Motorsport: Martina Garovi wants vice title

It all started so well for Martina Garovi. The fast architect from Sachseln had bought an Abarth 695 Assetto Corse in Austria. She immediately won the first three races in the Corsa class with the track-only car. "I was surprised myself to find my name at the top of the leaderboard," admitted the defending champion after the successful premiere in Frauenfeld.

At the airfields of Interlaken and Saanen, where she feels particularly at home, she confirmed this success, most recently leaving Bruno Riesen in the Abarth R3T just a hundredth of a second behind. Unfortunately, her "favorite opponent", who had only been runner-up in 2015 with the same number of points, had an accident during the slalom in Bure. This accident also preoccupied Martina Garovi, who then failed to get going properly and also damaged her Abarth in the Romont training session. In Chamblon she had no chance against local hero Cyril Leimer and David Ulmann in their newer Assetto Corsa Evo and against rally driver Beat Wyssen in the 500 R3T, especially as this track was too respectful for her anyway. With the help of suspension specialist Mathias Schläppi, she had discovered that her racing Abarth was still too much tuned for circuit racing and needed a different basic setup for slaloms.

Fight for the second place in the championship
Meanwhile, Sylvain Burkhalter rushed from victory to victory in the class of series-produced cars with road registration. With his sixth success in Chamblon, the fast garage owner from Tramelan in the yellow 695 biposto secured the championship title across all classes ahead of schedule. Still open is the second final place, which Martina Garovi holds despite her first of two strike results. In the last two slaloms after the long summer break (Drognens and Ambri), Walter Reho, Paul Kasper and Beat Wyssen will undoubtedly challenge her for this position.

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Photos: Peter Wyss