Chablais: Schmid unfortunately only virtual winner 🎥

Great sound, nice drifts and a lot of steering wheel work: the onboard video of competitor Sylvain Villet at the wheel of the virtual VW Polo R5 on the final SS of the 2020 E-Rally du Chablais.

At the end of May, the 17th Rallye du Chablais was supposed to take place with international participation. Like the Critérium Jurassien, this Swiss championship race had to be cancelled or postponed until 2021 for well-known reasons.

Varied
Instead, the organizers announced a virtual competition. However, special stages in the Vaudois and neighboring Valais Alps were not on the agenda as usual, but rather some asphalt tracks in Germany and Spain taken from the simulation game "Dirt Rally 2.0.

In addition, the sim rally did not last two days as usual, but it stretched over three stages on nine game evenings. Three different rally car types had to be selected and used from the VHC (historical), R2 and R5 groups. For each stage, each participant had three days to practice and set a time.

Thomas Schmid has experience
Although he was one of the favorites as a finalist in the 2019 Swiss Simracing Series and has long been one of the fastest at the wheel of the real rally cars, Thomas Schmid's overall victory in the battle against other rally drivers and sim racers from Switzerland and France was not necessarily to be expected.

Already after the first stage, the 24-year-old from St. Gallen led a pack of Ford Fiesta R2. With the historic Lancia Stratos on the second and the VW Polo R5 on the third leg, the 2018 Swiss junior double champion successfully defended the overall lead.

Thomas Schmid: "I only received this game a week before the start, but I was able to adjust to the driving style pretty quickly. It didn't have much to do with the real Rallye du Chablais, but at least there was a bit of a competition feeling."

There are better rally simulations
And how was sim rally driving?

Thomas Schmid: "You could train endlessly, but you only had one attempt per SP, which you couldn't mess up. I practically learned the tests by heart. The graphics are really good, the driving physics less so, because people with consoles should also have a chance. So the driving style is a bit different than in real life or with better rally sims."

Costly reality
Thomas Schmid would also like to break more ropes in real life. His next dream would be to enter the European Rally Championship.

However, due to budget and time constraints (studies as a civil engineer), he could only contest the Rallye du Valais last October in 2019. There, the sponsors of the Clio R3T Alps Trophy provided him with a Renault Clio RS IV Cup free of charge as a reward for winning the 2018 Rallye-SM Junior title. Acting cautiously with the previously unknown front-wheel drive car, Schmid finished this event in a respectable third place.

It's been a long time...
And when was the last time the overall winner of a real Swiss rally came from German-speaking Switzerland? You have to look way back and you'll find it in the annals of the 2004 season.

16 years ago, Patrick Heintz from Zurich and his long-deceased co-driver Roland Scherrer won the first round (Pays du Gier) in a Subaru Impreza STi from Group N. The duo then went on to secure the SM title with further group victories and podium finishes in the rally classifications. After that, the duo also surprisingly secured the SM title with further group victories and podium finishes in the rally classifications.

Last Swiss-German winner with mourning flor
Twelve years after Erwin Keller on Mitsubishi at the Critérium Jurassien, this was the first overall victory for a German-Swiss rally team. The next one, however, followed immediately, but in a tragic way.

Daniel Sieber and Michael Fitze drove the Peugeot 206 S1600 rented from Autosport Italia to triumph in the Jura on April 22/23, 2004. The Zurich team was in the lead at the same time as the Ticino team Galfetti/Genovesi on Mitsubishi Lancer when the race was stopped due to a fatal accident (Sébastien Buehlmann). The decisive factor for the win with equal times was SS1, on which Sieber/Fitze were faster.

Up to the present day, teams from French-speaking Switzerland, Ticino or other countries have retained the upper hand - German-speaking Swiss have at most won their classes and groups.

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