Motorsport: Spectacular slalom final in Ambri

Martin Bürki could only feel safe when the official ranking list confirmed his suspicions. On a superior drive to class victory and the second-best touring car time behind Danny Krieg in the Audi A4 STW, he really had not touched a pylon. This meant that the 48-year-old garage owner from Uetendorf could no longer be denied his fourth SM slalom title.

Only a defect in the VW Polo 1600 could have prevented Martin Bürki's success, as happened at the beginning of the season in the rain at Bière. For this to happen, however, Philip Egli would also have had to win the duel with Marcel Maurer in the race cars, which had lasted all year. After setting the fastest time in practice, Philip Egli crashed spectacularly in the first race and was lucky that his Dallara-Opel F3 was not badly damaged when various barriers were torn down and he landed on the embankment.

Day win with a brilliant spin
So the man from Zurich took his last chance in the second run, but as before he did not get off to a good start and thus for once remained well behind Marcel Maurers. The latter ended his racing season and thus also the 2016 Slalom Championship with a brilliant spin in the finish bend, which, however, also meant the best time of the day. With his fourth win of the day in the Tatuus-Renault, the man from Bern deservedly secured third place in the championship behind Martin Bürki and Philip Egli.

Two more title decisions were made at the event, which was impeccably organized by Equipe Bernoise. With victories by Sandro Fehr and Thierry Kilchenmann, Marcel Muzzarelli's two second places among 34 competitors in a standard Opel Corsa OPC were enough for another overall victory in the OPC Challenge. And Stefan Schöpfer, undefeated in the 1400cc class throughout the year with his Audi 50, is the winner of the InterSwiss Trophy, as he was last year.

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Photos: Peter Wyss