Motorsport: Double mountain premiere in Luxembourg

The development of the LobArt LA/01 took almost a year - and it is far from finished. Marcel Steiner completed the last test so far on Wednesday before Ascension Day, after which he loaded the Italian-designed sports car with Mugen 3.0 V8 engine into his bus to travel with it to Luxembourg. "I'm not completely satisfied yet, the car and I still have to grow together. But at some point we'll have to drive on the mountain and see what works," says the garage owner from Oberdiessbach.

The minimum goal of the three-time Swiss mountain champion is to win the category despite strong opponents. "If I can finish in the top five overall, I should be satisfied." The day's victory at the biggest mountain race in Benelux will be decided between Swiss drivers or drivers with Swiss roots. With Eric Berguerand (Lola), Joël Volluz (Osella) and Simon Hugentobler (Reynard), the national mountain elite is at the start. Their biggest challenger is Luxembourg's David Hauser in the Dallara GP2. As Hauser's grandfather is from Zurich, he also holds a Swiss passport as a dual citizen.

Martin Bürki starts with a lot of confidence
Without any testing experience, Martin Bürki starts his first hill climb race in Eschdorf with the newly acquired BMW 318i STW. However, he knows that the Bergmeister car from Germany, which he has reworked again in the garage in Uetendorf, will work. "Its basis is so good that I just have to implement it." While Bürki has his sights set on class victory straight away, Swiss FIA E1 European champion Ronnie Bratschi is fighting for overall touring car victory in his Mitsubishi.

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Photos: Roger Marti, MB Motorsport