Round 2 of the Swiss Championship was held last weekend at the Lostallo track. The weather forecast wasnâ™t good.
On Friday we practiced in dry conditions and the car was very good and easy to drive with good grip. The other XRAY drivers were very fast and happy with the new car.
Unfortunately, the rain came on Saturday and we had to choose to use either the âśrain carâť or the âśdry car.âť We chose the âśrain carâť and so we had to use it for the entire day.
The first qualifying round was in wet conditions and afterwards I was 3rd. Then the weather was a lottery, for the second round the track was drying and my car was really good but my engine stopped after 2 laps. For the third round I prepared the car for dry conditions but just 10 minutes before the start the rain came down. I tried to do my best, but I could only manage 1 lap more than the first round. After the third round I was 8th. For the last round the track was drying again but the rain came down so we stopped racing and I finished the qualifying rounds in 8th position.
In the 1/8th Amateur class there were many XRAY drivers. They were very fast but due to the bad weather conditions couldnâ™t be in the top positions in qualifying.
In the 1/10th class they could raced two rounds on a dry track. Traugott Schär dominated the qualifying round taking the TQ ahead of Küriger Sandro and Lechner Klaus.
FINALS
It was still raining on Sunday morning, but the forecast for the afternoon was a little bit better. I had to race at 1400hrs. I decided to still use the âśrain carâť so I was sure that if the rain came again I wouldnâ™t have radio problems. For the semi-final the track was drying and I put on normal tires. Silvio Hächler and I were leading the semi with very good lap times. Hächler had radio problems so I took the lead, and with 4 minutes remaining the rain came down, so my father called me into the pit and we put on rain tires so I could finish the semi-final in 1st position.
(click to enlarge)
Semi-final A was exactly the opposite. They started in wet conditions and they finished in dry conditions.
Fortunately the track was dry for the final. I started really well in 2nd position, with Kurzbuch Simon leading the final. Simon managed only a ? lap gap after 20 minutes, and Luca Martinelli and I were battling for 2nd place. At 25mins I changed tires and I lost a little bit of time, so I was in 3rd but I was faster than Martinelli. Unfortunately with 15 minutes remaining I broke the 1st gear, and so we changed it. But then after only 1 lap it broke again! We checked and saw that the engine wasnâ™t aligned properly. We fixed this and I started another time, but I was in the pit for 7minutes so I finished in 9th position. It was a shame because the car was so good and easy to drive. Kurzbuch Simon won ahead of Luca Martinelli and Marco Mueller.
In 1/8th Amateur, only one XRAY driver â“ Niederberger Stefan â“ was in the main final. Unfortunately the other XRAY drivers had problems driving on the wet track during the morning. Niederberger decided to start with foam tires for the humid track but he wasnâ™t as fast as the others with normal tires, so at the first pit stop he changed the tires. After that he was faster but he lost too much time. Unfortunately after 25 minutes he had to stop due to a crash. The 1/8th Amateur was won by the other Kurzbuch brother (Pascal), who managed to drive a very clean final ahead of local driver Pasquin Claudio and Tanner Marco.
In 1/10th everybody was waiting to see the battle between XRAY driver Schär Traugott and Shepherd driver KĂĽriger Sandro; they were the fastest drivers on the track. Unfortunately, Sandro didnâ™t manage to reach the main final. Schär had some grip problems in the semi-final due to the bad weather conditions, but he reached the final without problems. Also Lehnerr, Cimen and Schäfer driving the new NT1 2012 managed to reach the final. The track was drying and Schär started leading really fast until 7-8 minutes to the end when he had some technical problems. He lost 1:40 but he finished in 2nd place behind Lechner Klaus. The other XRAY driver â“ Schäfer Michael â“ managed to finish the final in 3rd position. Lehnerr had also some technical problems and he finished 5th and Cimen Ugur came in 10th.
Now we hope to run a complete race in dry conditions, in order to demonstrate the real competitiveness of XRAY cars. When itâ™s raining the tires are more important than the car.
Top5 1/10:
1. Lechner Klaus 2. Schär Traugott XRAY NT1
3. Schäfer Michael XRAY NT1
4. Bonetti Giovanni 5. Lehnerr Christian XRAY NT1
