Gurnigel: Berguerand cracks the sound barrier
TITLE TO MARCEL STEINER With a second place overall, Marcel Steiner secured the 2018 mountain championship title ahead of schedule. However, the home ruler had no chance against Eric Berguerand, who was the first driver to achieve a running time under 100 seconds with his Lola-Cosworth on the Gurnigel. After he had to retire in Oberhallau due to engine problems, Eric Berguerand's Lola-Cosworth ran [...]
After having to retire in Oberhallau due to engine problems, Eric Berguerand's Lola-Cosworth ran flawlessly at Gurnigel. The man from the Valais gave the old and new champion Marcel Steiner no chance.
Under 100 seconds for the first time
With 1'39.81, Berguerand pulverized the record held by Steiner since 2012 with the Osella FA30 in 1'41.39 on the 3734-meter track in ideal outside conditions already in the first race run. In the second run, he remained only one hundredth above the sound barrier of 100 seconds, which he had previously broken.
Steiner also set a new sports car record in the LobArt-Mugen with a time of 1'41.46 (previously 1'45.08 from the previous year). However, he had to admit defeat in the addition by 3.45 seconds.
With two 1'42 times and a gap of 5.18, Christoph Lampert from Vorarlberg finished third overall in the Osella FA30.
Fifth SM title for Marcel Steiner
This resulted in the same podium as last year. For Eric Berguerand, it is the seventh triumph at Gurnigel, the sixth in a row with the same race car.
However, as he had to deal with too many technical problems and failures beforehand, Berguerand was unable to prevent Marcel Steiner from winning his fifth SM title even with this super performance. The latter does not have to and does not want to compete next weekend in Les Paccots.
Balmer still turns the thing around
The decision in the two-liter race cars was exciting. With a new class record time, Christian Balmer edged out Marcel Maurer, who had been surprisingly in the lead after the first race, by almost a second.
What Maurer performed in 2018 with the underperforming Tatuus-Renault Midland deserves the highest respect. His slalom permanent opponent Philip Egli (Dallara-EPR-1) had to settle for third place despite the second-best time in the second run.
Problems with Ronnie Bratschi
Although clearly above Reto Meisel's existing touring car record, Roger Schnellmann and Ronnie Bratschi were absolutely tied at the top of Group E1 with their Mitsubishi Bombers after the first run. However, Bratschi complained once again about engine problems, this time the cylinder head gasket blew out water.
In the time trouble he did everything to at least be able to complete the second run. While Schnellmann was only one tenth slower in the second run, the man from Uri lost 8.5 tenths with a drop in performance.
Advantage Neff
It is now getting close for the SM leader in the championship. In the Interswiss group, Frédéric Neff in the Porsche GT3 R won in record time, the first time under two minutes on the track variant that has been used since 2011.
If Neff also wins next Sunday in Les Paccots, even a fifth record victory will be of no use to Bratschi.
With victory in the SuperSeries over the initially leading Röbi Wicki (Mitsubishi), Andy Feigenwinter in the Lotus Exige 430 Cup also preserved his theoretical title chance.
Thomas Schmid is junior champion
The Mountain Cup will also not be decided until the final. The Junior Hillclimb Championship, on the other hand, has been decided in favor of Thomas Schmid. After the first race, local hero Marcel Wälchli, who was also the fastest in training, was still in front before Schmid pulled out all the stops again and celebrated his fourth victory in the fourth race.
We will talk about both championships and the starting position in the touring cars separately this week.
