Slalom: A trio remains at the top

EGLI AND BÜRKI UNBEATEN Philip Egli also celebrated the day's victory in the Drognens slalom and remains at the top of the table together with IS group winner Martin Bürki and Hanspeter Thöni, who only came to victory after a protest. Last year's winner Marcel Maurer was on the start list, but the Bernese preferred to join his brother Lukas in his last two [...]

Editorial - September 22, 2019

Philip Egli celebrated his 35th day victory in a National Slalom. Whether he remains unbeaten in 2019 will be shown on October 6 in Ambri (Photos: Peter Wyss).

Last year's winner Marcel Maurer was on the start list, but the Bernese preferred to help his brother Lukas in his last two motorcycle races in Frohburg (D). Thus, Lukas Eugster with his Ligier-Honda was the only equal opponent of Philip Egli in the fight for the day's victory.

Seventh day victory in seven slaloms in 2019
With two 1'53 times, the man from Glarus was already about a second ahead of the sports car driver from Herisau in practice with his Dallara. His first race run then went to shit ("I drove a boot together"), resulting in only a 1'55 time. As he has done several times this year, Egli had to repeat his first and presumably better race run due to an obstruction, but he was still clearly ahead with a time of 1'54.0.

Denis Wolf drove his Formula Renault Caparo into the top 3 of a slalom championship race for the first time.

In the final run, Egli managed the best time of the day with 1'53.493, while Eugster complained of unexpected understeer due to suddenly weakening tires and was unable to improve. Thus, Egli's seventh victory of the season was relatively clear with a 2.3 second lead on the 2910 meter long course with 37 gates.

Successful revenge by Denis Wolf
Denis Wolf in the Formula Renault Caparo and Michael Helm in the Tatuus-Abarth F4 fought it out for third place overall. Despite a spin shortly before the finish, Wolf made it onto the overall winners' podium for the first time with his first time.

The fastest three at the Drognens armory in Romont: Lukas Eugster, Philip Egli and Denis Wolf.

Michael Helm, who finished third ahead of Wolf at the race in June, was also able to live well with fourth place overall, as it earned him a twenty as a soloist in the two-liter division. He thus moves up to sixth place in the standings. A promise for the future is Victor Darbellay, who as fifth best of the day with the small 1000cc Arcobaleno remained just above the two-minute mark.

Victory at home race
A new name appeared at the top of the leaderboard of the touring cars and GT cars. With a time of 2'00.271, Fabrice Winiger in the Porsche 991 GT3 Cup achieved the third-best practice time of all 150 competitors, which not only the author admittedly had not thought possible, but also he himself ("I thought the timekeeping was going crazy"). Winiger confirmed this in the race with two faultless 2'01 times, which meant that the 40-year-old coachbuilder from Grolley was faster on this track than any "Hüsliauto" before him. Chapeau!

On his home track, Fabrice Winiger surpassed himself. For the first time, he was the fastest touring car/GT driver at a race.

Title goodbye because of 0.07 seconds?
Christian Darani also drove his Fiat X 1/9 faster than any two-liter touring car driver before him. If "Chico" also wins his home race in Ambri on October 6, which is to be expected, he will only lose the SM title by seven hundredths. Reto Steiner in the Ford Escort took this from him as class winner in Frauenfeld.

Martin Bürki once again showed his class. Son Mike retired with gearbox problems during his comeback with the second MB Polo.

Martin Bürki on course for title
The title favorite after the Romont slalom is and remains Martin Bürki. With 2'02.953, he achieved the third-best touring car time ever in the small VW Polo. He only managed an even better time (2'02.562) once at this race four years ago.

If MB scores another full points in the E1-1600 in Ticino, the seventh slalom title will be a fact and absolutely deserved due to the insane times with a 1600cc car.

Mathieu Zurkinden was the fastest ISN-1600 driver. But his Peugeot did not quite comply with the regulations.

Thöni wins only after a protest
Hanspeter Thöni only preserved his title chance with a protest. Mathieu Zurkinden was a tad faster than the man from Brienz in the ISN-1600 in the second race. However, Thöni had taken a good look at the latter's Peugeot 106 GTi beforehand and lodged a protest against the vehicle which did not quite comply with the rules. The supposed class winner dropped out of the classification, Thöni moved up and thus remains at the top of the table together with Bürki and Egli without losing any points.

Burri ahead of Ochsner and Schöpfer
The Interswiss drivers completed their IS Trophy in Romont, in which Stephan Burri (absent) had previously been crowned champion. In his first slalom with the Porsche 997 GT3, Christoph Zwahlen celebrated group victory.

With his seventh success in the two-liter class, in which there were four different winners over the year, Jürg Ochsner in the Opel Kadett confirmed his runner-up title. At the expense of Urs Banz, who with the Opel Ascona B had to give way in the class up to 2.5 liters only to Ferdi Waldvogel in the best driven BMW M3, Stephan Schöpfer in the Audi 50 moved up to third place as the fastest 1400cc driver.