Berg-SM Junior 2018: Finalists have been determined
MOUNTAIN RACING On Sunday, eight participants qualified for the 2018 Swiss Hill Climb Championship Junior at the Swiss Race Academy 2018 qualifying session at the Seelisberg Event Center. One of them is rally junior Thomas Schmid. Two women will be taking part for the first time. The number of candidates interested in the Swiss Race Academy 2018 was no longer [...]
The number of candidates interested in the Swiss Race Academy 2018 was not as high as at the premiere a year ago. However, this did not detract from the quality of the second year.
On Sunday, eleven of the 18 competitors took part in the qualifying for this year's Swiss Junior Mountain Championships at the Seelisberg Event Center. Several tasks had to be mastered, including a time trial on the ice/snow circuit and one on the race simulator.
The jury consisted of two-time FIA Hill Climb E1 champion and former slalom champion Ronnie Bratschi, former Swiss series car champion Röbi Wicki, the first Bergmeister Junior 2017 Rolf Reding, ASS director Patrick Falk, the initiators Hans Schori and Yves Meyer from the Eventcenter and AutoSprint sports editor Peter Wyss.
Two of the three women managed to qualify
No participant may be older than 28 years and have experience in hill climbs. Thomas Schmid, who competed in the 2017 Swiss Rally Junior Championship and now wants to concentrate on the Mountain Championship Junior, was therefore also allowed to apply.
It was to be expected that the St. Gallen native would easily make it onto the shortlist with convincing times. Fortunately, two of the three women candidates also made it into the exclusive starting field.
These are the eight participants in the 2018 Junior Mountain Championships: Désirée Blumer (22) from Brunnen SZ, Luca Hodel (20) from Dagmarsellen LU, Fabian Hug (24) from Weiningen ZH, Sven Indermühle (22) from Seftigen BE, Michèle Meier (26) from Oberdorf NW, Brian-David Prina (soon to be 25) from Schnottwil BE, Thomas Schmid (22) from Jonschwil SG and Marcel Wälchli (27) from Kirchdorf BE.
Yves Meyer, instructor at Eventcenter Seelisberg and head of the Swiss Race Academy, is delighted with the new and, on average, significantly younger cohort than in 2017.
Yves Meyer: "The time difference between the two tests on the circuit and on the simulator was greater last year. This suggests a higher performance density. We are now curious to see how the eight finalists will develop, especially the two women. We are already looking forward to the new season."
As before, uniform Toyota GT86s will be used in accordance with SuperSeries regulations, running on Pirelli road tires. The season kicks off on July 1 at the Reitnau hill climb, followed by races at Ayent-Anzère, Oberhallau and Gurnigel, as in 2017.
