Sport: Patrick Flammer with Opel and Suzuki
DANCING AT TWO TIMES The Swiss national scene is enriched by an attraction. Patrick Flammer will start the season with the tried-and-tested Suzuki Swift Evo 2000 - but the man from Glarus will contest the hill climbs with a new Opel Astra TCR. As an employee of Suzuki Switzerland, Patrick Flammer would continue to give sporting preference to his house brand. But because [...]
As an employee of Suzuki Switzerland, Patrick Flammer would continue to give preference to his house brand in sporting terms. But because his father's Autocenter K. Flammer in Glarus also sells the Opel brand and the company wants to remain involved in Swiss sport with a current race car from Rüsselsheim after withdrawing from the OPC Challenge, the change of make to the booming TCR category is understandable.
Last Friday, dad Karl Flammer and son Patrick picked up a brand new Opel Astra TCR from Kissling Motorsport in Bad Münstereifel near the Nürburgring. Kissling manufactures the racing touring cars for Opel.
The next day, the team went straight to Hockenheim for testing. Fortunately, the snow stopped falling, so Flammer was able to do fast laps first in the wet and then in the afternoon on a dry surface.
The future belongs to the TCR category
The Astra is intended for use in hill climbs. Here, the touring cars according to TCR regulations will have their own division from 2018, as well as their own class at slaloms. Flammer naturally hopes that other owners of TCR cars (Zemp, Krieg, Winiger) or new drivers will also participate and thus enrich this new class.
Due to the minimum number of participants (eight for hill climbs, five for slaloms), it will probably not be enough for full points in the first year. But this is not Flammer's first concern.
Patrick Flammer: "We wanted something new. If you want to drive at the front in Group E1, you have to invest just as much or more. The future belongs to the TCR category, here everyone drives at the same technical level, so it depends on the driver. If the class doesn't fill up in the first year, then maybe 2019 or 2020."
At the test in Hockenheim, the 27-year-old felt at home right away.
Patrick Flammer: "Because of the winter weather and the tension of driving a brand new car, I was already a bit nervous. That's why I was mega satisfied with the first test."
Hunt for the top ten in the Suzuki Swift
Flammer will continue to contest the slalom championship, which fortunately does not overlap with any hillclimb races this year, with the unique Suzuki Swift Evo 2000, also for the sake of his current employer, who will continue to support him with the proven touring car in the fourth season.
To make Switzerland's most powerful Swift interesting for a future buyer, Flammer had the 16V engine freshly overhauled at the vehicle manufacturer in Denmark. In the E1 two-liter class with the largest number of participants, the man from Glarus finished second twice and third once in the previous year. Patrick Flammer finished the championship in eleventh place, so the top ten would be the logical target in 2018.
