Motorsport: Fässler and Comini start title chase
For two of the most successful Swiss race drivers of the present day, the hunt for championship points begins this weekend. Marcel Fässler now drives for the Belgian Audi Team WRT in the Blancpain GT Series, Stefano Comini with a new team and a new car continues in TCR. Audi's withdrawal from the World Endurance Championship also meant the end of a [...]
Audi's withdrawal from the World Endurance Championship also meant the end of an era for Marcel Fässler. Although the 40-year-old driver from Schwyz received an offer from Toyota for the Le Mans 24 Hours. However, Fässler did not accept it because he wants to continue his career with Audi in GT racing. One of his big goals for the season is to win the Nürburgring 24 Hours, which is still missing from the collection of the most successful Swiss endurance driver of all time. The race takes place on the last weekend in May.
Before that, Marcel Fässler is keeping fit at two VLN races at the Nürburgring, the first of which Fässler finished in fifth place overall last Saturday. With his Belgian team WRT, the father of four daughters also competes in the Blancpain GT Series, which starts this weekend in Misano. His teammate is the young Belgian Dries Vanthoor. Never before has a Swiss driver with a chance of overall victory competed in Europe's most important GT championship.
Everything new for Stefano Comini
Stefano Comini is also tackling the 2017 racing season under completely new auspices. Until recently, it looked as if the two-time champion in the TCR International Series - effectively the world championship for touring cars with two-liter turbo engines and front-wheel drive - would be left without a team. Leopard Racing, for whom the jovial Ticino native won the title in 2016, left him miserably in the lurch. "They owe me 50000 euros," Comini complains, and was therefore not prepared for any further collaboration.
Thanks to an appeal on Facebook, however, a deal was struck with a new team from Belgium. At Comtoyou Racing, Stefano Comini is now driving a new Audi R3 LMS TCR. The season starts next weekend at the Rustavi Circuit in Georgia. "It will be difficult as I don't know the team, the car or the track. But I like such challenges," says the defending champion.
Those who know him know that the charismatic Ticino native has matured into a complete racing driver and will leave no stone unturned to secure the crown for the third time in a row. No matter how difficult the starting position is.
