Schmid: Return with a podium

THIRD IN THE CLIO TROPHY While Ismaël Vuistiner took victory and the Clio R3T Trophy title in Valais, Thomas Schmid finished third in the 2018 Renault Rally Champion. Thomas Schmid was not initially as comfortable as he was in 2018 in the Peugeot 208 R2 in the Renault Clio R3T. As winner of the Rallye-SM Junior [...]

Editorial - October 24, 2019

https://www.facebook.com/ThomasSchmidRallye/videos/397178834282802

Thomas Schmid was not initially as comfortable in the Renault Clio R3T as he was in the Peugeot 208 R2 in 2018. As winner of the Rallye-SM Junior 2018, the 24-year-old from Jonschwil was allowed to complete a race at the Rallye du Valais donated by Renault Suisse, Michelin, Chazel and other partners. For practice, the man from eastern Switzerland competed in a small rally two weeks earlier in France near the border, where he finished second in the R3 category. His helmet camera gives an impression.

Sophisticated
Not only did he have to get used to the special Renault Clio R3T, but also to rally driving in general. Exactly one year ago he raced for the last time on country roads, since then he has only competed in one rallycross endurance race in Portugal (victory) and on top of that was in the Formula Student in Barcelona (see facebook.com/ThomasSchmidRallye/videos/2413139268783080/ ), where he set the second-fastest time.

Thomas Schmid: "I was amazed at how long it took to get back into rally mode. You can see how demanding this scene is."

Thomas Schmid was best able to test the limit of the Renault Clio R3T on the circuit in Sion. On the real rally stages, he drove with less risk (Photo: Peter Wyss).

Sovereign winners and champions
No wonder, as he lost almost one and a half minutes to the clear leaders Ismaël Vuistiner/Florine Kummer on the first stage in the longest special stage SP2 "Les Cols". The fast couple then also clearly prevailed in the overall classification, won the Clio R3T Alps Trophy title as in 2017 and, as a reward, may participate in the next Rally Monte Carlo in January 2020. Felicitations!

Saturday morning decision
The St. Gallen native, navigated by Quentin Marchand, showed his class on the following stage. On the 20-kilometer-long SS3 "Croix de Coeur", which in places leads over unpaved terrain, Schmid achieved the second-best time in the class in darkness, thus catching up with the third-placed Lathion/Schriber team. He stayed on Nicolas Lathion until the end of the second stage and overtook him with the second time (4.5 seconds behind Vuistiner) on Saturday morning on the wet SS "Montana 1".

Schmid stayed ahead of Lathion until the latter caught him again with the fastest time in SS14 "Savièse1". Because the Frenchman Styve Juif, who had arrived as the leader of the standings, put his Clio on the roof in the same stage, Schmid/Marchand maintained third place to the finish.

Clio podium in Valais (from left): Co Yannick Schriber with his driver Nicolas Lathion (2nd), the winning and champion pair Florine Kummer/Ismaël Vuistiner and Quentin Marchand with Thomas Schmid (photo: Etienne Bornet).

From the podium back to the classroom
Last year's double Swiss champion (also in the Berg-SM Junior) could live well with this result.

Thomas Schmid: "In the end I was only eleven and a half seconds behind Lathion. Two or three mistakes may have prevented second place. It was difficult to approach the limit, especially in the dry. I didn't want to risk any damage that could endanger my studies in the worst case. It wouldn't have done any good either. But it was mega fun and a pleasure to sit in the rally car again in such demanding conditions."

Now Schmid is concentrating fully on his studies in Rapperswil as a civil engineer. When and where he will drive rallies again is undetermined. Because it doesn't help him in terms of driving, he has virtually ruled out a return to the national scene.