St-Ursanne: Faggioli remains undefeated

Except for a short thunderstorm during the third practice session on Saturday, good external conditions prevailed at the International Hill Climb St-Ursanne - Les Rangiers. Since May, the top section of the 5180-meter-long cantonal road also has a fresh and now top-level asphalt surface, optimal conditions for record times were given. The specialists did not disappoint the numerous spectators, especially the Italians Simone Faggioli and Christian Merli.

Under 100 seconds for the first time

With temperatures not yet so warm, the conditions were more ideal for Faggioli in the E2-SportsCars group at 11.20 than for Merli, who started last in the E2 race cars only 70 minutes later after a long interruption under blazing sunshine. With 1'39.306, Faggioli in the Norma M20 FC with Zytek 3.0 V8 engine pulverized the track record held since 2017 by the South Tyrolean in the similarly powerful factory Osella FA30 by 2.3 seconds. This corresponds to an incredible hourly average of 187.78 km/h!

Too warm for the previous record holder
The previous record holder was practically already beaten with 1'41.556. In contrast to Faggioli's Pirelli-tired sports car, it was too warm for his shifty race car with Avon tires. Shortly after 6 p.m., with temperatures dropping, Merli proved what he was capable of with his better second running time of 1'39.539. In other words, almost as fast as Faggioli in the morning. In the aggregate, the ten-time European champion retained the upper hand with a lead of just under two seconds over the defending champion. The soon-to-be 41-year-old Florentine thus celebrated his ninth win of the day in the Swiss European Championship race.

Simone Faggioli: "Since we rebuilt the aerodynamics to 2018 levels, the car has been working perfectly. This track here is really perfect now. I don't know how much the new surface makes a difference, but it gives you more confidence, which has an effect on the speed. Yes, it's really fantastic the times we're putting down these days."

Steiner has overcome the earlier accident
That Marcel Steiner in the unique LobArt Mugen V8 was once again "Best of the Rest" is not a matter of course. Even the five-time Swiss champion has never been so fast here. Although he lacked twelve seconds on Faggioli in the addition, he was rightly very satisfied with his performance.

Marcel Steiner: "My second run was really cool. This weekend was the first time since the serious accident in 2013 that I really felt comfortable on this track from the start. Now I have really overcome it. It's a shame that I had engine misfires in the forest in the first run, as I did in 2018, and that I didn't get away well at the start either time. But I'm very happy with the rank and the 1'44 time."

Steiner got nothing as a gift. Diego Degasperi, who starts for Faggioli's team, drove his Osella FA30 faster in the second run than the Swiss in the first and finished 2.6 seconds behind him. 4. veteran Fausto Bormolini in the Reynard-Nippon K02 also amazed as the fastest race car driver without shuttering with two almost equally fast 1'47 times. At the first start on Europe's fastest hillclimb circuit, Christoph Lampert in another Osella FA30 also had reason to be satisfied as sixth and last under the barrier of 1'50.

Son and father on the SM podium
Robin Faustini showed another mature performance. Because his own Reynard-Nippon K01 needs a new control unit, he fell back on his father's Reynard 97D, as he did last time in Osnabrück (and next weekend in Oberhallau). With a time of 1'51.1, the 22-year-old just missed his dream of a 1'50 time, but in the absence of SM leader Eric Berguerand he took second place in the Swiss classification.

Dad Simon Hugentobler also did well at the first start with the Osella-Cosworth PA30 purchased from Frenchman Cyrille Frantz as fifth in the sports cars and third fastest Swiss with a 1'51 time. With gearbox problems on the Osella FA30, which had been repaired after the Osnabrück crash, Joël Volluz could not go beyond 12th place overall. Michel Zemp, on the other hand, was second fastest of all two-liter sports cars, just behind the Czech Petr Trinka - a promise for the future.

Bratschi and Schnellmann under two minutes
Once again, Ronnie Bratschi proved what he and his Mitsubishi are made of. The ambitious man from Uri himself described his 1'56.865, with which he obliterated another touring car record set by Reto Meisel, as an insane time. Roger Schnellmann's performance with his Evo VIII monster was also strong. With two 1'59 times, he was faster than ever before. Both were also faster than the Group E2 silhouette cars of the Czechs.

Third fastest touring car driver was Frédéric Neff in the Porsche 996 GT3 R. At the second and last Swiss appearance in 2019, last year's touring car champion beat his IS record twice. Fourth fastest touring car driver was René Köchli in the Honda Civic as winner of the E1 up to 3000, leaving Bruno Ianniello in the Lancia Delta S4 behind him as best in the class up to 3.5 liters.

Feigenwinter pulls away
In the Swiss mountain championship of touring cars, everything boils down to Andy Feigenwinter winning the title. With the Lotus Exige 430 Cup, he not only clearly undercut the existing SuperSeries record, but also came very close to the previous record of three-time champion Albin Mächler, which is no longer used for the statistics, on the track that was 11 meters shorter until 2015. In the SM table Feigenwinter with 106 points is clearly ahead of Schnellmann (95) and Bratschi (74).

In the Renault Classic Cup, Thomas Zürcher made a victorious return to action with a Clio III borrowed from champion Denis Wolf. In the Mountain Cup, Martin Bürki is now the sole leader of the standings after another class win, as Stephan Burri, who was even slightly faster in Group IS with his VW Polo, was one class opponent short. We will come back to both championships separately.

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gvi-timing.ch/documents/pdf/2019/rangiers/Scratch%20Total.pdf