Suzuki Cup: A promising premiere

It was a great picture, which gave the new Suzuki Swift Sport in all colors and uniformly pasted with the logos of the series partners. However, the 39 drivers who brought a total of 31 cars to the start had to compete at the premiere with a handicap.

The Suzuki Swiss Racing Cup was the last field in the schedule, which could not be kept because of incidents and a longer interruption due to problems with the timekeeping. Therefore, all had to start immediately after the inspection run to the two race runs, which ended only at about 19:15.

Still far from feasible
Only those who had already mastered the 2.767-kilometer course with its 45 gates had a chance of a top ranking. Ambitious riders had already studied the course on Friday evening and ran it again on Saturday during the lunch break or rode it on their bikes and scooters.

The eventual winner kept his cool despite the difficult conditions.

Sandro Fehr: "I tried not to let myself go crazy. I was already more nervous... The result is a confirmation of expectations, but we are still far from what is feasible."

Attention when braking
This also applies to the supposed winner Fabian Eggenberger. The man from Zurich initially didn't let on that he had missed a gate as the fastest rider. But the marshals saw it, and so the Suzuki squad only learned what had happened at the award ceremony late in the day (there was no results notice beforehand).

Last year's series winner with the Suzuki Swift Sport in the L2-1600 was still well served with his first time as fifth. The fact that he made a mistake afterwards was due to the brakes, as Heiko Leiber (12th) also drove the car at the limit. Both are drawing their lessons from this.

Fabian Eggenberger: "Managing the brakes is difficult. Here, we didn't know what it would bear without training. Everyone would have had this problem sooner or later, especially double starters. Otherwise, everything fit, so I'm in good spirits that things will get better. Thanks to the points system with the small increments, nothing is lost yet."

It gets damn tight
Not unexpectedly, multiple Mini and OPC champion Marcel Muzzarelli put himself on the podium in second place. After initially trailing Fehr by just two hundredths, he was 18 hundredths short in the second run.

Marcel Muzzarelli: "Sure, it would have gone a little better. But it was probably the same for everyone. I'm happy about this result. I think it's still going to be damn close..."

Two strong Suzuki newcomers
Six of last year's Swift drivers made it into the Top 8, with two Suzuki rookies, Simeon Schneider and Ralf Henggeler, mixed in between.

With a Saxo, Schneider previously took quite a few victories in the L2-1600 over his then and current opponents. Third place, which was also a brilliant debut for the new Coast Racing team, is therefore no surprise for him.

Simeon Schneider: "I was expecting to be among the front runners. I'm only surprised that I still finished third with my best time from what was actually not a particularly good first run. In the second run I once caught second gear instead of fourth, but was able to press the clutch before the rev limiter."

Ralf Henggeler's performance was also strong. The 2017 runner-up in the Renault Classic Cup proved with sixth place that he has already mastered the handling of the standard Suzuki with semislicks from Yokohama.

Goodbye in Frauenfeld
Rolf Tremp, OPC runner-up in 2018, and his Toggenburg friend Roland Graf (with whom he no longer alternates at the wheel in the Suzuki Cup), also still just made it into the top ten, which is a distinction for anyone.

But there is no question: Some specialists ranked behind them were still beaten below their value. On April 27, the picture may look quite different again on all ranks at the 20th Car Race Days of the ACS Thurgau in Frauenfeld.

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