Gargellen: Day victory for Christoph Zwahlen 🎥

BRV video looks back on the Ibex Race 2020 in Gargellen in a few scenes. Saturday winner Christoph Zwahlen is not featured, but Jürg Felix, René Köchli and Sunday winner Lukas Boric are. And Lotus double winner Dino Wintsch takes viewers onboard on a fast mountain ride.

At the 5th Int. Steinbock Berg Klein Slalom on a 1.5 kilometer section of the L192 road from St. Gallenkirch to Gargellen, the changeable weather played into Christoph Zwahlen's cards on Saturday. While Jürg Felix as the fastest in the first field had dry conditions in the early morning, it started to rain during the race runs of the second field before the lunch break.

Duel of the Thurgau Porsche drivers
With two fast first runs still on dry ground, Zwahlen in the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, classified in Group E1 over two liters, caught his winning Thurgau cantonal colleague, who had previously started in the first field in the separate class of the RCU with the 997 GT3 Cup-R, by 25 hundredths in the day's classification.

After an accident with total loss by Giuliano Piccinato in the Lotus Exige, the second field was only able to complete three instead of four runs due to time constraints, of which only two were scored. However, this had no effect on the day's standings.

Welcome run repetition
In consistently good conditions and with no schedule changes on Sunday, Zwahlen confirmed victory with the fastest time of all touring cars and GT cars.

Arlberg double winner Stefan Promok was at the start this weekend in the Czech Republic with his Mitsubishi Bomber, and Swiss runner-up Roger Schnellmann, who would have been the crown favorite with a similarly strong Evo, cancelled at short notice. René Köchli, otherwise always a candidate for victory with his Honda Civic RK4, struggled with technical problems.

On the other hand, everything worked perfectly for Saturday's stage winner, who also paid tribute to his newly installed KW-Competition suspension and its effect on handling. So he took the chance for his first day win in the Porsche.

Christoph Zwahlen: "On Saturday, my two 46 times with slicks were enough to win the day because it was wetter in the two fields with the race cars in the afternoon. On Sunday, I no longer expected to win the group, but because I benefited from a run repetition, the tires, which were actually too hard, were pre-warmed, whereupon I was still able to catch Jürg Tarnutzer."

Third overall on Saturday and second fastest TW/GT driver on Sunday, Tarnutzer was the revelation of the weekend in his visually stock Mitsubishi Evo VIII.

Second day victory to a local hero
The few drivers with pure racing cars could only really unfold on the second day of racing. Against Lukas Boris from Vorarlberg, who lives less than 20 kilometers away, and his agile TracKing Suzuki with Mercedes silhouette, Philip Egli (Dallara) and Marcel Maurer (Renault) had no real chance.

After he was already by far the fastest from the race car class on Saturday on the track he knows best with many fast blind curves, Boric was also the fastest in the overall classification on Sunday in optimal external conditions.

Maurer second despite technical problems
With 2.20 b zw. 2.62 seconds behind in the addition of the three fastest of four run times, Maurer and Egli took the places of honor on the overall winners' podium. With 43.22, Maurer came within eleven hundredths of Boric's record time in his last run. The Bernese was more than satisfied with that.

Marcel Maurer: "On Saturday I had technical damage to the gearbox and had to spend the whole afternoon completely disassembling it. On Sunday there were problems again, so I had to skip the first practice run. After that, I virtually drove for five practice runs, while the others went up twelve times on both days."

Cautious Philip Egli
For Maurer, the short 2020 racing season has already come to an end, while Egli still has some plans. While he was still deliberately cautious on Saturday in the wet, the man from Glarus found more fun riding on Sunday.

Philip Egli: "I didn't come to Gargellen with much confidence after things had gone so strangely in the Arlberg. And getting to know such a track in the rain was not ideal. So on Sunday I was quite satisfied with my final, unexpected time of 44.13, although I'm sure it's possible to go a lot faster."

Familiar terrain for the slalom record winner of the last few years will then be the Turckheim-Trois Epis hill climb in Alsace at the beginning of September. Egli will also compete in his Dallara F393-EPR at the final round of the Vorarlberg Drytech Race Cup in Eichenberg (September 19/20).

Rankings and regulations on the Internet
The other Swiss class winners and rankings in the field of over 300 drivers from five nations, some of whom started and were ranked twice per day, can be found on the homepage of the Renn & Rally Club Vorarlberg. There you can read more information about this race series.

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