Hill climb: Strong Swiss in France
The break until the next Swiss hill climb in Anzère was used by some Swiss for a start in the foreign country near the border. They really did not have to hide among the best French. At the French mountain championship race Vuillafans-Echevannes near Pontarlier, the Swiss touring car drivers from the IS and E1 groups were given their own classification - what a service to [...]
At the French mountain championship race Vuillafans-Echevannes near Pontarlier, the Swiss touring car drivers from the IS and E1 groups were given their own classification - what a service to the foreign customer! In contrast to Switzerland, only the fastest race run counts in France, so it's not consistency that counts, but pure speed. In the morning, the intrepid Fabien Houlmann drove his Peugeot 205 up the 4.9-kilometer track with the tenth-fastest (!) time of all touring cars. In the afternoon, Gérard Nicolas put the power of his Ford Escort WRC to good use and ousted the man from the Jura from the top spot. Bertrand Favre (BMW E30) took third place on the separate podium.
Two other Swiss provided excellent performances in the midst of the French. In the field of closed cars, Frédéric Neff from Moutier in his Porsche GT3 Cup had to give way to only three competitors fighting for the French championship, led by defending champion Nicolas Werver (Porsche 997 Cup S). In contrast to Frédéric Neff, Jean-Jacques Maitre contests the entire French hillclimb championship, where the competition among sports cars is significantly greater than in this country. All the more remarkable are his successes with the only Tatuus among the many Norma and Ligier (all with Honda engines) in the CN two-liter class. Behind two Belgians, the Jura native achieved third place.
The best French will unfortunately be missing in St-Ursanne
The day's winner in record time was six-time champion Nicolas Schatz, who is still unbeaten in 2016, ahead of the two other Norma BMWs driven by Sébastien Petit and Cyrille Frantz. These brute sports cars with 4-liter V8 engines are only registered in France and are the attraction there. Xavier Perrot was the only Swiss so far to take the overall victory in Vuillafans in 1971 in a March 712 F2. Unfortunately, many of the best Frenchmen will not be seen at the start of the Swiss European Championship round at St-Ursanne/Les Rangiers (August 21) this year because they are competing in their championship round at Chamrousse on the same day.
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Photos: Peter Wyss
