Crowning season end for Marcel Steiner
MOUNTAIN RACING After winning the Swiss hillclimb championship, Marcel Steiner still celebrated the day's victory on Sunday at the big Int. ADAC hillclimb race in Mickhausen (D), the last round of the FIA Hillclimb Cup. Other Swiss drivers achieved nice successes. The International 37th ADAC Hill Climb Mickhausen in Southern Bavaria is one of the most popular and most strongly contested events of its kind in the German-speaking [...]
The International 37th ADAC Hill Climb Mickhausen in southern Bavaria is one of the most popular and most strongly contested events of its kind in the German-speaking world. In the absence of the two European Championship stars Faggioli and Merli, Marcel Steiner formed the circle of favorites together with the German Patrik Zajelsnik on a comparable three-liter sports car and the Italian Fausto Bormolini on a Reynard F3000.
In beautiful autumn weather on Saturday, the Bernese expressed his will with a fantastic best time in practice that he wants to snatch victory here for the third time after 2010 and 2012 (when he beat Simone Faggioli). Last year it slipped through his fingers due to an accident in the third wet race run.
On race day, rain again made conditions more difficult until the early hours of the morning, but this time the four-time Swiss mountain champion knew how to adapt to them perfectly. With the best time of the day in the almost dry third run, the 42-year-old garage owner from Oberdiessbach secured the overall victory, the first international with the LobArt-Mugen.
In fourth place overall behind Steiner, Zajelsnik and Christoph Lampert from Vorarlberg in the two-liter Osella sports car, Simon Hugentobler immediately won the Formula 3000 class at his first appearance in Mickhausen ahead of the Italians Bormolini and Napione.
Last year, Romeo Nüssli even took the day's victory in Mickhausen due to the onset of rain before the start of the racing cars. The Aargauer, who is always strong in the wet with his Ford Escort Cosworth, confirmed this triumph with another victory in the very strong Group E1.
The second run on a drying track was decisive. Here, Nüssli gained the necessary cushion to relegate compatriot Thomas Kessler in the Mitsubishi and the new FIA Mountain Cup winner Karl Schagerl to the places of honor by a few tenths in the addition of the two best running times.
Schagerl, however, struggled with severe engine problems on his 600-hp all-wheel-drive Golf, but the Austrian still set the best touring car time. The fastest car with a roof, however, was the 23-year-old French mountain champion Pierre Courroye in a McLaren MP4 GT3.
Josef Koch was responsible for the third class win by a Swiss in the field of 163 drivers from seven nations. The Lucerne native won the touring car class up to three liters with his Opel Kadett C.
