The last Swiss Championship round took place in Bassecourt in the Jura region of Switzerland. After some dry races in the past weeks it was once again time for bad weather, as weâ™ve so often had this season. This time it was very bad, with rain all through Saturday and half of Sunday, with the track never really drying up.
Nonetheless about 32 Expert and 50 Amateur drivers took part in the event and only few of them did not run due to the bad weather. The championship was still undecided since both Jeremy and I had had some bad luck at the race before. If Jeremy won the race I would have to be third to regain the championship from him.
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On Saturday I decided to only do one short practice run to see if everything worked and then only as many qualifyings to get me into the semifinal. I TQed the first round of qualifying simply bu not making any mistakes on this very challenging and difficult track with some blind landings and other obstacles. The second round didnâ™t go so well but I still managed a fifth overall in spite of some mistakes. The third round went well until I hit a car that was on the roof and then I made some mistakes of my own and it was the worst round. I chose not to run the last round of qualifying and to strip down the car and clean it and check it. Almost nobody ran and so this wasnâ™t a big problem. During Saturday the car ran well. It could have been better but there was just no time to change the setup greatly. All day we cleaned and then we drove and then we cleaned again.
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After the car was clean we had a nice party in the huge heated hall just next to the track, it was great but due to the fact that Sunday would be very important we went back to the hotel at 11 Oâ™Clock.
On Sunday it continued raining. All of Switzerland was dry now, except the Jura, where we were...
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Nonetheless the semifinal went great. I started on fourth place after qualifying seventh and soon had the lead. Then later I made a few mistakes and also the HoBao spike tyres didnâ™t work so well anymore since the track dried a bit and so I finished third. This gave me P5 for the final. Jeremy started from P7.
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In the final I decided to change tyres to GQ Spade. The track was now a bit more dry and almost all the drivers ran âždry tyresâś. I also changed the front anti-roll bar because the car had been too agressive in the semifinal. But now it had lost a lot of steering with the different tyres and it pushed a lot, but on the other hand was easier to drive. The start went great and I made up some places but I could not attack with the car, just concentrate on driving clean. Jeremy soon took the lead and this meant that I had to be third. In the middle of the 45-minute-final I found myself on fifth place due to some mistakes involving the very hard jumps and trying to catch up. With 20 Minutes to go I was back on fourth but almost a lap down on the third-placed-driver Ronny LĂĽber.
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Slowly I advanced, not making any more mistakes, taking seconds off of Ronny until with 7 Minutes to go I caught and passed him. It was a great feeling. Then the gap widened and I concentrated on bringing the car home. Then a shock for Jeremy as with about 3 minutes to go and still in the lead he lost all control of his car due to a battery or servo issue so my third place became a second place and the title decided even before the end of the race.
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I was very happy to get the title back after not being able to defend it to Jeremy in 2011. It was a very exciting season 2012. A lot of times he was very quick but had bad luck. Other times so did I, although never quite as bad. In the end out of six races (5 of which count) Jeremy and I âžonlyâś won two, the other going to the young guns Ronny LĂĽber and Joachim Kallen. Next season will be very exciting as the field grows closer with every year. I'd like to thank all my sponsors, XRAY, RB, Power-Save-Racing, GQ and my mechanics Robin M. and Etienne and all the clubmates of the BCZ.
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Race Podium:
1. Joachim Kallen 2. Robin Frischkopf XRAY XB9
3. Sven ZĂĽnd
Swiss Championship:
1. Robin Frischkopf XRAY XB9
2. Jeremy Pittet
3. Joachim Kallen
