Junior-SM: Schmid has to wait until Gurnigel
THIRD WIN ON THE MOUNTAIN In the third race in Oberhallau, Marcel Wälchli's advance to third place postponed the decision in the Junior Mountain Championship. Thomas Schmid, however, can only take himself out of the title at the Gurnigel mountain race. For once, the classification in the Swiss Hill-Climb Championship Junior did not look like [...]
For once, the standings in the Swiss Hillclimb Championship Junior did not look as usual. On Saturday, only the first practice run was completely dry for the eight finalists of the 2018 Swiss Race Academy with their Toyota GT86 Race. And since Desirée Blumer, in third place in the first practice session, caused the subsequent colleagues to stop with a hair-raising spin into the embankment, Sven Indermühle remained at the top of the practice list until the evening.
Luck in misfortune for Desirée Blumer
The only lady was lucky in that her car only needed new body parts. She would have rolled over by a hair.
With the help of her coach Lukas Eugster, runner-up in 2017, she went over the books, whereupon the Schwyzer mastered this and other parts of the 3000 m course on race day without any problems and in the second run even far below her desired time of 1'55.
Because Fabian Hug's head and gas foot have been blocked since the spin in Reitnau and he finished last by a long way, Desirée finished seventh for the third time and will probably also take this position in the championship.
Also with a big gap to the respective front and rear runners, Brian-David Prina and Yves Meier finished 5th and 6th as in the two races before.
Thomas Schmid can only beat himself
The fact that the preliminary decision was not already made in Oberhallau is due to the exciting fight for the podium places - but only those behind the once again superior Thomas Schmid.
The 22-year-old from Jonschwil took two seconds or more off his opponents on average per run to celebrate his third win of the season. He beat Rolf Reding's class record from 2017 by 1.38 seconds with 1'43.11.
But the man from eastern Switzerland will have to wait until Gurnigel for the title, where he can only beat himself. That is, if he is eliminated when Marcel Wälchli wins at the same time. So he'll just have to somehow make it to the finish in both races.
First podium for Luca Hodel
After two second places in Reitnau and Anzère, Wälchli did not have his best day in Oberhallau. But Luca Hodel did, who was already second after the first run and claimed his first podium place. The Lucerne native thus displaced Sven Indermühle by one point from third place in the SM intermediate classification.
Luca Hodel: "Finally I was able to improve nicely and get this podium. So far, I made too many mistakes, so I was more concentrated here."
In contrast to Hodel and Wälchli, Indermühle clearly missed a 1'44 time in each run.
Sven Indermühle: "I don't know what the problem was. Like Schmid, I took the start curves full on. I just had extreme respect for the spot where Desirée spun and where the fatal accident occurred last year. Now I'm looking ahead and looking forward to the home race on Gurnigel."
Anticipation of the two Bernese for their home race
This is also the case for Marcel Wälchli, who improved from fourth to third place with the second-best time in the last run and thus keeps the championship open. The runner-up title beckons to him if he doesn't slip up on September 9 on his doorstep - he lives in Kirchdorf, Indermühle in Seftigen.
Marcel Wälchli: "I am overjoyed. I finally took the start passage in full, after this had not worked from the head before. I was then no longer far away from Luca."
The budding champion took the postponed title decision calmly.
Thomas Schmid: "The season is not yet finished. I wouldn't have minded being champion already. But actually I think that's good. This way I have to be fully concentrated again at Gurnigel."
Budget concerns due to double burden
Before Schmid does so, he will be looking for his other chance next Friday and Saturday in Ticino, where he will be looking to bounce back to the top of the standings with another win in a Peugeot 208 R2 in the Rallye-SM Junior.
Since his double program is associated with great financial burdens and worries, he then makes a final start at the expensive Valais finale dependent on the outcome of the Rally Ticino.
In the end, he just hopes for the favor of patrons and sponsors. Ideally, they could help Thomas Schmid become the first rider in modern times to win two official SM titles in two different championships in one year.
