Slalom Ambri: Lukas Eugster takes his chance 🎥

A victory is particularly valuable when it is achieved against strong opponents. And when it happens for the first time, it is the most beautiful. Lukas Eugster was even moved to tears by this certainty on Saturday, at the first of the two slaloms at the Ambri airfield, which were impeccably organized by Equipe Bernoise.

Philip Egli appears on the court after all
The St. Gallen native from the canton of Appenzell received unexpected pressure from Philip Egli. The record day winner had cancelled his registration before the event.

Because he was able to repair the cracked intake manifold on the engine in Dallara F394 in the short time available using special glue, Egli nevertheless turned up for the two championship races in Ticino - only to suffer his first defeat since October 2019 in the first race on Saturday at the same venue.

Philip Egli: "I had a good and then an enormously good second race run until I was waved off with the yellow flag shortly before the finish. The race replay was then even faster until the wedel, where it then no longer fit. At some point this day had to come. I like to begrudge Lukas, he took his chance."

From mountain championship runner-up to slalom day winner
In 2017, Eugster made a name for himself for the first time as runner-up in the then newly launched Berg-SM-Junior. In 2018, he entered slalom racing with a Formula Renault and was already competing for absolute top places in a Ligier sports car the following year.

After he had been so close to the first day's victory three years ago in Ambri in his last race before the Corona compulsory break (which was finally snatched from him by Marcel Maurer), it worked out now. In the onboard video you can see his winning run with 115.3 km/h average speed.

His relief was correspondingly great.

Lukas Eugster: "I had put myself under pressure after the race in Frauenfeld went completely to shit. You try weekend after weekend and you start to doubt yourself. I knew that Ambri was my chance, because on this fluid course the car reacts extremely well mechanically and aerodynamically."

Because Eugster knows how to use this advantage despite the lack of power - instead of the E2 race engine, which broke down before the start of the season, a Honda CN power unit has been installed - he was allowed to take the biggest trophy at the Nationals for the first time.

Strong performances by Zürcher and Riva
Egli's only first running time was only 42 hundredths slower, and Yves Hängärtner lost 1.16 seconds in the Dallara-Egmo GP3, which is visibly rather overpowered for slaloms.

Thomas Zürcher in the finally clean-running Tatuus F4 with the 1170cc turbo engine developed by LRM in Italy had to give way to Egli in the two-liter class for his part by only nine tenths. And local hero Tiziano Riva, in contrast to last October, used new tires on his old Reynard 92D F3000, which resulted in a time only 1.12 seconds slower than Hängärtner.

Successful revenge
The next day, on the exact same but counter-clockwise course (2730 meters) with 55 gates, Hängärtner rolled out in the first training run due to damage in the gearbox mechanics and therefore started his journey home to Biel prematurely.

While Eugster and Riva struggled with a too low wheel lock and lost time at the only slow spot, the slope bend, Egli already set the rate in training. The Glarner confirmed this performance with two clear best times, which brought him the 41st national slalom victory ahead of Eugster, Riva and Zürcher. In retrospect, he was only annoyed by the five lost SM points from Saturday...

Cheers for Drack, Sawatzki and Geering
As in Frauenfeld a week ago, the fastest driver with a roof over his head was Patrick Drack from Aargau in the courageously and skillfully driven Porsche 991 GT3 Cup. In the InterSwiss cars, Bruno Sawatzki celebrated group victory on both days over Christoph Zwahlen, both with Porsche 997 GT3 Cup.

In the IS two-liter class, Marco Geering in the Opel Kadett 16V won the great three-way battle with Manuel Santonastaso (BMW 320) and Jürg Ochsner (Opel Kadett). For the unleashed Geering the fifth Ambri triumph in a row!

In the Renault Classic Cup, Denis Wolf won both races ahead of Marc Beyeler. In the first event since winning the title twice in 2019 (RCC and Berg Cup), Philipp Krebs decided the older Clio II class, consisting of only two cars, in his favor with the third-best Renault times.

There were only three...
Nine riders came to Ambri with 40 points after full class victories in Bière and Frauenfeld. In the meantime there are only three with a clean slate, and after next Sunday in Bure there will be at most one left - Martin Bürki.

The defending champion won superiorly in the E1-1600 in the VW Polo with a mixture of attack and conservation of material, and Christian Darani in the Fiat X 1/9 attacked as always in the E1-2000. In third place, Nicola Fankhauser in the Honda Civic also prevailed for the fourth time in Group A up to two liters. All others had to accept a points deduction on the first and/or second Ambri day.

Everything is working again for Martin Bürki
Runner-up Darani will be missing in Bure, however, because he saw the three weekends off after the Slalom SM calendar was published in the winter for the end of May/beginning of June and planned family vacations in Italy.

But because the Ecurie des Ordons postponed its race to avoid a clash with the La Roche-La Berra mountain race on July 18/19, the Ticino native is now the loser. Family comes before sport for him, and with it the title dreams disappear.

And because Fankhauser will not have the class in the Jura, only Bürki still has the chance of a clean slate - the ninth title in the slalom championship, which will then be decided on June 26 in Chamblon, is ready.

All rankings of both race days can be viewed at the link below.

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