Oberhallau: The smell of more records 🎥
WHERE TO MEET The best Swiss hillclimb racers start this weekend in Oberhallau, where more track records could fall, as well as the first title decisions. On the sidelines, it's all about a possible future for motorsport
After Hemberg/La Roche in June, the players in the Swiss Mountain Championship. 2022 will have another double-header with Les/Rangiers/Oberhallau. One week after the EBM run in the Jura, around 100 more riders will be competing in the fifth race of the season in Oberhallau.
Thanks to the proximity to the German and Austrian borders, quite a few participants come from neighboring countries. Oberhallau, for example, is part of the popular KW Berg Cup for touring cars. For the Swiss specialists from the IS and E1 groups, which are enormously strong in terms of numbers, this always offers an interesting comparison of times.
Steiner or Berguerand again?
After Eric Berguerand's absence in Les Rangiers gave him the obligatory strike result, the path to victory on the day in Schaffhausen's Klettgau once again only leads via the Valaisan in the optimum Lola FA99. The course records in Hemberg, La Berra and Anzère speak for him.
However, last Sunday Marcel Steiner offered the best performance so far with the newly motorized LobArt (Helftec-Honda-Turbo) by securing the clear victory in the Swiss classification.
It's quite possible that the Bernese will also manage an exploit against Berguerand in the Klettgau region of Schaffhausen. He himself is looking forward to it.
Marcel Steiner: "Things went very well in Les Rangiers, although I could certainly have gone a bit faster to finish second overall behind Merli instead of Petr Trnka. I can't say whether it will be enough to put Eric in trouble. We'll definitely give it a try."
Faustini has no illusions
Robin Faustini celebrated his first national stage win last year, but was aware that without Berguerand and Steiner (driving in the slower substitute car, the old Martini BMW, see video) it did not have the normal significance. In addition, weather luck was also involved.
Nevertheless, the 24-year-old from Aargau is a top contender for the podium, as is Joël Volluz in the second Osella FA30. Because Volluz will not be competing in the mountain race at Gurnigel (September 10/11) due to the clash of dates with the Rallye-SM in Morzine/Mont-Blanc, where he is involved as a helper in his girlfriend's team, the top four in Switzerland will meet for the last time this year.
If the weather holds, there should probably be a new course record on the three-kilometer course. The best mark was set by Eric Berguerand in 2019 in 1:08.00 (= 158.82 km/h).
Meisel reaches for the title
Another new record time in the touring cars, which Ronnie Bratschi, who is absent this year, realized in 2019 in 1:14.56, is one thing for Reto Meisel in Oberhallau, the early title win is another.
At the wheel of the optimal Mercedes SLK 340, a tenth place in Group E1 is enough for the man from Aargau to become Swiss Touring Car Champion for the second time after 2016. So in principle, only a technical defect or some other incident can prevent him from doing so.
Everything with rank and name
With Meisel, Roger Schnellmann in the Mitsubishi, Romeo Nüssli in the Ford Escort Cosworth, Bruno Ianniello in the Lancia Delta S4, Frédéric Neff in the Porsche 996 GT2 R as well as the Germans Holger Hovemann in the Opel Kadett GT/R with Corvette V8 engine and Jürgen Gerspacher in Simon Wüthrich's VW Golf Turbo, there is an impressive fraction of horsepower monsters at the start.
It starts on Saturday at 7.30 a.m. with the first practice runs and on Sunday at the same time with the first race run. The two best times from three scheduled runs will be scored.
Demonstration of e-Fuel
As reported three weeks ago online and in the latest print edition of AutoSprintCH (VIEWPOINT Race premiere) reports, there will be demonstration runs of Ligier racing sports cars whose engines run on synthetic fuel as part of the hillclimb race. They will be piloted by Le Mans winners Marcel Fässler (Saturday only) and Neel Jani as well as Benjamin Hotz (Sunday).
For those interested, further information is available in the Horag racing tent on Dorfstrasse. In addition to Markus Hotz, the founder of Horag Racing AG and initiator of the project, involved partners such as engine builder Mario Illien and autobau founder Fredy Lienhard will be on site.
