The fourth and last round of the Swiss Championship took place on August 28/29 at the MRCAL track in Aigle.
As always, we arrived on Saturday because there was free practice from 10:00AM onwards. We had about 200 kilometers to travel to Aigle and it rained very hard during our drive. The weather was supposed to get a lot better for Sunday, so we were optimistic and looking forward to the weekend.
When we arrived at the track it was still raining heavily and it was really cold. Warm beverages and a good meal at 12:00 noon â“ provided by the MRCALâ™s kitchen team â“ made waiting very pleasant though.
(click to enlarge)
At 3:00PM the track was dry and the first drivers went on the track. I waited until a bit later and then drove out as well. Grip wasnâ™t very good but my NT1 worked very well nonetheless. I was still using the same set-up from the last race in Langenthal. Because the grip wasnâ™t very good there either, the car worked just as well. I changed to the soft swaybar in front to get rid of the understeer, and then I was confident with this set-up for Sunday.
On Sunday our predictions came true and it was indeed very nice, warm weather. The three qualifying rounds went perfectly and I was happy about my pole position ahead of Dirk Stammler, Andy Geisser and Giovanni Bonetti.
(click to enlarge)
Throughout the semi-finals the following drivers also qualified for the final: Reto Felix, Matthias Meier, Christian Lehnherr, Tiago Conte, Monika Ackermann and Helli Spreng. Because my mechanic Monika was also driving in the final, I had to look for another pitman. Marc Sengstag helped me out as he has done often and very reliably in the past. Monika found her own pit crew in the form of the girlfriend of Jeremy Noirat (who had won the first round in Aigle).
The start of the final was good and Dirk Stammler was behind me in 2nd place followed by Matthias Meier. After only two laps, Dirk regrettably was out because of a failure in the rear belt. I thought it would be a bit easier now without Stammler, but Matthias was driving very quickly and making up ground rapidly. I was a bit worried as itâ™s very hard to drive on this track for 30 minutes without a tyre change. I had to drive as quickly as possible without destroying the tyres. Matthias Meier is known as a âśtyre whispererâť and I was 100% sure that he would not change them.
(click to enlarge)
After about 15 minutes, Matthias had some problems with his radio and lost some ground. After that I could relax a bit and cruised to victory with only a bit of foam left on the rims. I was very happy to hear that the womenâ™s team had finished 4th. Serpent driver Reto Felix came in 2nd and Matthias Meier got 3rd despite his radio problems.
This finish also decided the championship, with me winning the title of Swiss Champion 2010 and Matthias Meier becoming the Vice-champion.
Iâ™d like to thank Marc Sengstag for the help and the great pit stops. Also a big âśthanksâť goes to the MRCAL for their excellent hospitality. Thanks go to Tiago and Adria Conte who had done a lot of great photography throughout the season. Now we are entering our winter break and are looking forward to next season.
(click to enlarge)
Final race results:
1. Schär Traugott XRAY NT1
2. Felix Reto 3. Meier Matthias XRAY NT1
4. Ackermann Monika XRAY NT1
5. Lehnherr Christian XRAY NT1
6. Geisser Andy 7. Conte Tiago XRAY NT1
8. Bonetti Giovanni
9. Stammler Dirk
10. Spreng Helli
Final championship results:
1. Schär Traugott XRAY NT1
2. Meier Matthias XRAY NT1
3. Felix Reto 4. Noirat Jeremy XRAY NT1
5. Bonetti Giovanni 6. Conte Tiago XRAY NT1
7. Geisser Andy 8. Ackermann Monika XRAY NT1
9. Fischer Stephan XRAY NT1
10. Herzig Michael
