Bergrennen Hemberg: Strong field at the start of the season 🎥

The long wait is over. Hemberg, where the last race was held in 2019 (see video), will be the venue for the season opener of the 2022 mountain championship. 165 male and female drivers have registered for the first race in the post-Corona era. With a few exceptions, all the drivers are from Switzerland.

Dominators are at the start again
After what feels like an endless dry spell, predicting who might take the first one-day win in 2022 is almost impossible. True, the dominators of the 2019 season, Eric Berguerand and Marcel Steiner, are both on the grid. But the stars of the scene, of all people, have hardly raced at all in the past two years.

Lola F3000 driver Eric Berguerand: "I did some preparation on the kart track in Château Gaillard. Other than that, though, I never raced. My last race was Les Paccots 2019."

Marcel Steiner also doesn't necessarily travel to Toggenburg with many race or test kilometers. After the vehicle fire in Anneau du Rhin, he is happy to be able to take part in the race at all.

Roll-out, training and race at the same time

The Bernese had a different idea of the switch to the Honda turbo engine: "We'll see in Hemberg how competitive we are on the mountain. The tests we did on the circuit before our LobArt caught fire make me confident. But it's difficult to make a forecast. For us, Hemberg is roll-out, training and race at the same time. It's good that we have four to five practice runs each at Hemberg and at the next race in La Roche. That suits us."

Robin Faustini with Osella FA30 at the start
One of the drivers who could spoil the party for the two is Robin Faustini with his new partner Midland (left gallery). The driver from Aargau has not yet completed a Grand Prix distance on his Osella FA30, but the 2021 Oberhallau winner has recently attracted attention at the hill climbs in Sternberk (CZ) and Skradin (HR) with 4th and 3rd places. In Croatia, he was only 0.2 seconds slower than mountain legend Simone Faggioli in the second run. Faustini's motto for 2022 is: all the way or not at all.

Robin Faustini: "Berguerand and Steiner are both very experienced and fast. If you want to hold a candle to them, you have to give everything. The races in the Czech Republic and Croatia helped me prepare. Since a good chassis is more important in Hemberg than pure engine power, I reckon we've got a good chance. But I don't know exactly where we stand in relation to the competition either."

Thomas Amweg is candidate for day win
Alongside Berguerand, Steiner and Faustini, Thomas Amweg (right gallery) is also a candidate for the day's victory. However, the 2019 Gurnigel winner will have to make do at the start in Hemberg with the Lola T94/95 with which his father Fredy secured his 15th and last title in the Swiss mountain championship in 1998. The planned entry of the ex-Volluz Reynard 95D is still a long time coming. The pistons for the Reynard have still not come.

Battle of lower displacement formula cars
The performance of the lower-displacement formula cars will also be interesting. A four-way battle between Joël Burgermeister, Philip Egli, Thomas Zürcher and Christian Balmer is brewing. Burgermeister, like Faustini, prepared for the Swiss mountain season in Ecce Homo and won his class there in commanding fashion.

In the touring cars, the name of Roger Schnellmann (Mitsubishi Evo) is at the top in the E1 and that of returnee Frédéric Neff (Porsche 996 GT2R) (center gallery) in the Interswiss category. A victory by another driver would be a big surprise.

Each class is held in three heats
Things get underway on Saturday, June 11, from 7:30 a.m. with practice runs. On Sunday, the race heats will be held between 9:45 and 18 hrs. Each class will have three runs (if possible). The two fastest times will be added together.

The dates of the Swiss Mountain Championship 2022:

• 18 / 19 June La Roche - La Berra
• 23 / 24 July Ayent - Anzère
• 19 to 21 August St.Ursanne - Les Rangiers
• August 27/28 Oberhallau
• September 10 / 11 Gurnigel

Source: Christian Eichenberger, motorsport.ch
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