Hill climb: The best at the end 🎥
GRAND FINALE The best hillclimb racers in Europe will meet in Portugal this weekend for the FIA Hill Climb Masters, which is held every two to three years. Switzerland again has a good chance of winning medals. The teaser for the FIA Hill Climb Masters 2021. Fans have been marking this date in red for a long time. With a year's delay, cue Corona pandemic, the [...]
The teaser for the FIA Hill Climb Masters 2021, a date that fans have been marking in red for a long time.
With a one-year delay, cue Corona pandemic, the FIA Hill Climb Masters, announced for the fourth time after 2014 (Luxembourg), 2016 (Czech Republic) and 2018 (Italy), will take place in Portugal from October 8 to 10.
The race will be held on the Rampa da Falperra on the outskirts of Braga, which has been shortened to around three kilometers and is otherwise the venue for European Championship races. Tens of thousands of spectators are expected.
Like an Olympic discipline
The comparison with the Olympic Games is not far-fetched, since the participants of each country have to qualify with good results in the past season or hope for a wild card.
Those who then want or are allowed to participate - except for the waiver of the entry fee at their own expense - will race for medals in one of the four categories, for class victories or simply according to the Olympic idea of taking part.
And so this weekend, with a few exceptions, the best of the best will gather for the European showdown. It almost goes without saying that the FIA Hill Climb Masters has a better quality line-up than any European Championship race.
French against Italians and British
This is the only time that the British compete against the continental Europeans, this time with eight of the ten fastest cars from 2021. With their sprint race cars, some of which run on methanol, they compete in their own Open category.
The favorite here, however, is French champion Geoffrey Schatz. With the European champions Simone Faggioli and Christian Merli, who are classified in category 2 of the racing sports cars according to FIA regulations, and his compatriots Fabien Bourgeon and Sébastien Petit, Schatz - whose brother Nicolas won in Luxembourg in 2014 - also forms the narrow circle of favorites for the prestigious stage victory.
Small but fine Swiss delegation
The Swiss delegation is smaller than ever before, which is due to the effort required for just this one race. But with Thomas Amweg, Ronnie Bratschi, Reto Meisel and Michel Zemp it is top-class.
With Bratschi and Meisel, two of the fastest European touring car drivers ever compete in Category 1. This year, the driver from Uri won the top category Pf1, calculated according to performance factor, and the overall performance classification with his Mitsubishi. However, due to a lack of class strength, he missed out on the actual European Championship title.
With only two starts in Oberhallau (class win) and at the end of September in St. Agatha/A (2nd E1), Meisel admittedly has significantly less practice than Bratschi after a two-year break. With the SLK 340, however, the Aargauer was the fastest touring car driver ever in 2019 at the Portuguese EM round on the longer track variant.
Unlike 2018 in Gubbio, Meisel's own build is now entered in Category 2. Anything other than a medal from Bratschi and/or him would be a quiet disappointment, although any of the four Poles with their Mitsubishi mountain monsters and the GT drivers from France and Italy are also eligible.
Realistically, Amweg with the Lola F3000 and Zemp with the two-liter Norma sports car will have to set other priorities. But they will also cut a good figure in this world-class field.
Faustini waives start
Registered, but not at the start is Robin Faustini. The day winner from Oberhallau has to cancel and thus miss the chance to win the U-25 ranking.
Robin Faustini: "My Osella FA30 is not yet at top level. The risk that the technology is not stable is too great for me. There are many things we now have to do to the car over the winter."
Good Swiss medal record so far
The Swiss quartet present in Portugal will also compete in the Nations Cup. This classification is about uniformity and not primarily about best times. In 2014 in Luxembourg and 2016 in the Czech Republic, Switzerland won silver here.
Gold medals in the individual classification have so far gone to Eric Berguerand, who sensationally defeated European champion Faggioli in Eschdorf in 2014, and to Roger Schnellmann in the FIA Touring Cars in Gubbio in 2018.
Here the illustrated starting list, whose names you have to roll off your tongue, and the 15-team list of participants in the Nations Cup. The race will be held on Sunday in three heats, with the best time counting.
The livetiming and livestream from Braga will be available this weekend at this Link be available.
fia.com/events/hill-climb-masters/season-2021/fia-hill-climb-masters
