The first race of the Swiss Championships was on carpet in Einsiedeln. Mario Rigert was driving in the Expert class and I was driving in the Open Stock class. On Saturday we were only practicing and at the end of the day there was one Practice in groups. Mario was the quickest and I was 2nd only 0.8sec behind local driver Beni Stutz. In the Swiss GT class, Seiler Christian was the fastest guy.
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Sunday morning arrived and the race began. Mario was very quick and took P2 during the qualification. Mario and I had nearly the same setup and we had both problems with new tires, so we were just a bit slower in the first two qualifiers. In my case, the first round was very quick and I was struggling with my new tires. After the first round I was only 0.1sec behind Beni. In the second round I was faster but a slower car crashed and touched me, so I was out in that round. (The same car also took Beni out.) In the third round I made a small mistake and Beni was 4 seconds ahead. But in the last qualifying round I had a perfect lap and made the fastest time only 0.5sec ahead of Beni. Christian dominated the Swiss GT class but also there was Patrick Vogt with his CRC just a few seconds behind him.
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Main Finals
Mario and I were both on P2. The shame was that P2 was on the dirt area of the track and in my first final after the start I had no grip; after the first lap I was in last place so I gave everything and at the end I was on P3. Mario talked to the race director and they changed the starting grid from F1 starts to a line start. Marioâ™s car was very quick like mine because now our cars were the fastest because our tires were now in perfect condition. But the layout of the track was special and there were very few chances to pass cars. Mario tried everything but after a little touch with Martin Strittmatter, Shasa Lackner (which came from P4) found a way between both and took P1. Mario saved P2. In the Swiss GT Christian and Patrick gave everything but they touched each other a couple of times and Buy Khounmy and Rizzo Marco passed them.
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With the new starting grid I had no problems at the start. After one minute I was very close to Beni, my car was faster and I was looking for a chance to pass him⦠but there was no chance. We were more than 5sec ahead of P3 but in the last lap Beni made a small mistake and I touched him. So for fair play I waited and in that moment Helbach Stephan went by and won the first A-Main. So after the second round Beni and Stephan had both one win and one 2nd place and I was the unlucky guy with two 3rd places. Mario had also bad luck (though he had the fastest car) and he also searched for a way to pass Martin. Again they had a little touch and once again Shasa Lackner passed them. In Swiss GT Christina was faster than Patrick but in a photo finish Patrick took P1 only 0.8 seconds ahead of Christian.
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Last Final
I was a little frustrated because I had no chance to win, but I had a fantastic car. I pushed hard from the beginning. After 2 minutes Beni made a mistake and I took over the lead. My car was very quick and I win the last final. I also put in the fastest final time and that was for me a little compensation. Because of my win, Beni won the race and Stephan took P2 ahead of me. Mario had no chance to get P1 because Shasa won the first two rounds⦠but he gave his best in defending P2. Martin got a perfect lap and won the last round. In the Swiss GT, Christian won the last round only 0.4 seconds ahead of Patrick and because his winning final was faster than Patrickâ™s he won the Swiss GT Class.
It was a very close and high-level race weekend. In all classes, the first two or three drivers had the chance to win the race.
Now Iâ™m preparing my T3 for the TCM 2010 and I hope to learn a lot from all the fast guys in Eppelheim, because normally all Swiss drivers are not really competitive at international races and for me itâ™s a good time for learning a lot about the car and getting to know a lot of Team XRAY.
Final results:
1. Shasa Lackner 2. Mario Rigert XRAY T3
3. Marc Bösiger
4. Martin Strittmatter 5. Matthias Meier XRAY T3
6. Fabian Widmer
7. Lars Weisskopf
8. Daniel Ghirlanda
9. Daniel James
10. Sven ZĂĽnd
