Motorsport: Joy at Toyota, frustration at Fach
At the Nürburgring, Toyota Swiss Racing with Manuel Amweg and Thomas Lampert drove home the TMG GT86 Cup title on Saturday. Thousands of kilometers away, a few hours later a minor defect thwarted a Swiss triumph in the Porsche Supercup. Actually, it was a formality, yet the pressure remained on. Manuel Amweg and Thomas Lampert had to [...]
Actually, it was a formality, but nevertheless the pressure remained. Manuel Amweg and Thomas Lampert basically only had to cross the finish line to be crowned champions of the TMG GT86 Cup at the Nürburgring. In difficult conditions, i.e. rain in the first half of the 4-hour race, the duo made no mistakes and their Toyota GT86 ran flawlessly.
After three class wins in a row, Amweg/Lampert were only beaten by DTM pros Lucas Auer, Daniel Juncadella and Felix Rosenqvist. The latter gained the necessary experience to obtain the Nürburgring A license for future GT3 races with one and two Toyota GT86s respectively, at whose steering wheels they took turns. Apart from the unsuccessful start to the season on April 2, the Toyota Swiss Racing Team never finished worse than second - congratulations!
Bitter experience for team boss Alex Fach
The fact that in a championship the reliability of the car is just as important as the consistency of the driver was bitterly experienced by Alex Fach's Porsche Supercup team on the same day thousands of kilometers away. Matteo Cairoli was well on his way to victory and the championship lead in the first race on Saturday after F1 qualifying when the Fach Porsche rolled out without power. The cause was a loose contact in the control to the electrical main switch. Sven Müller, who traveled to Texas with only a two-point lead over the specialist, extended his championship lead with second place.
On Sunday, only Müller's retirement and Cairoli's simultaneous victory would have meant a turn for the better. The 20-year-old from Como finished second ahead of Müller, proving that he would have been at least as deserving of the championship title. Both rider and team boss were heartbroken: "It hurts to lose like that." With an eighth and 13th place in the two US races and eighth place in the drivers' championship, Philipp Frommenweiler from Kreuzlingen contributed the points to Fach Auto Tech's second place in the team standings alongside Matteo Cairoli. The only Swiss with shining eyes on Sunday was Jeffrey Schmidt. The driver from Liestal placed third on the podium alongside double winner Mathieu Jaminet and Müller.
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Photos: Urs Gehrig, Archive
