Pan Car Masters 2017 – Report
This past weekend the first annual Pan Car Masters was held at the world renown MRTM Lostallo track in Switzerland. The event was held in the six classes of Pro10 Modified, Pro10 Stock 10.5, Swiss GT 13.5T, Formula 21.5T as well as 1/8th Electric Modified 6S and 1/8th Electric Stock 4S. The weather forecast for the weekend wasn’t the best but the weather proofed to be pretty ok, much to the pleasure of the about 60 drivers from Sweden, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Italy and Switzerland. The event kicked off with free practice on Friday, followed by reseeding practice on Saturday and the first two of four qualifiers. Rain was on the forecast for Sunday but thankfully the shower came during the night and thanks to nice during the day the track dried up quickly.
In the Pro10 Modified class the race for the TQ was on between the German trio of Timo Schad, Tobias Weist and Joachim Behnken. Ultimately Timo would be the top seeder and he would also grab the overall TQ thanks to three round TQs with Tobias and Joachim lining up behind him. Switzerland’s Roger Eifler and Belgium’s Patrick Vannieuwenhuyse would round out the top 5 after the qualifiers. In Pro10 Stock Timo Schad and Roger Eifler would battle for the overall TQ with both scoring two round wins. In the end Timo would prevail by eight hundreds of a second with Roger in 2nd. The Swiss GT class saw Andi Frattaroli taking the TQ from Michael Häuptli, Pascal Fässler who scored a round TQ each. Kai Asmer would line up in 5th on the grid. The Formula class top 5 was an all-Swiss affair with Giacomo Moretti taking the pole position from Leo Bottinelli und Roman Pichler. Reto Nauer and Andi Frattaroli came in 4th and 5th respectively.
1/8th Electric Modified was the quickest class of the weekend with practice and qualifiers being dominated by German ace Patrick Nähr. Stefan Scheidegger and Martin Messerli came in 2nd and 3rd from Jan Dietmar and Non-Merens Haupt. 1/8th Electric Stock saw Germany’s Joachim Grauer taking the TQ in a tie-break with Alan Bendetti. Thomas Peter from Germany, Thomas Burger-Ringer from Austria and Arturo Tozzi from Italy rounded out the top 5.
The opening final of the Pro10 Modified class was held on a damp track due to a rain shower and the race for the win was on between two drivers – Timo Schad and Tobias Weist. Timo opted for his dry car while Tobias choose his rain car – which was ultimately the better choice as he won the opening main with a margin on 0.6s from Roger Eifler and Joachim Behnken. For A2 the track had dried up fully and so the stage was set for a nice show between Tobias and Timo. Due to a mishap during the run Tobias lost some ground but he was able to recover, although he wasn’t able to challenge Timo with the latter bringing home an undefeated win from Tobias 2nd and Roger Eifler. A3 was a showcase with Timo and Tobias swapping the lead several times. An unfortunate Timo would spin in the final lap which allowed Tobias to bring home the win and with it the overall victory. Timo came in 2nd in the leg and overall while Roger Eifler secured himself the overall 3rd place.
The opening final of the Pro10 Stock class was also run in damp conditions. Timo made a clever tyre choice which allowed him to bring home the win by a large margin on Roger and Reiner. A2 was all about Timo and Roger with Timo’s 235mm wide car having much better traction while Roger had a clear speed advantage on the straights with his 200mm car. In A2 Roger was able to pass Timo in the closing stages while Rainer again had to settle for 3rd overall. The deciding third final was highly expected and the top 2 drivers should deliver. Unfortunately Roger ran out of battery on the last lap which allowed Timo to bring home the leg and overall win. Roger came in 2nd overall from Rainer in 3rd.
Due to the rain shower during the Formula main, the track for A1 of Swiss GT was completely wet. Only Andi Frattaroli and Pascal Fässler dared to start with Andi leading the way until an issue slowed down his car, allowing Pascal to take the win. In the following dry finals the fight for the win was on between Andi and Pascal with Andi taking close wins in A2 and A3 to grab the overall win from Pascal. Eric Noel with a 3rd and 4th place secured himself the final podium spot.
The opening 10-minute main of the Formula class was interrupted by a rain shower but the main would be run to the end with Leo Bottinelli making the best out of the conditions. Giacomo Moretti and Roman Pichler came in 2nd and 3rd respectively. In the second main Leo would bag his overall win by coming out in front again. Michael Häuptli, from P10, came in 2nd in A2 from P4 after the qualifiers, Reto Nauer. In A3 TQ Giacomo brought home the win from Roman Pichler and Leo Bottinelli. Overall Leo would be sidelined by Giacomo and Roman.
The 1/8th Modified class was dominated by Patrick Nähr who scored wins in all three finals and also nearly beat the track record with a 19.807s. Best of the rest was the trio of Stefan Scheidegger, Martin Messerli and Jan Dietmar. Stefan with three 2nd place finishes secured himself the runner-up spot behind Patrick with Martin Messerli rounding out the podium in 3rd.
The opening 1/8th Electric Stock A-main saw Joachim Grauer and Alan Bendetti making contact in the first corner which cost Joachim dearly. He was able to recover though but he ran out of time to challenge Alan again. Tommy Peter would round out the top 3 so far. Right at the start of A2 Alan took the lead but an issue mid-race meant a DNF for him. Up front Joachim brought home an undefeated win from Tommy Peter and Thomas Burger-Ringer. The third and decisive main then held a fierce battle between Alan and Joachim. Alan jumped into the lead and Joachim tried to follow but the latter made too many mishaps trying to follow Alan and so Bendetti brought home the win and the overall victory from Joachim and Tommy.
Thanks to Tobias Weist for the report.
