Hemberg: Two record holders from a standing start
DAY WIN FOR BERGUERAND Eric Berguerand and Andy Feigenwinter are the first two championship leaders after the Hemberg Hill Climb. Both won their first race of the season in record time. The thunderstorm front moving across the whole of Switzerland hit Hemberg with full force on Saturday evening. Despite the rather gloomy weather forecast the previous week, however, it remained dry on Sunday, so [...]
The thunderstorm front moving across the whole of Switzerland hit Hemberg with full force on Saturday evening. Despite the rather gloomy weather forecast in the previous week, it remained dry on Sunday, so that ideal conditions prevailed under cloudy skies with sunny spells. It was nice that the top organized event in Toggenburg was also attended by almost as many spectators as in the sunny previous year.
Duel for day victory with record times
They witnessed some mountain specialists who were already in great form at the start of the season - first and foremost Eric Berguerand and Marcel Steiner. Both undercut the record set by the 2018 defending champion already in training, with the Valaisan ahead by a tenth.
It was similarly close after the first race run, in which Steiner first lowered the new best mark to 53.13 seconds in his LobArt sports car and after him Berguerand in the Lola-Cosworth to 53.08. The race car driver stayed just above that with 53.15 in the second run, while last year's winner only managed 53.77 and 53.84 in the third run. So Berguerand's third time of 53.390 was irrelevant.
Only a functional test before the start of the season
The day's win in the addition of the two fastest times thus went to Eric Berguerand with a lead of 67 hundredths, which meant that he immediately ended his first race of the season with a record victory. Prior to this, he had only completed a functional test on the kart track at Levier (F).
Eric Berguerand: "It wasn't bad for the first time, but no run was perfect. I didn't have enough practice, which is why I fitted new tires on Saturday. But they were already ruined on Sunday because we're so fast these days. Against Marcel, I would also have been satisfied with second place."
For the reigning champion, the new sports car record was little consolation.
Marcel Steiner: "I screwed up several times in the first and second run. Because it took off at the back once and I hit it, we even had to repair it afterwards. Of course I drove as fast as I ever have, but in the end there was still a lot missing."
Aargauer on the places of honor
Third place was decided between Thomas Amweg in the Lola-Cosworth with front spoiler from a 2010 Sauber C29 and Robin Faustini in the Reynard-Mugen. After Amweg rolled out with a broken driveshaft joint after the first start, he only secured the final place on the overall winners' podium in the third heat with the third-best time in 55.79. Faustini steadily improved to 56.50 in the Reynard-Mugen and finished fourth overall.
In fifth place overall, Marcel Maurer secured the class win in the two-liter race cars ahead of Christian Balmer and Joël Grand in their Tatuus-Honda FM. It was impressive to see how Maurer threw the Tatuus-Renault, which was inferior in terms of speed, around the corners. Because an engine failure was imminent, the Bernese completed the third run on the tow hook. Once again, the performance of Tom Zürcher in the small Tatuus-Abarth F4 was astonishing. He finished seventh overall, ahead of Michel Zemp (who had problems with the gearshift on his Norma-Honda) and the fastest horsepower bombers from the touring car field.
Drama with and without happy ending
Here, the eagerly awaited duel between Ronnie Bratschi and Roger Schnellmann did not take place after their Mitsubishi Evo VIIIs were struck by the defect witch. For Schnellmann, however, it ended with a happy ending. After only one practice run, a new differential had to be brought to Hemberg by tuner J SPEC from Ticino. By midnight, Schnellmann's crew had repaired the damage.
For Bratschi, who was fastest in practice, the race ended on Sunday morning with a broken wishbone on the right rear suspension. A makeshift weld would have been possible, but the man from Uri wants to get to the bottom of the cause before he drives again. So the favorite loaded up and traveled home, while Schnellmann drove his Mitsubshi to a commanding overall victory in the first event of 2019, ahead of brand colleague Thomas Kessler and Simon Wüthrich in the VW Golf Turbo. Bratschi's previous year's record was never in danger.
This was much more the case in Group IS, where Willi Jenni in the Porsche 997 GT3 just missed him on the way to victory. Brand rival Bruno Sawatzki already retired in practice after braking into the tire stacks.
Feigenwinter gives the lie to all critics
In contrast, there was a new touring car record time in the SuperSeries. Under pressure from Lotus Cup champion Dino Wintsch, the driver from Basel surpassed himself in an identical Lotus Exige 430 Cup. He had only taken delivery of last year's car, which had been fitted with a new chassis by Lotus-West, on Friday.
Without practice, last year's SM third-place finisher drove four seconds faster than last year and beat his challenger, who was driving without slalom gates for the first time on the mountain, by 32 hundredths. Having had many enviers so far, Feigenwinter now deserves all the more admirers, especially as he set the seventh-fastest times of all the "Hüsliautos" with the production sports car. Thanks to the two additional points for the group record, he now leads the touring car standings solo, just like Berguerand in the racing sports cars.
How in the Renault Classic Cup the narrow victory of Philipp Krebs over René Schnidrig came about and how the race in the classes to the Berg Cup turned out, we report separately.
