Bratschi: First record drive in France

Ronnie Bratschi's new Mitsubishi Evo VIII RS, presented online by AutoSprintCH on Thursday, is running - and how. Eleven months after his last race (before the training accident in Hemberg), the man from Uri competed again at the weekend in a hill climb with his newly rebuilt car and even stunned the French.

Overall victory in the field of foreigners
As E1 cars do not comply with French regulations, Bratschi competed in the Luxembourg championship field together with 16 other foreigners, eight of them from Switzerland. He won this classification on a track that is comparable in length to Hemberg and Reitnau, with a 1.5-second lead over German mountain champion Frank Debruyne in the Dallara F303.

As usual in France, the best time from three runs was included in the scoring. Most competitors achieved their best time in the third run, including Ronnie Bratschi.

Faster than France's champion Pierre Courroye in the McLaren
With 54.600 (138.46 km/h), the man from central Switzerland beat the record for closed cars set in 2017 by Pierre Courroye in the McLaren MP4 12C by exactly half a second. This year, the French production car champion remained 68 thousandths above his record mark with 55.178.

In the field of exactly 100 Frenchmen, Bratschi would have taken 17th place overall. He left more than half of the total of 50 sports and racing cars from the CN and E2 groups behind him.

The day's win went to Geoffrey Schatz in the naturally aspirated BMW 4.0 V8 Norma by 31 thousandths over French mountain champion Sébastien Petit (Norma 3.0 V8).

Courroye, who was also fastest in the production cars with the GT3 sports car at the first two rounds of the 2018 European Hillclimb Championship in France and Austria, finished as the winner of the Cat. GTTS in 21st place. Nicolas Werver, known from St-Ursanne-Les Rangiers in Switzerland, was third fastest with his Porsche 997 GT2 in 56.208.

Ronnie Bratschi: "Of course I have the lighter car. But the McLaren has the most modern electronics inside and is equipped with wider tires that offer more mechanical grip in faster sections. What's more, the French are allowed to preheat their tires..."

Apart from a few laps of Hans Schori's Event Center Seelisberg, which is also his main sponsor, Bratschi did not drive a single meter with the new Mitsubishi before the first practice session. In addition, the track was unknown to him, unlike the French and most of the foreigners.

First Swiss showdown in Luxembourg
This victory was therefore not a matter of course. Bratschi himself is relieved.

Ronnie Bratschi: "Apart from the diffuser, which was already damaged in the first practice, everything went well. Because I could fall back on the data from the broken car, not everything was completely new for me. The important thing was that we were able to set everything up nicely and the Pirelli tires worked well, too. That was far from the limit."

The second test under racing conditions will take place next weekend in Eschdorf. At the big hill climb in Luxembourg, Bratschi will also face strong competition from his own country. Thomas Kessler will be there with the Mitsubishi Evo VIII, which has also been optimized over months of work, as will last year's winner Romeo Nüssli in a Ford Escort Cosworth, E1 track record holder Herbert Stolz (A) in an even more powerful Porsche 935 dp II, and again Nicolas Werver.

Ronnie Bratschi: "Of course I'll try to win there, too, but otherwise it's all about nothing for me there. The important thing is that I get routine, so every meter counts. After that, I'll decide whether to start at the FIA Hill Climb Cup in Slovakia at Whitsun and then in Verzegnis at the end of May. If I want to have a say in the FIA title, I should start there."

cdc-abreschviller-stquirin.com.

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