Arosa: Amweg wins with course record 🎥
FOURTH STREAK A record crowd of spectators experienced a perfectly organized Arosa Classic Car hill climb 2019. In a new record time, Thomas Amweg won with a Martini F2 for the fourth time. According to the organizer, around 27000 spectators lined the race track in the "Monaco of the Alps" over the four days. No wonder, since the weather also played along. After two [...]
According to the organizer, around 27,000 spectators lined the race track in the "Monaco of the Alps" over the four days. No wonder, since the weather also played along. After two mostly rainy editions, the mountain race, which was being held for the 15th time, had the best possible weather conditions except for a brief shower on Saturday.
It was only when the heavens opened in the second race on Sunday afternoon and flooded the track that Ueli Schneiter, the experienced race director for the twelfth time, had to call an early halt. Although this meant that not all participants were able to take part in a fourth race, the die was cast by this point, at least in the timed Competition group.
Amweg record run
Having already set a clear new best time in Saturday's first dry run, Thomas Amweg managed virtually the perfect drive in the third run. With 4'06.16 for the 7300-meter route from Langwies to Arosa, the 34-year-old from Aargau at the wheel of the Martini-BMW Mk50 F2 once again improved his previous day's record by more than six seconds. His previous record mark had been 4'17.8 since 2016.
Thomas Amweg: "It was a super run with a risk that I could still justify. After all, I knew that it would go faster than before, which the weather prevented in the last two years. In the meantime, I also know the course really well."
For the son of former mountain king Fredy Amweg, it is already the fourth day's victory in a row, clearly beating local Roger Moser in a Martini BMW Mk28. However, the Arosa native has far less driving experience in 2019. He lost around 20 seconds in Race 3, which was also the fastest, and 51.21 in the addition of the three best runs.
Bruno makes off
In the historic touring cars and GT vehicles, which drove for best time according to FIA Appendix K, there were twice as many competitors as last year, with 22 on the grid. Clearly the best was, as in 2017, when he even slipped in between the two Formula 2 drivers as overall second in the wet, was Bruno Staub with a Ferrari 308 GTB.
The Central Swiss also drove the fastest to Arosa on Sunday morning with 4'33.67. The closest to Staub were Urs Beck in a Porsche 911 ST with a total of 9.56 seconds and Diego Bernhard in a Ford Escort RS 2000, 11.48 seconds behind. Markus Jörg in a 1956 Lotus XI Le Mans, one of the oldest cars in the Competition field, finished a good fourth.
Veteran car victory
Ruedi Schawalder proved that winning this unique event in Europe is not a question of age in the Arosa Classic Trophy. In this category, the average speed of vehicles with an FIA car pass or FIVA ID Card may not exceed 80 km/h, so that the target time of 5'28,50 may not be undercut. This danger never existed for the man from eastern Switzerland with his American La France Type 12 from 1917. Two of his running times in 7'51,4 differed only by two hundredths, which meant that he won this classification, which was based on uniformity and contested by 80 participants, with the over 100-year-old racing car.
In the Arosa Sport Trophy, in which there is no speed limit, Andreas Portmann brought home the winner of two of his four runs with a Lancia Delta HF integrale with a difference of just four hundredths.
Our gallery with photos of the organizer should convey the good mood at the Arosa ClassicCar Bernrennen 2019 without further words - see you again on September 3 to 6, 2020!
