Hockenheim: Victories for Stucki and Hotz

THREE SWISS TOP Not only Euro-NASCAR driver Giorgio Maggi, but also Andreas Stucki (Renault Clio Cup) and Benjamin Hotz (Sports Car Challenge) won at the American Fan Fest in Hockenheim. Starting from fifth place in the first of the two Clio Cup Central Europe races, Andreas Stucki quickly made his way to the front. In [...]

Editorial - September 28, 2019

Hockenheim is Stucki country. Once in front, the Swiss outpaced his opponents all the way to the finish.

Starting from fifth place in the first of the two Clio Cup Central Europe races, Andreas Stucki quickly made his way to the front. In the second half of the race, the St. Gallen driver from Oberer Zürichsee took the lead from the Czech Tomáš Pekař.

After that, Stucki was able to pull away by almost five seconds in the self-prepared Renault Clio RS IV Cup and celebrate his second win of the season in the 2019 Central Cup without being challenged. In addition, Stucki had already won the Formula 1 invitation race at Hockenheim in July.

Stucki in third place in the championship
At the start of Sunday's race, Pekař immediately shot past pole setter Sebastiaan Bleekemolen from third place and did not relinquish the lead until the end. However, the Dutchman followed him like a shadow throughout the race.

The previous day's winner Stucki worked his way towards the top early on from grid position 6 and also put pressure on the leaders in the closing stages. However, nothing changed in the order.

The top 3 from Hockenheim are also top in the championship (from left): Tomáš Pekař, race winner Andreas Stucki and Sebastiaan Bleekemolen.

Before the final two races in Zolder, Pekař has a 36-point lead over Bleekemolen. 64 points will still be awarded on the first weekend in October at the Euro-NASCAR finale in Belgium. Andreas Stucki no longer has a chance of winning the title but holds third place by a fairly clear margin.

Potz Hotz
The fastest man ever on the 3692-kilometer variant of the Hockenheimring, where the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series took center stage, was Benjamin Hotz in the field of sports cars and GT vehicles. With Horag Hotz Racing's small Ligier Turbo, the man from Thurgau set the fastest practice time with an average of almost 160 km/h for the two mixed races of the Sports Car Challenge, P9 Challenge and Special Touring Car Trophy.

Over the 16-lap distance, however, Hotz was unable to do anything against two-time winner Max Aschoff in a Ginetta LMP3 in the first race despite setting the fastest race lap. With a gap of 4.4 seconds, he won Division 2 as overall runner-up, well ahead of the remaining five sports car colleagues.

Benjamin Hotz: "The race wasn't bad, but there were too many cars. I always saw Aschoff. Due to traffic and lapping, the gap was sometimes larger, then smaller again. But it wasn't enough to get to the front."

Benjamin Hotz's Ligier Turbo, developed in Sulgen, was the fastest car at Hockenheim. Unfortunately, it was only enough for a division win.

In the second run, Hotz headed for the pits after just two laps. A loose hose from the turbo had to be fixed again. The driver from eastern Switzerland went out again, but with a ten-lap deficit he was no longer classified.

Rupp and Fenzl inherit
Second place went to another Swiss, Stephan Rupp. He had had to retire his Ligier-Nissan LMP3 from T2 Racing after ten laps in the first race.

His teammate Mike Fenzl in the Ligier JS53 Honda finished third overall twice. In the second race, Fenzl only had the German Jasmin Fiedler as an opponent and was able to enjoy victory in Division 2.