Frauenfeld Auto Racing Days: Ninth victory for Philip Egli
ROUTINEERS AND YOUNGSTERS For the ninth time in a row, Philip Egli was celebrated as the winner of the ACS Auto-Renntage Frauenfeld. The 19-year-old Matthias Bischofberger took fourth place overall in the touring car category.
Rarely have so many spectators made their way to the Grosse Allmend in Frauenfeld to watch the racing action live and free of charge. The attractive supporting program with historic racing cars on and off the track and the food truck festival, which was staged for the first time and provided the public with plenty of culinary delights, probably also contributed to this.
Large starting fields
More than 300 drivers, divided into eleven fields, took part in the event, which was perfectly organized by the ACS Thurgau section. For the first time this year, points were at stake for the Swiss Slalom Championship and other racing series. Race director Alex Maag drew a positive balance afterwards: "We had a very tough Saturday with a long delay in the schedule, which is not unusual for the first race of the season. But we did everything right on Sunday by finishing the race almost an hour early. We were not only pleased with the accident-free race, but also with the huge crowd. It was the best advertisement for motorsport."
Permanent winner Egli
Philip Egli once again emerged as the day's winner on the 3.2-kilometer course in his Dallara racing car. In ideal conditions, he was the first driver ever to break the two-minute barrier with a time of 1:58.52 in the second practice run. Although Egli did not quite reach this fabulous time afterwards, the Glarus native from Zurich was still able to celebrate his ninth victory since 2015 with 1:58.96 and 1:58.87 as the new official track record. "That was a perfect start to the season. It doesn't get much better than that, because the times were pretty close together," said a delighted Philip Egli. After the withdrawal of two strong class rivals, Lukas Eugster on a Ligier Honda became Egli's only serious opponent. In the first race, the driver from St. Gallen incurred a time penalty, after which he had to complete a safe second run. With a gap of 2.36 seconds, he finished second overall in his open sports car, just like last year. Third place was secured by Lionel Ryter from Valais in a Tatuus Renault.
Local heroes
The drivers from Thurgau came up trumps. With two fantastic running times, Matthias Bischofberger from Wängi, who is only 19 years old, secured overall victory in the closed racing cars category in his home race in a Porsche 997 GT3 Cup. Stephan Burri from Affeltrangen came out on top in Group IS with his VW Scirocco. Manuel Santonastaso from Müllheim took second place in the class up to two liters displacement won by Burri, and Christoph Zwahlen from Pfyn took third place in the E1 group over three liters in his Porsche GT3 Cup.
The riders with an LOC license completed their races on Saturday. In the Suzuki Swiss Racing Cup, Sandro Fehr from Rorschacherberg won both championship races ahead of Patrick Flammer from Glarus and Rico Thomann from Winterthur. The fastest driver of the day was Dino Wintsch from Hombrechtikon in a Lotus Exige 430 Cup. All rankings can be found on the ACS Thurgau homepage.
