From Rallycross-photo.com – Lovely weather celebrated the 200 competitors at the Course de Côte de Saint Ursanne – Les Rangiers this weekend. The event counted as the tenth race in the European Hillclimb Championship. As if there was still any doubt, the 2014 European Champions are now offically decided. With two more races to go neither Simone Faggioli in the sportscars or Igor Stefanovski in the production cars can be overtaken anymore. Both crowned their achievements with victories in Switzerland. For Faggioli it was already his sixth European title, while Stefanovski celebrates his first.
Only two of the three race sessions could be completed this Sunday. This was a slight disappointment for Christian Merli (Osella PA2000) and David Hauser (Wolf GB08 F1). Both drivers were gradually improving their times all through the race weekend, shaving off 2 seconds between session 1 and 2 alone. Although they could probably go even quicker in a third race, neither was any real threat to Simone Faggioli. As said the new European Champion controlled the race and took another victory. Merli was second, while Hauser was best singleseater driver in third. Fausto Bormolini (Reynard K02) remains on schedule to take another FIA Trophy for best singleseater driver. The Italian finished fourth at Saint Ursanne. Best Swiss driver was Tiziano Riva. The Reynard 95D driver remains in excellent form after his victory last week in Slovenia. Eric Berguerand was not present this weekend but remains on top of the Swiss Championship.
Billy Ritchen was perhaps the driver of the weekend. The young French driver won the very competitive E2-SS 2000 class and finished in the top 10 overall. All the more impressive because his Dallara F303/05 is not as well adapted to the more free E2-SS regulations as the Tatuus Masters of his nearest rivals.
Best of the silhouettes was Dan Michl from the Czech Republic. The Lotus Evora driver was actually the quickest closed car in the field. Michl was chased down by a lot of GT cars. Second best touringcar and winner of the strong E1 category was new Nicolas Werver. The new French Champion steered his Porsche 997 GT3 Cup better over the 5169 metres at Les Rangiers than local hero Frédéric Neff (Porsche 996 GT3). Another Swiss, René Ruch (Ferrari F355 GT), was fourth while Herbert Pregartner from Austria finally had a trouble free weekend to finish fifth. The Porsche 911 GT2 driver was also second best Silhouette.
Close behind Pregartner was the best driver of the actual GT class. Belgian Yanick Bodson (Porsche 997 GT3) also wins the Category I standings in Saint Ursanne. Jaromir Maly (Mitsubishi Lancer EVO VIII) won Group A. That was hardly a suprise as the Czech driver was the only driver in the +3000 class. Group N was stirred by the heavy accident of Dan Blaho. On a high speed part of the track the Czech driver lost control of his car and cleared the barriers. The Mitsubishi Lancer was destroyed, the driver was luckily okay. As already mentioned before Igor Stefanovski takes class victory. Click on ‘More’ to see the final results.
