Slalom: Opener with several title favorites

After the onset of winter in the middle of the week, better weather should prevail again on Saturday according to forecasts. Nothing stands in the way of the eagerly awaited season opener of the Swiss Slalom Championship at the Interlaken airfield.

Hot title candidate from Ticino
The road to the title in 2019 will no longer lead solely via six-time slalom champion Martin Bürki. If Christian Darani can build on his victories in the last four slaloms of 2018 with his always spectacularly piloted Fiat X1/9, the Ticino native will be the top favorite in the E1 two-liters due to the strength of the class.

To confirm this role, however, you need not only speed but also nerves of steel and consistency, which includes the technology. And this is precisely where the defending champion is a master with his VW Polo, which is always superbly prepared.

Until Joël Werthmüller arrives with the performance upgraded Peugeot 106, Bürki has no equal in the E1-1600. Darani, on the other hand, has to fend off fast people like Reto Steiner (Ford Escort), Ruedi Fuhrer (Honda CRX F20), Daniel Kammer (Honda Civic) and newcomer Mathias Schläppi in the ex-Flammer Suzuki Swift Evo 2000.

Christoph Zwahlen returns to IS colleagues
Christoph Zwahlen also knows how to become a champion. The Thurgau native is tackling his second season after his comeback in Group IS and no longer in E1. This has several reasons for the 2010 and 2012 title winner.

Christoph Zwahlen: "Last year it went relatively well, but with opponents like Köchli and Bollhalder I didn't have time to try things out. This way I take some pressure off myself, drive among like-minded people in the IS and can try out more on the car. If things go well, I'm sure I'll still be among the front runners in the championship, and if there aren't the necessary five competitors for full points, I don't care."

Egli with shorter transmission in the Dallara
The fourth candidate for the title or at least the SM podium from the touring car camp is Manuel Santonastaso in a BMW 320. At the start of the season, the runner-up in the IS-2000 will be tested by René Aeberhardt and Kurt and René Tschirky in their Opel Kadett 16V. In the course of the year, Jürg Ochsner will probably also join them as an opponent.

It is not impossible that the champion will come from the ranks of the racing sports cars for the first time since Christian Balmer in 2008. We're not thinking primarily of Philip Egli and Marcel Maurer, who won all the races last year.

Egli is now better geared with a gearbox specially made at Hewland for his Dallara and hopes to be a bit faster everywhere. Maurer will try to compensate with his aggressive driving style at the wheel of the Tatuus-Renault Midland and hope that it rains again after the record summer 2018...

Lukas Eugster as the laughing third?
Because the two fighting cocks in the two-liter race cars are likely to take points away from each other, Lukas Eugster could become the laughing third. His goal is to remain unbeaten in the CN sports cars up to two liters with the new Ligier-Honda and at the same time always finish in the top five. That would always result in a full 20 points. If he manages that and every other title contender stumbles just once, the math would add up.

Mauerhofer cancels, Helm, Wolf and Zürcher change vehicles
The fact that Daniel Mauerhofer has to postpone his debut with the Dallara World Series to Frauenfeld due to technical problems makes Eugster's task in Interlaken somewhat less difficult. In addition to him, Christian Balmer (training in the Tatuus Honda for the hill climbs), Denis Wolf (debut in the Formula Renault Caparo), Thomas Zürcher (debut in the Tatuus-Abarth F4) and the brothers Andreas (debut in the TracKing RC01) and Michael Helm (Tatuus F4 Evo) also have ambitions for a top result in the overall classification.

Free admission for spectators
But just, in practice, many things look different. The season opener in Interlaken - on the course that has been shortened to 2.5 kilometers due to construction work (the fastest part so far has gone) - will provide a first clue.

Spectators have free entry. Detailed information about the event of the ACS Bern (start lists, schedule, etc.) is available on the Internet at the following link:

acs-bern.ch/ch-en/sections/bern/motorsport/2_slalom-interlaken.asp