Motorsport: Silver for the Swiss hillclimb racers
The long journey to the Czech Republic was worth it for the small Swiss delegation. It finished second in the FIA Masters of European hillclimbers. In contrast to 2014, there was no medal winner in the individual classification. Two years ago, Eric Berguerand surprisingly took the gold medal at the premiere of the FIA Hill Climb Masters in Luxembourg. In the Czech [...]
Two years ago, Eric Berguerand surprisingly took the gold medal at the premiere of the FIA Hill Climb Masters in Luxembourg. The second edition took place in Sternberk, Czech Republic, where the race was run on a shortened version of the EBM track of "Ecce Homo". In the absence of the strongest Swiss, the Italians and Brits settled the overall victory among themselves.
With 1:17.51 minutes, nine-time European champion Simone Faggioli (Norma) was half a second ahead of Christian Merli (Osella) in the second run, which meant the decision, because rain started during their third run. Third overall and winner of the "Open" category was multiple British champion Scott Moran.
Fast and regular pilots from Switzerland
For the Swiss delegation led by Patrick Falk, Association Director Auto Sport Schweiz ASS, it was primarily about a medal in the Nations Cup. Frédéric Neff (Porsche), Roger Schnellmann (Mitsubishi) and Fabien Bouduban (Norma-Honda) had a combined difference of just 0.63 seconds, with Romeo Nüssli's (0.90/Ford Escort) figure counting as the strike result. As in 2014, this was enough for the quartet to win the silver medal behind Slovakia (0.55) and ahead of Austria (0.68).
In the individual competition, Frédéric Neff finished a good but ungrateful fourth in the production cars of groups N, A and GT. Roger Schnellmann took a good second place in Group E1. But because these were judged together with all racing sports cars without FIA homologation (from England, for example) in the "Open" category, the fastest touring car drivers went away empty-handed when it came to the medals.
www.fia.com/events/hill-climb-masters
Photos: Archive
