Hemberg: Marcel Steiner shines without pressure
UNCHALLENGED After Eric Berguerand's cancellation at short notice, Marcel Steiner was without an equal opponent at the Hemberg hill climb. Nevertheless, he set a course record, as did Ronnie Bratschi and Frédéric Neff in their touring car categories. The sigh of relief at the Bergrennen Hemberg club could be heard as far away as Zurich, where the silent Formula E race cars whirred in circles. The seventh new edition of their [...]
The sigh of relief at the Bergrennen Hemberg club could be heard as far away as Zurich, where the quiet Formula E racing cars whirred in circles. The seventh edition of their mountain race was accident-free apart from a few fender benders, after last year's near disaster.
In addition, around 7500 spectators made the pilgrimage to Toggenburg, about 500 more than in 2017. With five practice runs and three race runs, the participants had plenty of time to ride on the 1758 m long track and were able to start their journey home on Sunday earlier than ever before. The fact that there were several course records on top of that was the sporting icing on the cake.
Course record even without pressure from Eric Berguerand
When Marcel Steiner arrived in Hemberg, he learned of the last-minute cancellation of his archrival Eric Berguerand. As reported, the installation of an AC Cosworth engine in the Lola chassis entails more difficulties than expected. Because the Valais native could not get the engine to run at home, he stayed home.
Steiner therefore took the stopwatch as his opponent and set a new track record with his LobArt-Mugen from the E2 sports car group in the very first race run.
His 53.76 was one-tenth of a second faster than Berguerand's 2014 time and, adding up the two faster times, exactly one second better than last year's win.
Marcel Steiner: "There were two options - either just drive up or make an effort to set a new record. I would have liked to have more opponents, so I was looking for that challenge. I didn't even mount new tires. Therefore, I am very satisfied."
Frustration at Amweg, joy at Faustini
Competition would actually have been there with Thomas Amweg and Robin Faustini. But both had their own problems.
After a good functional test, Amweg traveled to Hemberg optimistically. There, however, he was suddenly unable to engage any gears in the Lola B99-Cosworth and therefore only completed one practice run on Saturday. On Sunday, the problems with the gearshift continued, so that Amweg had to forgo the third run, but could be classified.
In the E2-SS class up to three liters, victory thus went to Robin Faustini ahead of Grégoire Siggen (Lola) and Amweg. The youngster also had a number of problems to solve on his Reynard K01 before he could start in Hemberg for the first time. The fact that the brilliantly prepared Christian Balmer in the Tatuus-Honda FM relegated him to third place overall did not bother him too much.
Robin Faustini: "This was only my second race with this bomb car, so I'm very happy with my performance. I still have a lot to learn and I see the potential, so I only drove with older tires. The SM is still long..."
Schnellmann forces Bratschi to set a new record
Only these three of the mere twelve drivers with racing sports cars managed to go faster than the two best touring car drivers. Ronnie Bratschi and Roger Schnellmann were initially on a par with their Mitsubishi Bombers.
Both undercut the E1 record set in 2017 by Reto Meisel in the Mercedes SLK340 before the retirement already in the first run. In the second run, Bratschi turned up the heat again and pushed it to 57.83.
Although the man from Uri did not compete in the third heat and put his Mitsubishi Evo VIII Egmo in the parc fermé early, he won the overall touring car classification by nine tenths ahead of the equally convincing Roger Schnellmann. after all, the latter still has considerably less experience on the mountain than Bratschi in 2018.
Ronnie Bratschi: "For my taste, Roger came a bit close to me in the first run. That's why I had to step on the gas again in the second, even though the car's engine suspension was cracked and I didn't want to risk a retirement. That's why I didn't compete after that."
Bratschi is thus leading the touring car hillclimb championship and the FIA International Hill Climb Cup, where the fourth race in Slovenia is scheduled for next weekend. Whether he will continue with the double program after the next race in Reitnau (July 1) depends on how the season progresses.
The other drivers with E1 turbo four-wheelers Simon Wüthrich (VW Golf), Thomas Kessler (Mitsubishi) and Romeo Nüssli (Ford Escort) remained clearly above the minute limit.
Neff also with maximum points, great duel in TCR
In practice still behind Bruno Sawatzki in the Porsche 997 GT3 Cup that was nevertheless reassigned to Interswiss, Frédéric Neff turned the tables on Sunday.
The defending champion also won Group IS in the widened Porsche 996 Cup in record time and collected 27 SM points (25+2) just like Bratschi.
Michel Zemp (Seat Leon Cupra) and Patrick Flammer (first SM start in the Opel Astra) delivered a terrific duel with their TCR cars, which the experienced Zemp (second SM season) won thanks to his best time in the third run.
With their 350 hp front-wheel-drive cars, they were even a touch faster than two-liter E1 winner Danny Krieg in the all-wheel-drive Audi A4 STW and E1-3500 winner Hermann Bollhalder in the Opel Speedster.
In the IS two-liters, Philip Niederberger celebrated a fine victory in the Opel Kadett C City. And Martin Bürki once again left the majority of the higher horsepower touring cars behind in his low-torque 1600 E1 Polo.
