Arlberg race: Days of surprises 🎥
NO SWISS DAY WINNER The battle for the two day's victories on the Arlberg was lost by the favored Philip Egli and Marcel Maurer to an Austrian on Mitsubishi. It was not only bad weather that was at play. No matter who won or lost on one of the two completely different race days in terms of weather - everyone present, the reporter included, was happy that after [...]
Regardless of who won or lost on one of the two days of racing, which were completely different in terms of weather, everyone present, including the reporter, was happy that a real race was taking place again after a seemingly interminable forced break.
Season opener for slalom and mountain specialists
For most of the drivers who came from all over Austria, southern Germany, South Tyrol, the Principality of Liechtenstein and the German-speaking part of Switzerland, it was the first ever motorsport event in this unusual year.
Organization manager Pepe Hammerer and his team from the Renn und Rallye Club Vorarlberg - in which the majority comes from Switzerland - made this possible. They jumped over all the official hurdles in times of Corona, met them also thanks to the discipline of all participants and handled the races expeditiously. For this, everyone deserves a huge praise.
Defused mountain race
The 5th Int. Arlberg Klein Slalom is about 1.5 kilometers long and winding mountain race with a few gates, which were more or less placed on the ideal line. Although, as with all in Austria approved races of the RRCV, no license must be presented and one could expect a lack of driving skills from some participants, no one overestimated themselves.
With one exception, which was actually taken care of by an expert, there were no accidents, only spins and minor guardrail contacts, neither on Friday in imperial weather, nor on Saturday in miserable conditions. Chapeau!
Luck for Philip Egli
However, one of the two favored Swiss was lucky that nothing really happened. In the second race on Friday, Philip Egli spun on a bridge in the first corner after the rear of his Dallara broke away while braking on a bump. That took a bit of the edge off him afterwards.
Philip Egli: "A test beforehand would probably have been good. I had to get used to the pace again after a nine-month break. I was looking for a sharper line in this corner. Fortunately, everything stayed whole. I had to find confidence after that, so it wasn't until the fourth run that it was fun again."
Handicap for Marcel Maurer
Even his arch-rival Marcel Maurer could not pull the Swiss chestnuts out of the fire with his Tatuus-Renault. A small problem in the gearbox caused the change from paddle shift to sequential manual gearshift without gear indicator already after the practice run. Since each field - two in the morning and two in the afternoon - always reeled off their runs one right after the other, the first race day was over for the Bernese in terms of results.
Out of competition, Maurer was allowed to start in the fourth race field and drove the fastest time of the day in the first run before the announced rain started. After all, this was then a perfect exercise for Saturday.
Who is Dominik Kälin?
Thus, a third Swiss, whom no one had on the calculation, took the victory in the racing sports cars. Dominik Kälin drives and wins with his 1000cc Arcobaleno only in the RRCV races. But the former kart driver showed that even as a non-licensed driver you can keep up with the "nationals" if everything fits.
The 26-year-old from Schwyz was himself surprised to finish second overall at the end of the first self-contained day of racing.
Dominik Kälin: "Looking at the start list, I didn't see any chance of getting into the top five. Normally I fight for the wins here with other people."
Only a Mitsubishi bomber faster than Lotus champion Dino Wintsch
The day's victory ahead of Kälin and Egli went to Stefan Promok on a Mitsubishi Evo VIII in the addition of the three fastest of four times. The man from Salzburg can get up to 740 hp out of the Gabat engine, depending on his wishes.
Dino Wintsch achieved a feat. After he had clearly won the Lotus V6 Cup Suisse in the morning with Yokohama semislicks (report to follow) and was faster than all Porsche GT3 drivers, he fitted his Exige 430 Cup with non-tread rubber at the start in field 3 in the afternoon. As a result, the Zurich driver achieved the fourth-best overall time!
With his completely rebuilt TracKing, now with a Mercedes silhouette, Andreas Helm finished fifth overall in the dry. On Saturday in the wet, the little wagon with the 1000cc motorcycle engine was simply too light to have enough grip.
Advantage for the two-time winner of the day
Once again Stefan Promok was the absolute fastest, benefiting in field 2 from the slightly less wet conditions. In partly pouring rain, Marcel Maurer fought a great duel for victory in field 3 with South Tyrolean Günther Ziernheld in a Lancia Delta Integrale and had to settle for second place overall as the winner in the racing sports cars.
Fifth overall and second fastest Swiss was Michael Widmer in a Mitsubishi Mirage Proto, who started in two fields, ahead of Dino Wintsch, who again amazed in the rain. Otherwise, only a Cayman GT4 driver from Feldkirch, who was also fast, and the German Mario Minichberger in a BMW 2002 Group 5 were able to leave him behind in the touring cars and GT cars.
All other results with several Swiss class winners can be found in the following ranking lists.
The camera team from Austria Racing Pics Vorarlberg captured great scenes. They show how the two-time winner of the day Stefan Promok let his Mitsubishi Bomber fly through the gates and around the corners.
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