Slalom Romont: Great three-way fight for the day's victory
SLALOM While title favorite Martin Bürki was once again the lonely leader in the touring cars, three of the four best race car drivers put up a great fight for the day's victory in Romont. This went to Marcel Maurer from Berne for the third time this season. The simultaneous races in Hemberg and Romont did neither the one nor the other event [...]
The simultaneous races in Hemberg and Romont did not detract from either event. At both locations, the field of participants was surprisingly good despite the clash of dates and great motorsport was thus offered at national level.
After the first race run on the 2910 m long course on the Drognens armory of Romont, peppered with 39 gates, Philip Egli in the Dallara F3 led by half a second over Marcel Maurer in the Tatuus-Renault and one second over Jean-Marc Salomon in the Tatuus-Honda.
In the second run, Maurer was able to improve the most with a great run and beat Egli by 1.5 and Bière winner Salomon by 2 tenths - and this with a running time of 114 seconds! It couldn't have been closer. For Maurer the third day victory in 2017, for Egli a quiet disappointment: "I was very satisfied with my time with tires from 2015. It's a shame that it was still only enough for second place."
In the touring cars, practically only the slalom enthusiasts and specialists were present from German-speaking Switzerland. Martin Bürki once again delivered a magnificent performance in the small VW Polo 1600 and, as before in Bière, achieved the best time of all the "Hüsliautos" with a lead of two seconds.
In the absence of the two-time season winners Manuel Santonastaso and Daniel Kammer, Daniel Wittwer won as the second fastest touring car driver in the E1 up to two liters ahead of Patrick Flammer in the Suzuki Swift Evo. Third fastest was René Köchli Honda Civic from the class up to three liters.
Wittwer thus consolidated his second place in the standings behind Bürki, who continues to lead by 20 points, and 2 points ahead of Albin Mächler. The latter was still a race taxi driver in Hemberg on Saturday with his BMW M2 and was the fastest from the two E1 classes over three liters on Sunday.
