Hockenheim: Two Swiss on the GT podium
MOTORSPORT The 2017 ADAC GT Masters at Hockenheim ended with a sensational race. With winner Rolf Ineichen and Jeffrey Schmidt, two Swiss drivers were on the podium at the end. In the TCR touring cars, Seat driver Pascal Eberle was the best in the final standings. The numerous spectators and fans from Switzerland were treated to the season finale of the "League of Super Sportscars" [...]
The numerous spectators and fans from Switzerland were treated to a great show at the season finale of the "League of Super Sports Cars", in which two compatriots played a nice role. Rolf Ineichen won Sunday's second race with German Christian Engelhart on a Lamborghini Huracan GT3.
The duo already shone on Saturday with 4th place. The second victory of the season required a strong driving performance by the Gentleman Racer from Central Switzerland in the circle of professionals, as he kept the constantly attacking Callayway Corvette of the new GT Masters champion Jules Gounon (F) at bay for laps. However, it took a bit of luck to win the race...
On the last lap of the one-hour race, the two leaders collided. Robert Renauer spun away in his Porsche and dropped back to fifth place, Nicky Catsburg then crossed the finish line in first place in the BMW M6, but received a subsequent time penalty. The Lucerne native thus moved up from third to first place.
Rolf Ineichen: "I'm proud, and not just of my own performance, because we had to push enormously in the corners to make up for the Lambo's pace disadvantage on the straights. But without the team of Gottfried Grasser and Christian I wouldn't be standing here now, I have them to thank for this victory."
Jeffrey Schmidt was also the beneficiary of the dramatic final phase. After good preparation by start driver Christopher Haase, the driver from Liestal seemed to have to settle for fifth place due to traction problems on the Audi R8 LMS. This turned into third place in the end. In each of the last four events (out of seven), it worked out with a podium finish - just unfortunately never with a victory.
In the final standings of the 2017 ADAC GT Masters, Rolf Ineichen made the leap from eleventh to seventh place on the final race weekend, Schmidt from tenth to ninth. With P9, Nikolaj Rogivue scored the only points of the season on Saturday in the Zakspeed Mercedes AMG. On Sunday, Patrick Niederhauser scored another point in tenth place in an Audi R8.
Brutal end of season for Jasmin Preisig
In the ADAC TCR Germany, Kris Richard in the Honda Civic was eighth on Saturday and Pascal Eberle in the Seat Leon was the best-placed Swiss in an excellent sixth place on Sunday. In the fiercely contested championship, Eberle and Richard occupy the final positions 9 and 10.
Orhan Vouilloz, the third and last finalist from the Young Driver Challenge of Seat Switzerland and AutoScout24, finished 32nd and 26th in the field of 37 TCR touring cars (report to follow).
Jasmin Preisig was unlucky when she crashed her Opel Astra TCR into the crash barriers on Saturday after a collision with a competitor. The Appenzeller spent a night in hospital for examination and observation.
There was another Swiss podium finish in ADAC Formula 4, with Fabio Scherer driving to third place in Saturday's first race. A week earlier, he celebrated his only victory of the year at the Sachsenring. With six podium finishes in 21 races, Scherer comes fifth overall.
In both rounds of the Renault Clio Cup Central Europe, Andreas Stucki showed a great advance from ninth and eighth on the grid to fourth place. The Zurich driver was thus clearly the best of the seven Swiss drivers who started. Stucki thus finished the championship in a good third place overall.
