Simon Kurzbuch wins Rd2 in Switzerland

Last weekend saw the Lostallo track host the 2nd Round of the Swiss Championships and Mattia Pesenti sent us this report. The weather forecast wasn’t good but on Friday we could practice on dry conditions and the car was very good and easy to drive with good grip. Also the other Xray drivers were very fast and happy with the new car. Unfortunately on Saturday the rain came and we had to choose if use the ‘rain car’ or the ‘dry car’. We chose the ‘rain car’ and so we had to use it for the whole day.

The first qualifying round was on wet conditions and after 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. I try to do my best but I could just do 1 lap more than the first round. After the third round I was 8th. For the last round the track was drying another time but the rain came so we stopped racing, finishing the qualifying rounds in 8th position.

In the 1/8th Amateur class many Xray drivers were racing. They were very fast but due to the bad weather conditions couldn’t be on the top positions in qualifying.

In the 1/10th class they could race 2 rounds on a dry track. Traugott Schär dominated the qualifying round taking the TQ in front of Sandro Küriger and Klaus Lechner.

Sunday morning was still raining but the forecast for the afternoon was a little bit better. I had to race at 2pm. I decided to still use the ‘rain car’, so I was sure that if the rain came another time I wouldn’t have radio problems. For the semifinal the track was drying and I put normal tires. Silvio Hächler and me were leading the semi with very good laptimes. Hächler had radio problems so I took the lead. 4 minutes to the end the rain comes, my father called me in the pit and we put rain tires, so I could finished the semifinal in first position. The semifinal A was exactly the opposite, they started on wet conditions and they finished in dry conditions.

Fortunately for the final the track was dry. I started really good in second position, with Simon Kurzbuch leading the final. Simon could manage a half lap gap after 20 minutes and Luca Martinelli and me were fighting for the 2nd place. At 25 minutes I changed tires and I lost a little bit, I was in 3rd but I was faster than Martinelli. Unfortunately at 15 minutes to the end I broke the first gear, I changed it but after 1 lap it broke another time. We checked and we saw that the engine wasn’t aligned. We fixed it and I started another time, but I was in the pit for 7 minutes so I would finish in 9th position. It was a shame because the car was so good and easy to drive. Simon Kurzbuch won, in front of Luca Martinelli and Marco Mueller.

Top 5 Final 1/8 Expert
1. Kurzbuch Simon (Shepherd – Max Power – Contact Tires)
2. Martinelli Luca (Mugen – Max Power – UFRA)
3. Müller Marco (Shepherd – Max Power – UFRA)
4. Stalder Roland (Shepherd – Novarossi – UFRA)
5. Noirat Jeremy (Mugen – Novarossi – Contact)

In 1/8th Amateur just one Xray driver, Stefan Niederberger, was in the main Final. Unfortunately the others Xray drivers had problems driving on the wet track during the morning. Niederberger decided to start with foam tires for humid track but he wasn’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. In the 1/8th Amateur the other Kurzbuch brother, Pascal, won managing to drive a very clean final, in front of local driver Claudio Pasquin and Marco Tanner.

Top 5 Final 1/8 Amateur
1. Kurzbuch Pascal (Shepherd – Max Power – Contact Tires)
2. Pasquin Claudio (Mugen – Picco – Matrix)
3. Tanner Marco (Shepherd – Novarossi – UFRA)
4. Scherer Rudi
5. Hajdekr Ales

In 1/10th everybody was waiting to see the battle between Xray driver Traugott Schär and Shepherd driver Sandro Küriger, they were the fastest drivers on the track. Unfortunately Sandro didn’t manage to reach the main final. Schär had some problem of grip in semifinal 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 really fast leading the final till 7-8 minutes to the end, when he had some technical problems. He lost 1 minute 40secs but he could finished in 2nd place behind Klaus Lechner. The other Xray driver Michael Schäfer managed to finish the final in 3rd position. Lehnerr had also some technical problem and he finished 5th and Cimen Ugur in 10th.

Top5 1/10:
1. Lechner Klaus (Serpent – Picco – HotRace)
2. Schär Traugott (XRAY NT1 – Picco – Runner Time – Galaxy Tires)
3. Schäfer Michael (XRAY NT1 – Picco – Runner Time – Galaxy Tires)
4. Bonetti Giovanni (Capricorn – Capricorn – Matrix)
5. Lehnerr Christian (XRAY NT1 – Picco – Runner Time – Galaxy Tires)

Thanks to Mattia Pesenti for the report.