeat against Maurer (after Bière), but also Manuel Santonastaso in the IS-2000.

After a technical defect on his BMW 320i, "Santi" had to make a clean second run, just like Egli. In doing so, he was only 22 hundredths slower than RCU club colleague Jürg Ochsner in the Opel Kadett.

The third contender for the second SM final place is Christoph Zwahlen. The other Thurgau native was once again the fastest in the IS-2500 and in the division up to three liters considered for the SM with his poison-green Opel Kadett 16V.

Egli, Santonastaso and Zwahlen each have 130 points (Bürki 140). Whoever wins in Ticino and has left more opponents behind in the event of a points tie will be runner-up. Everyone deserves it.

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