Slalom Ambri: Egli wins, Bürki celebrates

The premiere of a double championship race - on Saturday under gray skies in dry conditions, on Sunday in rain - succeeded almost perfectly for the Equipe Bernoise. It's just a pity that the counter-clockwise race on the otherwise identical 2730-meter course ended messily on the first day of racing.

Bad surprise
Marcel Maurer's aggressive driving style in the Tatuus-Renault E2, which he controlled at all times ("that was at the limit"), seemed to have paid off with the day's fastest time. Philip Egli in the likewise briskly moving Dallara EPR4 failed to achieve his absolute best time from practice and therefore admitted defeat in a sporting and fair manner.

The unpleasant surprise followed after the results were posted, which showed the Glarner as the winner of the day because Maurer was said to have missed a gate. Although the Bernese wanted to submit the onboard video with the two matching runs without any apparent gate error as evidence, he was rejected by the race director and referred to the unused protest period.

Marcel Maurer: "Because the camera is mounted on the car, I could only watch the video after the parc fermé was lifted in the evening and then intervene. I'm not interested in reversing the result, but you can clearly see on the video that I made two identical runs (which were only slightly different in time, editor) cleanly. But I'll let it go now and won't do anything more."

Not a good second day for Maurer either
The inherited was anything but happy about this day's victory ("Marcel was faster and deserved it") and spoke openly about a sour aftertaste.

Nevertheless, he did not want to give it to his archrival, with whom he is on the best of terms and always exchanges ideas, the next day. Maurer's strength in the rain is well known to him, however, and in view of Saturday's incident he could well have lived with a defeat. But things turned out differently.

Egli doubles
Maurer already failed badly in both training runs, and in the first race he did not show his usual attacking spirit on the wet day and was trailing behind Egli. After a mistake in the first run, a fast second run was enough for Egli to win the second race of the day within 24 hours. Tiziano Riva, third overall the day before in the Reynard F3000, did not compete on Sunday.

Maurer's disqualification on Saturday, like the triumph on Sunday, also earned Philip Egli 20 points each for the 2021 slalom mini championship. The fact that he thus won the bronze medal, because otherwise only two touring car competitors in full classes kept a clean slate, is another consequence of the incomprehensible gate judge's decision.

Darani could not do more
The two men who were also unbeaten in July in Frauenfeld and last weekend in Ambri were Christian Darani and Martin Bürki. Both amazed with their drives. The man from Ticino set the best touring car time on both days at the wheel of his Fiat X1/9.

On Saturday, E1-2000 class colleague Reto Steiner in a Ford Escort RS challenged him, on Sunday Christoph Zwahlen as the best of the Porsche GT3 drivers, whereby the Pfyner found a significantly less wet track than Darani and Bürki, who had started earlier in the field.

Bürki's income statement went on
Keyword Bürki: After brake problems in the first race run, the defending champion put in a clean second run on Saturday to secure the full points and then showed a dream run in the wet on Sunday. With 1600 cubic meters in the VW Polo, he realized the sixth-best time, two hundredths ahead of his likewise well-behaved but less experienced namesake in the three-liter BMW E33.

Besides Darani and Zwahlen, only Patrick Drack in a Porsche 991 GT3 Cup was faster. The fact that Bürki's colleagues from MB Motorsport ensured a larger number of beaten class rivals with their participation and thus prevented Darani's title win, we have already pointed out in the Preview made attentive.

The fact that the profit and loss account only worked out because of this is irrelevant and still pleases the old and new master.

Martin Bürki: "No one has ever won seven championships in a row. And I can be proud of the time on Sunday. Everyone had to pull out all the stops and put in a great effort just for three slaloms."

Geering strikes twice
Jürg Ochsner, who traveled to Ticino as the leader of the standings according to the ex-aequo rule, had to admit defeat to Marco Geering in an equally potent Opel Kadett 16V (but still with 4-speed H-shift instead of sequential) on Saturday. On Sunday, Geering doubled up, while too many slip-ups happened to Ochsner (4th) and he thus fell out of the medal ranks.

According to our calculation, the ungrateful fourth SM final rank unofficially goes to Christoph Zwahlen ahead of Geering, who had celebrated his first national class victory in Ambri in 2019.

Renault championship title to Thomas Zürcher
In the Renault Classic Cup, Denis Wolf won both races ahead of Thomas Zürcher. However, two second places were also enough for the narrowly beaten driver to secure his sixth title win in this private championship for Clio Cup models II, III and IV.

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