Slalom: Frauenfeld is Egli country
AUTO-RENNTAGE FRAUENFELD Philip Egli may not have been the fastest in his Dallara-Opel, but he was the best. Thanks to two faultless drives, the Zurich native secured his third win of the day at this event. In the touring car category, Jürg Beiner won for the first time in his Ianniello Lancia. The 18th car racing days of the ACS Thurgau in Frauenfeld offered exciting slalom sport at a high level. Yves Hängärtner, the [...]
The 18th Car Race Days of the ACS Thurgau in Frauenfeld offered exciting slalom racing at a high level. Yves Hängärtner, the winner of the opening race on April 8 in Interlaken, and Philip Egli delivered a nerve-wracking duel for the day's victory with their two-liter race cars in front of many thousands of spectators.
Although the Bernese was clearly faster than the Zurich driver in practice and the first race run, he was never faultless. In the decisive second run, Egli had the better nerves, while completely failing his new challenger for racing supremacy.
Thus, the runner-up celebrated his third consecutive stage win in Frauenfeld with his Dallara-Opel, which is always well prepared. Because Hängärtner had not parked his Tatuus-Honda in the closed car park after crossing the finish line, he even flew out of the classification.
Marcel Maurer was fighting with his back to the wall this time, as brake problems on the Tatuus-Renault urged him to drive carefully. With a gap of two seconds, the Bernese nevertheless finished second behind Egli and ahead of Joel Burgermeister, as in the previous year. The Thurgau native scored his biggest success to date on his home track in the small TracKing with a single-liter Suzuki engine.
As expected, Markus Bosshard risked nothing during his test drive with the Reynard F3000 entrusted to him, which is not necessarily suited for slaloms, and therefore remained far behind the best times. His facial expression and statements, however, revealed the driving pleasure this potent race car gives him.
Double joy in Martin Bürki's MB team
Defending champion Martin Bürki entered the gray VW Polo E1 in Frauenfeld to check its technical condition and potential. Despite a problem with the brakes, Bürki drove the fastest 1600 time with it, which Werner Rohr in the Toyota Corolla AE86 came quite close to as the winner over Stephan Burri (VW Polo) in the same-displacement IS class.
There was double reason to cheer at the MB Motorsport Team. This time, Bürki's protégé Jürg Beiner realized the potential of the Lancia Delta S4 rented from Bruno Ianniello and thus celebrated his first overall touring car victory. Because things are going so well with it, the Graubünden strawberry producer will contest all slaloms with this rocket until further notice.
As in Interlaken, Danny Krieg in the Porsche GT3 was the second-fastest driver with a roof over his head. In contrast to the season opener, Daniel Wittwer in the 270 hp VW Golf was not only fast but also faultless. This was rewarded with victory in the strongly occupied E1 two-liter class over local hero Manuel Santonastaso in the BMW 320, Christian Darani in the Fiat X1/9 and Patrik Flammer in the Suzuki Swift Evo.
Burri, Egli, "Santi" and Wittwer are now in second place in the championship with 35 points each behind Martin Bürki (40 points) who has no losses. All the other drivers who had scored full points in Interlaken already took defeats, did not have their class fully or were absent in Frauenfeld.
The next Slalom-SM race, organized by ACS Bern, will take place on Saturday, May 6, at the Saanen airfield - spectators are welcome with free entry.
