Kurzbuch wins Rd5 in Switzerland, Pesenti takes title
The 5th Round of the Swiss 1/8th scale gas on road Nationals were held in the beautiful Swiss Alps on a short and bumpy track in Oey-Diemtigen. With dry and sunny weather all weekend, the first training sessions got underway on Saturday morning at 10am. All drivers were testing their material and setups on this track for the first time as normally everyone can test this on Friday afternoon, but the organizer had his own rules and there was no chance to change them. So the 7 minute training sessions in the morning were very hectic for all drivers.
In the afternoon the qualifying heats started, with the plan to have 4 qualifying heats for the 6 groups. After a lot of crashes but also some very exciting runs, the fastest drivers were Mattia Pesenti, Simon Kurzbuch, Silvio Haechler, Jürg Nydegger, Luca Martinelli, Thomas Henzi, Andy Geisser.
Expert top 4 direct qualifiers:
1. Mattia Pesenti with 26 / 7:04.097
2. Simon Kurzbuch 26 / 7:04.938
3. Silvio Haechler 26 / 7:07.636
4. Thomas Henzi 26 / 7:10.238
Amateur top 4 direct qualifiers:
1. Daniel Born 19 / 5:12.637
2. Roland Stalder 18 / 5:01.669
3. Stefan Köhl 18 / 5:07.346
4. Helli Spreng 26 / 5:11.421
The main final of the expert drivers was very exciting. The most important thing was to be careful with the tyres so that just one tyre stop would be required during the 45 minute final. The start was very powerful with no crashes with pole man Mattia Pesenti setting a good pace. Second was Simon Kurzbuch, who was a little bit slower than Mattia, while in third position was former Swiss Champion Marco Mueller who was also faster than Kurzbuch. After five minutes Mueller took the 2nd position while Mattia showed kept a good pace to protect his 1st position. The fuel strategy of Mattia and Simon were to have them stopping at 5 minutes, because of the short track, which was not so fast, the engines did not need more fuel. After the 2nd fuel stop Mattia made a mistake coming into the pit box and Marco Mueller and Simon Kurzbuch took 1st and 2nd. A couple of minutes later, Marco had a crash and so Simon could take the lead for the first time during this final with Mattia now in second. Both drivers were on the same speed level so that there was no change until the end of the race. With Mattia taking 2nd spot, he was able to wrap up the Swiss National title for 2010.
Final Ranking – V8 Track Expert
1. Kurzbuch Simon / MRCL / 162 / 45:06.287
2. Pesenti Mattia / MRTM / 162 / 45:15.729
3. Geisser Andy / MRR / 154 / 44:29.848
4. Nydegger Jürg / MCRTB / 154 / 45:02.949
5. Hächler Silvio / RTZOW / 154 / 45:05.829
6. Felix Reto / MRR / 147 / 45:16.204
7. Müller Marco / MRTM / 144 / 45:05.364
8. Henzi Thomas / MRCL / 143 / 45:08.701
9. Ali Renato / MRCI / 136 / 45:08.108
10. Henzi Michael / MRCL / 98 / 28:13.555
Final Ranking – V8 Track Amateur
1. Spreng Helli / ERMC / 100 / 30:13.131
2. Köhl Stefan / MRR / 98 / 30:08.874
2. Roider Rafael / AMCS / 98 / 30:10.640
4. Suter Rolf / MRCL / 98 / 30:13.764
5. Gerber Hanspeter / MRCL / 97 / 30:08.27
6. Stalder Roland / MCRTB / 96 / 29:59.641
7. Graber Stefan / RCM / 93 / 30:04.950
8. Krieger Fabrice / AMCS / 64 / 52 / 15:57.802
9. Cannas Roberto / MRTM / 26 / 10:14.652
10. Born Daniel / PS93 / 0 / 0:00.00
The last round of the Swiss Nationals will be held in Langenthal from the 25th to the 26th of September.
Source: RASpeed [raspeed.com] / Images: Motonica Switzerland
