Hemberg: Marcel Steiner won with Syn Fuel Power 🎥

The opening race of the Swiss Mountain Championship in Hemberg was the best advertisement for Swiss motorsport. Fantastic weather, a great backdrop with around 8,500 fans, interesting duels and twelve new class records as well as a new track record characterized the anniversary race in Toggenburg. The fact that the preliminary decision for the day's victory was already made after the first of three race heats was a bit of a spoiler, but did nothing to dampen the good mood.

Eric Berguerand with breakdown

In 51.7 seconds Marcel Steiner stormed up the 1.758 kilometer short track with his LobArt Honda in the first run on Sunday morning. The Bernese was thus a brisk 1.21 seconds faster than Eric Berguerand in the previous year. Attempting to beat the time of the three-time Hemberg winner on the first attempt, last year's champion made a mistake.

The right front suspension of the Walliser's Lola FA99 buckled on impact. Instead of studying the onboard video to possibly beat Steiner's fabulous time in the second run, Berguerand had to repair his car. The garage owner from Charrat was not ready to leave until 30 seconds before the pre-start. Berguerand then managed to secure second place overall after all with two solid runs in 53.94 and 52.64 sec.

Success for CO2-neutral fuel

Berguerand was no match for Steiner, who set a 52.83 time in the second run. For Steiner, it was the first Hemberg victory since 2018 - the first (in Switzerland) with Turbo-Power and the first with Syn-Fuel. Steiner had only decided to use the 85 percent CO2-neutral fuel, which is produced synthetically, shortly before the season opener.

Marcel Steiner: "I'm pleased that it worked so well. It's proof that you can be competitive with this fuel without having to make a big effort."

Robin Faustini in third place

Third place overall went to Robin Faustini. The Aargauer was 16 hundredths of a second behind Bergus in the addition of the two fastest race runs. And this although he had actually started quite fast with a time of 52.96 sec in the first heat.

Robin Faustini: "I was on new tires. But I wasn't completely satisfied with the first run. There's something wrong with our chassis somewhere. We'll have to analyze that now so that we can improve at the next race in La Roche."

Thomas Amweg with problems

Thomas Amweg followed in fourth place. The son of mountain king Fredy Amweg missed the top by around two seconds per run at his premiere with the Reynard 95D. The 2019 Gurnigel winner was nevertheless satisfied.

Thomas Amweg: "We had numerous technical problems beforehand and had to install and remove the engine several times. From that point of view, it didn't even go that badly. We still have a lot of room for improvement in terms of aerodynamics. And we also drove without traction control in Hemberg."

Joël Burgermeister ahead of Philip Egli 

Exactly one second behind Amweg, Joël Burgermeister finished fifth overall in the Tatuus F4. The Thurgau native thus secured class victory (also in record time) in the open race cars up to 2000 cm3 - 1.17 seconds ahead of slalom specialist Philip Egli and 2.16 seconds ahead of Marcel Maurer respectively.
Roger Schnellmann, the fastest touring car driver, finished behind Maurer. The man from Wangen had room to run at the back in his home race.

Roger Schnellmann: "We only did a functional test before Hemberg in Anneau du Rhin. In this respect, we are very satisfied with how it went. Looking at the championship, there is always the question of when and if Reto Meisel will return. But at the moment I'm enjoying the triumph and the championship has only just begun."

Sawatzki and Neff in front

Behind Schnellmann, Bruno Sawatzki and Frédéric Neff took 2nd and 3rd place in the touring car category. The duo had already fought exciting duels last year. And on Hemberg, too, the two Porsche drivers from Interswiss with more than 2500 cc gave each other nothing. Before the decisive third heat, two-time Swiss touring car champion Neff was just three hundredths of a second ahead of Sawatzki. The latter was able to turn the tide in his favor in the final heat (with a time just above the new record).

Class victory for Christian Bralla

Behind Sawatzki/Neff, Simon Wüthrich (also running Syn-Fuel) was fastest in E1 up to 3500 cm3 with his Golf-Turbiene. In the E1 up to 2000 cm3, Christian Bralla set the tone. The man from Ticino came under pressure after a spin in the second run, but proved his nerve with a solid third run and secured the class win ahead of Opel-Kadett driver Sébastien Coquoz and Reto Steiner on Ford Escort.

Stephan Burri the number 1

In the identical cubic capacity class of the Interswiss, Scirocco driver Stephan Burri was the undisputed number 1 - ahead of the two Kadett drivers Marco Geering and Jürg Ochsner. Other class winners included local heroes Herrmann Bollhalder in an Opel Speedster (E1 up to 3000 cm3) and 72-year-old Edy Kobelt in a Lotus Exige (SuperSeries Competition), Opel driver Armin Banz (IS up to 2500 cm3), Martin Bürki in a VW Polo (E1 up to 1600 cm3) and Patrick Flammer (TCR). In the Renault Classic Cup, Thomas Zürcher secured victory at Hemberg ahead of Michael Schläpfer and Philipp Krebs.

... and this is how the championship continues

The second round of the Swiss Mountain Championship from La Roche to La Berra is already scheduled for next weekend. According to the schedule, the training runs will start at 7:55 a.m. on Saturday, June 17, and the race runs on Sunday, June 18. The starting list is online. To follow:

• 08 and 09 July, Massongex
• July 22 and 23, Ayent - Anzère
• August 18-20, St.Ursanne - Les Rangiers
• August 25-27, Oberhallau
• 09 and 10 September, Gurnigel
• September 16 and 17, Châtel-St-Denis - Les Paccots

Source: Auto Sport Schweiz, Photos: © Eichenberger
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