Slalom Ambri: Worthy end of season with exciting decisions
SLALOM AMBRI At the last round of the Swiss Slalom Championship in Ambri, the old and new champion Martin Bürki (left) shone with the touring car best time, while Albin Mächler (right) secured the runner-up title. The day's victory went to Philip Egli in the Dallara F3. This is what good slalom racing must be like: a fast, fluid course, impeccable organization (by Equipe Bernoise) with [...]
This is what good slalom sport must be like: a fast fluid course, an impeccable organization (by the Equipe Bernoise) with an almost meticulously kept schedule thanks to an accident-free event, dry and partly sunny autumn weather and finally exciting decisions in all championships. Ticino was definitely worth the trip for the Swiss slalom athletes and their supporters.
Although Marcel Maurer had to resort to the older and weaker Formula Renault engine for his Tatuus, he was able to stand up to Philip Egli in both races. In the absence of Ticino Formula 3000 driver Tiziano Riva, Egli in the Dallara-Opel F3 finally won by only 13 hundredths ahead of last year's visibly disappointed winner.
Martin Bürki, who has been slalom champion for the fifth time since a week ago, pulled out all the stops and achieved the absolute touring car best times in two almost equally fast runs with the VW Polo - and this with only 1.6 liters of engine capacity! Danny Krieg as the best of the strong Porsche faction and winner of Group IS (Interswiss) followed five hundredths behind.
Just as little decided on the award of the second SM rank in the slalom championship. Since Stephan Burri (VW Polo), as the class winner in the IS group up to 1.6 liters, had the third SM rank secured, Albin Mächler absolutely had to win in the E1 group over three liters in order to successfully defend the second place.
The man from Schwyz achieved this at the wheel of the BMW M2 in the all-important second race with a lead of half a tenth of a second over Patrick Drack and 35 hundredths over Fabrizio Ceresa in their Porsche GT3 Cup. Congratulations!
Stephan Burri also came to Ambri as the leader of the Interswiss Trophy. However, since only Roman Marty was able to score full points in third place, his second place behind Seppi Koch in the class up to 2.5 liters (both Opel Kadett) was enough for him to win the title.
In the OPC Challenge, title favorite Thierry Kilchenmann did not show any weakness. He won both races with the Opel Corsa OPC of Belwag Bern AG. Since all OPC specialists including last year's champion Marcel Muzzarelli were at the start, the championship title is all the more deserved for the young Bernese.
The Abarth Trofeo Slalom showed that the final tally is made at the end of the race. Beat Wyssen (Abarth 500 R3T), who had been leading since the beginning of the season, had to admit defeat to Heinz Christen in the Abarth 500 assetto corse in the Corsa class. And since Sylvain Burkhalter in the 695 biposto also won in the production car class for a sixth time in eight races, the title goes to the garage owner from Tramelan instead of the garage owner and series organizer from Spiez, as in 2016, thanks to the better strike result.
