Lotus Cup: Driving pleasure more important than championship title
KNAPPE DECISIONS The Lotus Cup Suisse 2021 came to an end with the championship ceremony. There were tough but fair duels for the title in both classes. For the narrowly beaten shooting star Hannes Mahler, the joy of driving a Lotus prevailed.
With 13 races at seven events, the Swiss Lotus drivers completed a full-fledged annual championship, as they had done in the difficult previous year. This came to an end with the prize-giving ceremony at the Eichberg health and vacation hotel in the Seetal valley between Lenzburg and Lucerne.
The raging gastronome
The resort, which is known far beyond the region, is run by Hannes Mahler and his family. The host was also one of the most successful participants in the past season, which included the RRCV Mountain Slaloms in Vorarlberg, sprint tests in Bresse (F) and Hockenheim, as well as the only National Slaloms in Frauenfeld and Ambri.
Not much would have been missing, and Mahler would have taken home the biggest trophy for winning the Competition classification. The long-time Mini Challenge specialist entered the one-make cup organized by Lotus-West from St. Gallen with an optimum Lotus Exige 430 Cup and finished as runner-up.
Bollhalder regularly fast
In an identical sports car, Dino Wintsch clearly won the Cup in the two previous years. This year, the architect from Hombrechtikon only appeared in Hockenheim and left the territory to his rivals.
At first, Hermann Bollhalder with his Exige 430 took first and second places in the first six races. After that, however, "Bolle" didn't want to score any more bull's-eyes. But because his opponents took turns at the top and he always kept up with them with good placings behind them, the fast garage owner from Toggenburg lived off his points cushion until the sweet end.
In the course of his series of successes and double starts in the mountain slaloms, Bollhalder also won the annual championship of the Renn & Rally Club Vorarlberg - congratulations!
With each other against each other
The man of the second half of the season, however, was Hannes Mahler (center gallery). The man from Aargau celebrated the first Lotus victory in the morning slalom of Frauenfeld and failed in the second race in the afternoon in his attempt to top his training best time, which was not beaten by anyone, by overshooting a passage. The result was his only poor result of the season (9th), but he was able to brush it off with two previous fourth-place finishes.
In the last five races, Mahler then won three times and finished second twice, which also put him ahead of Bollhalder. In the end, he was eight points behind the new champion. He was by no means unhappy about this, because the duo maintained an honest exchange of information, helped each other and spurred each other on to top performances.
Hannes Mahler: "The satisfaction is just as great as if I were champion myself. I never thought it would still be so close between us. I had a lot of fun with this car and was pleased that everything worked. It's fascinating what times are possible with it."
Variety in all positions
Norbert Sieber is also satisfied with third place overall. He was the only one besides Heinz Wiese (who had an accident on the last race day in Eichenberg - we wish him a good recovery!) to bring an Evora (gallery on the right) to the start. The Rheintaler made up for its weight disadvantage with victories in Damüls and Ambri as well as five further podium places. At the IKSM slalom in Wangen, which is no longer part of the Cup, Sieber celebrated another day's victory over Wintsch & Co. on October 31 with Mirco Suter's Exige.
Apart from him, only Benno Berchtold managed a class win in the very first race in Bresse, Fabian Egger in Frauenfeld, Daniel Strim in Arlberg and Dino Wintsch in Hockenheim. They occupied the other places in the championship in this order.
If Egger had not had to miss the last two events and thus three results for professional reasons, he and not Berchtold, who was tied on points, might have finished fourth overall in 2021. Mario Hedinger in Frauenfeld (2nd) and Eichenberg (3rd) and Mirco Suter in Hockenheim (3rd) also made it onto the podium in a race.
Kobelt came, saw and won
Edy Kobelt and Roberto Zürcher also delivered a thrilling battle for fractions of a second with their Exige 350 Cup in the Production Class. In the end, it was 7:5 and on points 175:161 for Lotus newcomer Kobelt (gallery left).
A great success and a boost for the Swiss multi-champion, who returned to the sport after suffering from cancer years ago. Third in the small group, Daniel Steinmann only managed to prevail once in the opener at the Circuit de Bresse.
There would still be the less expensive Elise
Only theoretical interest was shown in the newly introduced Elise class. However, the Cup management is sticking to it and expects the first participants in 2022. According to initiator and Lotus salesman Norbert Sieber, who also likes to have drivers from other dealers, the four-cylinder models are cheaper to buy and maintain.
Detailed information and results can be found on the Lotus Cup Suisse homepage.
