Mountain championship: Eric Berguerand stays on the ball 🎥
AND IT'S GOING ON After victories in La Roche and Massongex, Eric Berguerand also won the fourth round of the Swiss Mountain Championship in Anzère at the weekend, just ahead of Marcel Steiner and Joël Volluz.
In the fourth round from Ayent to Anzère, the home race of the 44-year-old Valais native, Eric Berguerand secured his third win of the season in his Lola FA99, the eighth overall in Anzère. However, the overall leader in the Swiss mountain championship had to stretch himself.
After two of three heats, Marcel Steiner (left gallery) in his LobArt-Honda/Helftec was still just under two tenths of a second ahead of Berguerand. Then last year's champion turned it up a notch and again went under 1:25 min in the third heat. In the addition of the two fastest heats, this was enough to push Steiner out of first place with a mini-lead of just under four tenths of a second.
Personal best time of the day at the limit
Eric Berguerand: "As it turned out, I was driving with a broken shock absorber. The damage was probably still from Massongex and I hadn't noticed it. I had to set a really good time again in the last run to catch Marcel. I managed to do that with my personal best time of the day. But that was at the limit."
Joël Volluz in third place
Behind the two dominators of the mountain season so far, Joël Volluz (center gallery) on Osella FA30 secured third place. The Valais native, who had only competed once before Anzère this season in La Roche, was still in fourth place after the first run behind brand colleague Robin Faustini. With a brilliant second race run in 1:25.6 min, Volluz catapulted himself to third place. He defended this position in the third heat to claim his first podium finish of the season - ahead of Faustini and Thomas Amweg on the Reynard 95D.
Joël Burgmeister with record time
Close behind, Joël Burgermeister drove a Tatuus Formula 4 to 6th place in a new record time in the 2-liter race cars, making the Thurgau native the fastest 2-liter race car driver in his class in all the mountain races he has driven so far (he did not race Massongex).
Once again, Philip Egli came in second in Burgermeister's category. Although he only recorded two timed runs, the native of Glarus safely crossed the finish line in second place ahead of Marcel Maurer. Fourth place went to local hero Joël Grand in the Wolf GB08 F1 Mistral. Behind him, Roland Bossy in his Dallara F311 took fifth place in the class.
Fastest touring car driver
The fastest touring car driver, Roger Schnellmann (gallery on the right), slipped between Maurer and Grand in the overall classification. The man from Schwyz was around five seconds faster per run in his Mitsubishi Evo 8 than Bruno Sawatzki in his Porsche 991.1 Cup. The 52-year-old from Balzers, who won his category, the Interswiss plus 3500 cm3, clearly ahead of mentor Christoph Zwahlen and Roland Bischofberger, thus remains the overall leader in the touring cars.
The third-fastest driver with a roof over his head was Simon Wüthrich, who like Steiner is one of the drivers using syn-fuel this year. Fourth fastest was Frédéric Neff, who after his reclassification from the Interswiss to the E1 took second place in the class over 3500 cm3 behind Schnellmann, as expected.
Toni Büeler in the points again
Other class winners in Anzère included (with more than one opponent in their respective groups) Toni Büeler (Mitsubishi Evo RSC, Gr. N), Yves Bracelli (Peugeot 106 GTI, A/ISA up to 1600 cm3), Stephan Moser (Toyota Yaris, IS up to 1400 cm3), Christoph Mattmüller (VW Scirocco, IS up to 1600 cm3), overall Mountain Cup leader Stephan Burri (VW Scirocco, IS up to 2000 cm3), Armin Banz (Opel Kadett C, IS up to 2500 cm3), Martin Oliver Bürki (BMW E33, IS to 3500 cm3), Mathias Schläppi (Hyundai i30, TCR), Joël Werthmüller (Peugeot 106, E1 to 1600 cm3), Fabien Houlmann (Peugeot 205, E1 to 2000 cm3), Farine Benoît (Honda CRX, E1 to 2500 cm3), Hermann Bollhalder (Opel Speedster, E1 to 3000 cm3) and Anthony Gurba (Formula Arcobaleno, E2 to 1600 cm3).
Victory in the Renault Classic Cup went (in the absence of Tom Zürcher) to championship leader Michael Schläpfer - ahead of Philipp Krebs and René Schnidrig. Detailed report to follow.
... and so it goes on:
- August 18-20, St.Ursanne - Les Rangiers
- August 25-27, Oberhallau
- 09 and 10 September, Gurnigel
- September 16 and 17, Châtel-St-Denis - Les Paccots
Source: Car Sport Switzerland
Photos: Kaufmann (2), myrallye.ch
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