Slalom: Philip Egli storms the last fortress

FIRST WIN IN BIÈRE Of the current races for the Swiss Slalom Championship, the only thing missing from Philip Egli's collection was the day's victory in Bière. In the touring cars, champion Martin Bürki won. Although dark clouds threatened with rain all the time, the afternoon races remained clear except for a very short shower during the first run of the group [...]

Editorial - May 19 2019

Philip Egli has his Dallara F393 with specially developed EPR-1 engine (based on Opel) safely under control. Now he finally won at the Bière armory (photos: Peter Wyss).

Although dark clouds constantly threatened with rain, it remained dry during the racing runs in the afternoon except for a very short shower during the first run of the group E1. Thus, in the for this time of year quite cool temperatures around 15 degrees, record times were quite possible if everything went right.

Egli faster than Volluz once was
This was the case for some recognized fast men, starting with Philip Egli. Although he had to start twice for the first race run due to the retirement of a competitor, the man from Glarus kept a clear head. With 2'22.91, Egli in the optimal Dallara EPR-1 managed a time never before achieved on this track variant of 4100 kilometers in length and 63 gates. By way of comparison: on 28 June 2015, Joël Volluz won in the more potent Osella FA30 in 2'23.374.

Philip Egli: "Today it was right from A to Z, although I had to repeat my first race run, as I did in Interlaken and Frauenfeld, which is actually never good. Finally, I won here once as well."

No chance for bricklayer
Marcel Maurer, who did so in the rain in 2016 and in the sunshine the previous year, acknowledged his archrival's performance without envy. However, he himself also offered an impressive performance. After scoring errors in the first run, he skied even faster in the second run, but this time cleanly, and came as close as 1.6 seconds to Egli with 2'24.51.

Marcel Maurer: "2'22 is a very strong time when you see what others have done here so far. It's hard to say whether I could have done the same in an ideal situation. We have some kind of problem because, as in Interlaken, I couldn't improve as much as I should have from training with used tires to the race with newer tires."

The top four of Bière: Marcel Maurer (2nd), day winner Philip Egli, the surprising Thomas Zürcher (3rd) and the rather disappointed Lukas Eugster (4th).

The next duel only again in Chamblon
For Philip Egli, this meant the third win of the day in 2019 and already the 32nd in his slalom career. Maurer's next opportunity for revenge will come at the sixth SM race on June 23 in Chamblon. Instead of Bure next weekend, he and his family will travel to the Isle of Man to support his brother Lukas, who races in two motorcycle classes at the infamous Tourist Trophy. And because the Bernese wants to compete in all the mountain races, he will be racing in Hemberg instead of Romont on June 16.

Zurich, not Appenzell
Third place overall again seemed to be a clear prey for Lukas Eugster in the Ligier-Honda JS53 Evo. The Appenzeller achieved the third-best time in the second run with 2'25.03, but unfortunately not fault-free. So his first time of 2'27,26, which was also respectable for his premiere in Bière, was included in the scoring. In the end, this was only enough for fourth place overall. At least this brings him full points again as the solo winner in the sports cars.

With 160 hp to third place overall. Once Thomas Zürcher has the sharp Abarth turbo in the rear, even more is possible.

The last place on the overall winners' podium was taken by the amazing Thomas Zürcher. With the small Tatuus Formula 4 with original Abarth series turbo engine he realized a dream time in 2'25.83.

Thomas Zürcher: "A low 2'27 was my goal. It was good to have Marcel Steiner by my side, who helped me with the car set-up and also put pressure on me."

Once the long ordered but still unfinished LRM racing turbo engine from Italy with just over 1700 cubic capacity and around 300 hp has been installed, its new class rivals will soon have to dress warmly.

Furious Martin Bürki
In the touring cars, Martin Bürki outshone everyone. After the short shower hit him and title rival Christian Darani in the first race heat, the champion pulled out all the stops in the second heat. With 2'37,95 the defending champion achieved the absolute touring car best time with the infernal and actually low-torque VW Polo 1600 E1 as in the previous year (then even in 2'37,55).

Martin Bürki: If he doesn't have an equal opponent in his class, then he beats all his competitors in the touring cars.

Darani also held his nerve after collecting ten penalty seconds in Race 1. The man from Ticino in the Fiat X 1/9 won the E1-2000 in a commanding 2'39.05 ahead of Nicola Roberto in the Peugeot 205 and Daniel Kammer in the Honda Civic.

Ochsner beats runner-up Santonastaso
In Group IS, Jürg Ochsner (Opel Kadett) inflicted on his RCU colleague Manuel Santonastaso (BMW 320) the defeat that was feared at some point, but not necessarily now. Ochsner was sorry, but his class victory in the two-liter is deserved, although it now diminishes the title chances of Santi.

The IS group victory went to Christoph Zwahlen in the larger displacement Kadett. Together with Egli, Eugster, Bürki and Hanspeter Thöni (Peugeot 106), who remains unbeaten in the N/ISN-1600, Zwahlen remains at the top of the standings after three of eight races without any losses.