Motorsport: Eric Berguerand flexes his muscles
The Ayent-Anzère hill climb saw an unexpected outcome: with a dream run, the defending champion snatched the day's victory from last year's winner Joël Volluz. Reto Meisel won the touring car category in record time. The best came at the end. After two races, Joël Volluz was 1.65 seconds ahead of Eric Berguerand. But the defending champion still managed a dream run with his Lola-Cosworth, [...]
The best came at the end. After two races, Joël Volluz was 1.65 seconds ahead of Eric Berguerand. But the defending champion still managed a dream run with his Lola-Cosworth, which was only two tenths off Volluz's record. As last year's winner was unable to improve on his third attempt, Berguerand snatched the day's victory from him. "We got the set-up of the Osella wrong," shrugged Volluz. "I drove badly in the first two races, but in the end everything was just right," said Berguerand, pleased with the surprising turnaround.
With three wins in three races, the defending champion extended his championship lead to 18 points. As Berguerand will never compete in the next race in St-Ursanne, where he had a serious accident in 2007, Volluz is likely to snatch the top spot in the standings from him there. Marcel Steiner was not satisfied with himself and the LobArt Mugen ("I just couldn't find the right grip"), but nevertheless finished third overall with a new sports car record.
Happy ending for Ronnie Bratschi and Reto Meisel
The two leaders in the touring car championship complained of gearbox faults in their Mitsubishis as early as the first training run. While Roger Schnellmann did not attempt to repair the damage on site, Ronnie Bratschi drove home with the car on the trailer, fitted a spare gearbox there and was back in Anzère by 4 o'clock in the morning. The effort was worthwhile, as the driver from Uri set the second-best touring car time despite the reduced power for safety reasons and remained under the E1 record set by Bruno Ianniello in the Lancia Delta S4.
Only Reto Meisel was even faster in his self-built high-flyer Mercedes SLK 340, whose potential he had only hinted at so far. Although, like Bratschi, he only completed one practice run due to a late return from a business trip, the man from Aargau beat the touring car record by 1.5 seconds in the second race. After two record wins in Reitnau and Anzère - to be continued - Meisel is already in second place behind Bratschi in the Mountain Championship, despite the zero in Hemberg. With his record time in the well-staffed Group N, Joe Halter moved up to third place in the standings with his Mitsubishi.
Photos: Peter Wyss
