Vanessa: Adventure in the dunes đ„
NEW YEAR RACING It's not professional racers like Simona de Silvestro or Rahel Frey who have already completed their first race in 2019, but Vanessa Zenklusen from the Valais. Now guess where... No, Vanessa Zenklusen did not start at the Dakar Rally in South America. Although this would have been possible for her. She has experience with four-wheel drive cars: With her Subaru Impreza Type R [...]
No, Vanessa Zenklusen did not start the Dakar Rally in South America. Although she could be expected to do so. She has experience with four-wheel drive cars: With her Subaru Impreza Type R, Vanessa drives in the Interswiss group in hill climbs and slaloms. Her class victory in changeable weather at Gurnigel 2017 was outstanding.
Zenklusen finished the 2018 IS Trophy in eleventh place overall. As department manager for vehicle preparation at Auto Zentrum West in St. Gallen, she is also very familiar with fast cars (including Lotus and Maserati).
Failed premiere on Dacia Logan
The driver from Visp, who now lives in the canton of Schaffhausen with her sweetheart Sascha Schlatter (OC president of the Oberhallau hill climb race), wants to qualify as soon as possible for the international FIA C license. And that is only possible with presentable results in circuit races with admission for nationally licensed drivers.
So the 24-year-old started in the Dacia Logan Cup as early as mid-November at the Bördesprint in the Oschersleben motorsport arena in northern Germany. Unfortunately, a futile effort: Shortly after the end of the second driver's stint, the hood popped open for inexplicable reasons and destroyed the windshield. The retirement therefore does not count as a result.
Huge fun in the Mitjet
Vanessa got plenty of driving done on January 5 at the Nieuwjaarsrace in Zandvoort. The well-known circuit in the dunes is where the Dutch hold their Winter Endurance Championship in the last and first months of the calendar year. This includes the traditional New Year's race, which is well attended by around 40 touring cars and GT vehicles.
The Swiss competed with Louis Henkefend and team boss Jean-Louis Capliuk on a Mitjet. This is a silhouette vehicle with a 2-liter naturally aspirated Renault engine (225 hp), sequential Sadev 6-speed transmission and a weight of only 780 kilograms.
Vanessa Zenklusen: "It's virtually a go-kart for adults without any driving aids such as ABS, ESP or brake boosters. The Mitjet is a lot of fun to drive and the handling is breathtaking."
The short video sequence shows how such a car sounds and drives.
https://www.facebook.com/vanessa.zenklusen.75/videos/10219235369774168/
Handicap when refueling
The trio was one of the fastest teams in the class. But due to the ban on plastic fuel cans, which are standard in the Mitjet series, they lost a lot of time during the pit stops.
Vanessa Zenklusen: "This gave our competitors an enormous advantage. Unfortunately, at the end of the race we were only in 7th place in Division 3 and 24th place in the scratch. However, the potential of the car and the whole team was clearly visible. Our lap times were seven to ten seconds faster in each case than those of the leaders in our division."
Long-distance target W Series
After her first circuit races, Vanessa Zenklusen tasted blood. Various teams took notice of her at Zandvoort and offered her a place. Now she is looking for sponsors. If she can raise the necessary money, she would also like to drive in the last winter race at Zandvoort on March 2 - and take a well-deserved podium place with her teammates.
Vanessa Zenklusen: "After that, further circuit races or even a whole season in the NES500 are planned. If not in 2019, then I will get the license in 2020 at the latest and can then apply for the W Series. Of course, I will continue to compete in the hillclimb and slalom races with my Subaru."
facebook.com/vanessa.zenklusen.75
