Les Rangiers: Merli record and Steiner podium 🎥
RECORD LUCK IN THE JURA European champion Christian Merli showed his great class at the St-Ursanne-Les Rangiers hill climb by winning the day's race in record time. Led by Marcel Steiner, who finished third overall, a number of Swiss riders also impressed in the Jura.
The changeable weather, combined with several incidents, allowed only two practice runs on Saturday on never quite dry track in the Jura. And after a dozen drivers, the race organizers interrupted the first race run early Sunday morning for two hours.
After that, practically all participants in the 77th Int. Hill Climb St-Ursanne-Les Rangiers started from scratch, which was a special challenge for the newcomer and the less experienced. Christian Merli accepted it and mastered himself in the style of a great champion.
Demonstration of the European champion
Although the Italian could have easily taken home 25 European Championship points for the day's win without pressure from Simone Faggioli, who had already won here nine times, he undercut his compatriot's 2019 track record by a tenth of a second in the second race run.
The new record on the 5180 meter long course now stands at 1'39,201, which corresponds to an incredible average of 187,98 km/h - nota bene at a village crossing and three hairpin curves...
Christian Merli: "I didn't want to just dust off the day's win, otherwise you would have written that I had it easy. But after yesterday's conditions, everything was different again today. I tried it and it worked out."
In the addition, the first new day winner in Les Rangiers (gallery left) since Marcel Steiner 2010 remained with 3'19.739, however, above Faggioli's value of 2019, which should not diminish his performance in any way.
With a total gap of eight seconds, the Czech Petr Trinka secured second place overall and victory in the sports car category. In 2018 and 2019, he had won in the two-liter category. With 1'43.513, the budding European vice champion is now the third-fastest man of all time behind Merli and Faggioli.
Steiner wins SM ranking with Swiss record
Marcel Steiner (center gallery) delivered a great duel to the Eastern European, losing by less than a second. With 1'44.037, the man from Berne, for his part, realized the fastest time ever set by a Swiss on this course.
The LobArt chassis, the engine (Helftec Honda Turbo) and the driver are harmonizing better from race to race, which has involved a lot of fine-tuning for Steiner Motorsport for weeks.
Robin Faustini also faster than ever
With the 25 points for the victory in the Swiss classification, Steiner took over the second SM intermediate rank from Robin Faustini. However, the Aargauer once again showed a mature performance by realizing the fourth fastest individual time (1'45.519) at the first start in the Jura with the Osella FA30 - which cannot be compared in detail with Merli's same model.
In the overall classification, the 24-year-old had to concede defeat behind the German Alexander Hin in an Osella FA30 driven by Merli and the Spaniard Joseba Iraola Lanzagorta in a Nova sports car with an FIA-derated 1.7-liter turbo engine. Iraola's speed at the first start in Switzerland was impressive, however.
As eighth behind veteran Fausto Bormolini from Livigno in the fastest race car with free-standing wheels (Reynard K02), Joël Volluz was also quite satisfied, although he had already clocked 1'45.26 (2013) in the Osella FA30 in best times before his horror accident in Les Grippons.
Simon Hugentobler also had reason to be satisfied with himself. In the first race in three years, Faustini's dad drove the 25-year-old Reynard 97D, which he last piloted here in 2017, faster than ever before.
Zemp and Grand faster than ever before
In the two-liter race cars, Joel Burgermeister won in the Tatuus F4 Evo ahead of Philipp Egli, who in the Dallara-EPR-5, which had never been raced in the Jura in this configuration, pushed local hero Roland Bossy (Dallara F312-Spiess) to third place in the second race.
In addition to Steiner, Michel Zemp (right gallery) and Joël Grand also put in outstanding performances in the sports cars. Zemp was beaten by Frenchman Fabian Frantz, but no Swiss has ever been so fast in a two-liter sports car.
In the 380-kilogram Osella Junior with BMW single-liter engine, Grand lost only one second to the Norma-Honda of the Bernese in the faster second run, with which the Valaisan pulverized another class record. Luxembourg's Canio Marchione, also fast everywhere with an identical car, had to admit that he would not have beaten Grand even without engine misfires.
Reto Meisel after hell ride before title win
Reto Meisel was in a class of his own in the closed cars (see also video above). With a hell of a ride, as he called the second race run himself, he drove out the fourth group E1 record in a row with the Mercedes SLK 340 (lower gallery left) , which now stands at 1'55.030 (previously Bratschi 1'56.865 in 2019).
Since Roger Schnellmann retired with drive damage to his Mitsubishi in the first race and Bruno Sawatzki left the field to the superior Frédéric Neff in the Porsche 996 GT2 R in Group IS, Meisel is now alone at the top of the standings. Next Sunday in Oberhallau, six points or a tenth place in E1 will be enough for the garage owner from Leuggern to win his second title after 2016 if Schnellmann wins in record time. If not, Meisel could even afford two more zeros.
Second fastest touring car driver in the addition was the furious Italian Manuel Dondi in the Fiat X 1/9 with Alfa Romeo STW engine from the group of EM vehicles with performance factor 1. The Austrian Karl Schagerl, who was leading after race 1, would probably have cracked the two minutes at the first Swiss appearance, in contrast to Dondi, if the electronics in the 700 hp VW Golf TSFI had not suddenly played a trick on him after the start of race 2. Only after a reset was he able to continue the race with a long delay and thus save a few European Championship points.
Burri beats Bürki
New class records were also set in Group E1 by Stephan Burri in the 1600s, Sébastien Coquoz in the two-liters and Benoit Farine (Honda CRX) up to 2.5 liters. In the direct duel Burri (lower gallery center) beat the great champion Martin Bürki, whereby the two identical VW Polo were geared differently and Bürki was about 10 km/h short. But Bürki congratulated him spontaneously and without envy. Meanwhile, Coquoz realized the fastest time of an Opel Kadett on the track, which has been extended by eleven meters since 2016....
In the IS two-liter class, Manuel Santonastaso prevailed in the BMW 320si. And in the class up to 3.5 liters, Vanessa Zenklusen celebrated a well-deserved class victory over strong competitor Dominik von Rotz in an Audi A4 quattro after two spirited drives in the self-built Subaru Impreza Type R (gallery on the right).
Cancer Clio winner with luck
Philipp Krebs' victory in the Renault Classic Cup, on the other hand, was primarily a matter of luck. He experienced moments of shock in both heats and would probably have been beaten by Denis Wolf in the Clio III if his engine had not suddenly cut out briefly in the forest in the second heat.
Jürg Brunner also celebrated his first unexpected success as the runner-up in Clio II (like Krebs). Wolf, who is only fourth behind Michael Schläpfer and ahead of Stephan Zbinden (both Clio III), can hardly be denied the title.
Photos: Ramon Hänggi (Action) and Peter Wyss (Portraits and Videos)
