Motorsport: Amazing Swiss TCR drivers
TOURING CARS Little Switzerland showed once again last weekend what great racing drivers it produces without its own race track. The FIA European Cup in Monza and the ADAC TCR Germany in Oschersleben saw victories by Swiss drivers. At the opening round of the FIA European Cup in Monza (ETCC), the Rikli team from Wangen an der Aare was on the stopwatch [...]
At the opening round of the FIA European Cup in Monza (ETCC), the Rikli team from Wangen an der Aare was fastest on the stopwatch. Unfortunately, this was not fully reflected in the results of the two race runs.
After Peter Rikli and Christjohannes Schreiber had taken the first row of the grid with their two red Honda Civic TCRs ahead of a pack of Seat Leon and an Audi RS3 LMS, the man from Graubünden was flagged off first in the first race and the man from Bern first in the second.
Because both subsequently received arguable time penalties, victory in the first race went to Czech Petr Fulin on Seat Leon TCR ahead of Rikli and Schreiber. In the second race, the stewards again accused Rikli of an offense at the start because he had swerved to avoid a competitor. At least the success stayed with the team, as this gave Schreiber his first ETCC victory.
To the astonishment of the Honda factory team, which was also in Monza for the World Touring Car Championship, the Swiss cars were faster on this GP circuit than the factory drivers had previously been in tests and races with their TCR cars! In contrast to the Swiss, they have never achieved lap times of less than two minutes at Monza. Rikli: "We were extremely well prepared as drivers and with the car set-up." Schreiber now also leads the championship ahead of Fulin and Rikli, who are tied on points.
Florian Thoma takes the win at his first race weekend
Kris Richard proved in Oschersleben that the driving level in the ETCC should not be underestimated despite the small number of cars (10). Rikli's last year's champion driver put his Honda Civic from the South Tyrolean Target Competition team on pole position for race 1 in front of no less than 40 competitors.
In the race, the Bernese lost three positions in the starting phase, which he was unable to make up as a result of three caution phases. In the second race, with the starting order of the top ten from qualifying reversed, Richard improved from tenth to seventh place.
The chestnuts were then surprisingly pulled out of the fire by another Swiss. Florian Thoma had previously only competed in kart races and tackled his first season in motor racing in the team of Franz Engstler from the Allgäu region. With resounding success. As tenth in qualifying, the 21-year-old from Studen in Bern was allowed to put himself on pole position for the second start in his VW Golf TCR. The newcomer showed strong nerves, immediately took the lead and did not relinquish it even at the restart after two caution phases.
If you consider that the two-time International TCR Champion Stefano Comini won both races of the Benelux Championship at Spa-Francorchamps the weekend before last, ensuring the first victory of an Audi R3 LMS TCR, then you can almost say: Little Switzerland is truly a major power in this booming category for two-liter touring cars with turbo and front-wheel drive.
