Mountain Cup: New winners in the rain

Will the 2019 Mountain Cup winner come from the Renault Classic Cup? Even in changeable weather conditions, the clear favorite Philipp Krebs did not show the slightest sign of weakness on the Gurnigel.

In the first wet race run, he was already 2.7 seconds ahead in his black Clio II. However, if it hadn't been for a guard rail hit in one of the first corners, which took away some of his courage, Thomas Zürcher would have been closer as the fastest Clio III driver. In the second run on a drying track, they were separated by just 1.3 seconds.

Thomas Zürcher: "On this track, it's not possible to beat a Clio II that's a good 160 kilos lighter and moves optimally. This is shown by the track records of Daniel Borer and me, which are one and a half seconds apart. That's why I have to be satisfied with second place."

Wälchli beats the veterans
While Zürcher was 3.92 seconds behind in the addition, Michael Schläpfer, who still has little experience at Gurnigel, already lost 5.38 seconds in his Clio II. As a surprising second in practice and fourth in the race, Marcel Wälchli in the rented Clio III of Denis Wolf gave another business card. Last year's runner-up in the Berg-SM Junior relegated the veterans René Schnidrig and Stephan Zbinden to fourth place thanks to the fourth-best time in the wet.

Krebs beckons double title win
After his sixth win of the season in his seventh race, Krebs now not only has the title in the Renault Classic Cup for the first time, but also in the Berg-Pokal. If no club colleague beats him next Sunday in Les Paccots, the cross-class championship will be his.

Philipp Krebs: "I had two really good runs on Gurnigel. The recipe was to stay patient in these difficult conditions and not to pull the trigger too early anywhere. Now I want to bring up two more runs like that in Paccots and I'm using my joker there - I'm treating myself to two new front tires."

Bürki only benefits from a defeat of the title opponent
The second title candidate is Martin Bürki. Although he had made a mistake in the choice of tires in the wet first run, he clearly decided the IS-1600 in his favor with a dream time in the second run ahead of Stephan Burri (both VW Polo), who was struggling with clutch problems. In practice Bürki set an unofficial IS-1600 class record. If Krebs wins next Sunday, another victory is of no use to Bürki, which is due to the deduction in Oberhallau (only half points).

With the fourth victory in the sufficiently strong IS-1400 class, Stephan Schöpfer in the Audi 50 moved up to third place in the standings. A nice snapshot, because the Entlebucher will probably lose it again, because he renounces the last mountain race. Stephan Burri, who is already determined as the 2019 IS Trophy winner by points - congratulations - would also overtake him with a second place behind Bürki. Unless one of the five registered IS-1600 participants is missing in the Gruyère...

One person in particular was happy about Bürki's change of class: Mitch Kuster drove to victory in the E1-1600 with a new, self-tuned engine in the Alfa Romeo Sprint (around 250 hp). In the first race in pouring rain, the man from Fribourg was thus faster than Bürki and all the two-liters, which he also left behind him in the overall classification. For Kuster, the first victory in three years, when he won in Oberhallau and at Gurnigel.

Premieres in the two-liter classes
For the first time ever, the two two-liter drivers were allowed to stand on the podium in the marquee as winners. While Ludovic Monnier (VW Golf) in the IS-2000 was first ahead by almost three seconds, Patrick Hedinger in the Peugeot 205 took him and everyone else by surprise with a hammer time in the second run. The man from Wilching suspected that Manuel Santonastaso (BMW 320, 3rd) and Jürg Ochsner (Opel Kadett, 4th) would have more trouble with their rear-wheel-drive cars in the rain, but saw the VW drivers Monnier and Vallat as favorites.

A Kadett ahead of the front-wheel-drive models
In the E1-2000, victory in the dry would only have gone to the clearly fastest in training Reto Steiner in the Ford Escort V6, with which he could do nothing more in the wet. Like Patrick Vallat (VW Golf) in the IS two-liters, René Faigle in the VW Scirocco missed his chance with a slip in the first run, which fortunately did not result in any damage for either of them.

After the rainy first run, Daniel Kammer in his Honda Civic led by half a second over Sébastien Coquoz in the Opel Kadett (with Astra engine block and STW cylinder head), who was also brilliantly disposed. In the still damp second run, the Valais native took eight tenths off the rain winner from Anzère and thus deservedly took his first national victory.

Strong performance also from Peter Straubhaar on rank 3, who has never been so far ahead with his VW Golf 1, and Roli Graf in the Renault Clio on P4. After all, such a sub-ranking of the Swiss championship should also live from surprises.

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