FIA Masters: Gold for Roger Schnellmann
E1 GROUP WINNER The Swiss hill climb season ended at the FIA Hill Climb Masters in Italy with a touring car victory and a gold medal for Roger Schnellmann. Team Switzerland finished eighth in the Nations Cup. The FIA Hill Climbs Masters, held for the third time after 2014 and 2016, this time on a 3310-metre track on the local mountain of the medieval [...]
The FIA Hill Climbs Masters, held for the third time after 2014 and 2016, this time on a 3310-metre track on the local mountain of the medieval town of Gubbio in the province of Umbria, was the best advertisement for hill climb racing. With 167 drivers from 21 nations, including a number of national and European champions, the last major hill climb of the year was better attended than almost ever before.
A dream season for Christian Merli
The bar was set correspondingly high, at least for the racing cars. In a direct duel with Simone Faggioli, the ten-time European champion and eight-time winner of the day at the Swiss European Championship race in St. Ursanne-Les Rangiers, Christian Merli clearly had the upper hand in perfect weather conditions.
The Trentino driver set the best time in both practice runs on Saturday and in all three race runs on Sunday, of which the fastest time was counted. In the last decisive run, Merli clocked 1'17.85 (153.1 km/h), while Faggioli only managed 1'18.57. Third place overall went to French hill climb champion Sébastien Petit (Norma-Mugen) with 1'19.90.
Steiner only halfway satisfied in fifth place
Marcel Steiner also had his sights set on bronze. The Swiss mountain champion was only halfway satisfied with fifth place overall with a time of 1'21.45 from the second run behind the Italian Domenico Scola jr. on an Osella Honda.
Marcel Steiner: "I actually wanted more, but in the end that's what I could achieve in this field. A LobArt, as only I ride it on the mountain, is simply no Osella or Norma. I was able to leave three Osella FA30s with Italians and all the Brits behind me, but the fact that Scola was ahead of me in the two-liter sports car was a bit annoying. The Italians' home advantage should not be underestimated."
Third precious metal for Roger Schnellmann
Roger Schnellmann received the precious metal, which is only awarded by the automobile world association at this biennial event. In training, the man from Schwyz was still relatively far behind two Poles in similarly powerful Mitsubishi Lancer Evos.
Schnellmann was able to improve significantly on race day. His second run time would have been enough to win the E1 group and the Open TCGT category. With a time of 1'33.12, he beat the two Poles by 0.82 and 1.52 seconds. Bulgarian Niki Zlatkov (Audi Quattro S1), runner-up in the FIA Hill Climb Cup behind the absent Ronnie Bratschi (work came first), had to settle for fourth place, 2.56 seconds behind.
After winning silver with Team Switzerland in Eschdorf 2014 and Ecce Homo 2016, the gold is already Schnellmann's third medal. Before him, only Eric Berguerand won a gold medal in the racing sports car category in Luxembourg in 2014 (ahead of Faggioli).
Roger Schnellmann: "It's not just a huge success for me, but for my whole team, whom I have to thank. I'm under a lot of pressure professionally this year and am reliant on this help. In Anzère, I tried out new Pirelli tires in one run, which I used again here and which worked great. Everything went perfectly."
Group victory for Reto Meisel
Thomas Kessler, on the other hand, was slightly disappointed with his sixth place in E1. Unsettled by a wrong tire choice in the first run, he slightly lost confidence in his Mitsubishi, so that he was unable to meet his expectations of being in contention for the podium.
The best classified driver with a roof over his head was Reto Meisel, who achieved the best time in the first run (1'31.30) in his Mercedes SLK340-Judd and thus won the E2-SH group.
Respectable successes for Bouduban, Zemp and Neff
Fabien Bouduban was the second fastest of the seven Swiss drivers. With the Norma-Nissan-Turbo, which is not ideal for this track and with which he drove to fourth place overall at the Piks Peak hill climb (USA) in June, the man from Jura finished eleventh in the Open category, which is dominated by British racing car drivers, second in the Open Sportscars class and 30th overall.
Michel Zemp and Frédéric Neff had no chance in the category won by Schnellmann in terms of material. However, Zemp achieved his goal of being the best of the three TCR drivers with his Cupra. And in the Open TCGT group won by Frenchman Nicolas Werver in a Porsche 997 GT2, the Swiss touring car mountain champion finished sixth in his Porsche 996 GT3 R.
Another medal in the Nations Cup did not materialize this time. The two better run times of Steiner, Schnellmann and Neff only differed by 1.58 seconds in total (Fabien Bouduban's difference of 0.98 counted as a scratch result). However, this uniformity was only enough for eighth place this time. Gold, silver and bronze went to Luxembourg (0.49), Italy (0.65) and Slovenia (0.90).
