European Mountain Championship: Swiss delicacy in the Jura 🎥
SEASON HIGHLIGHT Records could fall on the fastest track in the European Mountain Championship calendar. Favorites are the Italians Merli and Faggioli. Other interesting drivers and cars promise hillclimb racing at the highest level. Since 2012, ten-time European champion Simone Faggioli has been unbeaten in the St-Ursanne - Les Rangiers International Hill Climb. Most recently, his challenger Christian Merli came close. [...]
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Ten-time European champion Simone Faggioli has been unbeaten at the St-Ursanne - Les Rangiers International Hill Climb since 2012. Most recently, his challenger Christian Merli came close. Two years ago, the 47-year-old South Tyrolean at the wheel of the Osella FA30 snatched the track record shortly after 8 p.m., which has since stood at 1'41.530 (183.7 km/h), but it was not enough for the day's victory in the addition of the two fastest times.
Joint table leaders
In the meantime, Merli has also become European champion, and he didn't give Faggioli a chance at the start of the 2019 season. However, since the Florentine has aerodynamically retrofitted his Norma sports car to its old standard, he has returned to his usual speed. At the previous round of the European Championship in Poland, Faggioli took victory by 58 hundredths.
Because both compete in two different European Championship categories with their powerful 3.0 V8 racing sports cars and always score full points, there is a tie at the top of the 2019 European Championship mountain table. If no one makes a mistake in the Jura, nothing is likely to change after the tenth of twelve European Championship rounds.
Will the new asphalt allow for a track record?
Whether it will set a new track record next Sunday depends not only on the somewhat uncertain weather, but also on the newly laid asphalt. Speaking to AutoSprintCH at the Osnabrück hill climb, the defending champion questioned this.
Christian Merli: "Apart from the bumps, the old surface was not bad in itself. The question now is how much grip the new asphalt offers. A new record always depends on several factors and is never easy to set, even if the development of the cars goes on and on. But Simone and I will certainly try."
Is Volluz coming as a driver or a spectator?
The fastest Swiss in the past years was always Marcel Steiner. The Bernese rider needs the full SM points in order not to completely lose touch with Eric Berguerand, who is absent in the Jura, in the Swiss mountain championship. For him, third place overall, which is being contested by three riders on Osella FA30s - Diego De Gasperi, Christoph Lampert and Joël Volluz - would already be a success. Whether Volluz will be able to compete will only be decided at the last moment. Fortunately, the accident damage in Osnabrück was far less severe than feared.
Joël Volluz: "In principle, it was small things. But finding all the spare parts I don't have in stock during the vacation season is difficult. I would very much like to start in Saint-Ursanne. If we can't manage the repair, I'll just come as a spectator."
Faustini against foreigners
Other contenders for the Swiss podium are Robin Faustini, just 21 years old and maturing with every race, and his father Simon Hugentobler (with the Osella-Cosworth PA30 borrowed from Cyrille Frantz). Two weeks after Osnabrück, Faustini will return to his usual Reynard-Nippon K01, aiming once again to become the fastest race car driver with free-standing wheels.
His direct opponents are not only the Italians Fausto Bormolini and Renzo Napione in their somewhat newer Reynard-Nippon K02s, but also Briton Darren Warwick in the Dallara F399, who is traveling from the Channel Island of Guernsey, and Frenchman Billy Ritchen in the Dallara-Mercedes. These two will decide the victory among themselves in the two-liter race cars.
Bratschi under two minutes for the first time?
In the touring cars, the way leads through Ronnie Bratschi. If he and his Mitsubishi Evo VIII Egmo are in as good a shape as they were recently in Osnabrück, he will drive under two minutes for the first time. So far, only Reto Meisel has managed this twice with his record drive in 2017 with the Mercedes SLK340 in 1'57.875 and last year with 1'58.799 in training. Bratschi already came close in 2018 with 2'00.599.
Attractive silhouette vehicles
The long-distance duel between Bratschi and his brand colleague Roger Schnellmann, who has already won three times in Group E1 in 2019, and the foreigners competing in Group E2-SH will be exciting. With 2'00.548 Dan Michl scratched this wall in 2017 in the Lotus Elise, his compatriot Vladivir Vitver came last year with the Audi TT-R DTM running clean only in practice on 2'01.539. As the third Czech with one of the extraordinary silhouette touring cars Marek Rybnicek celebrated in a Mc F1 Evo (Norma chassis with Mitsubishi turbo engine) in 2019 already several European Championship race wins. The only Swiss competing in the E2-SH group is local Quentin Salomon in Yann Hêche's equally unique and flashy Mazda 3 MPS Rotary.
So if you want to experience more than a "normal" Swiss hill climb, you'll get your money's worth at the 72nd St-Ursanne - Les Rangiers hill climb this weekend. All information for spectators is available on the organizer's homepage.
