Patrick Fankhauser takes Swiss 200mm title
The fifth and final round of the Swiss IC Track Championship was held in Herblingen recently. In the 1/10th Nitro Touring class the championship was still open between Raphael Wicki and Patrick Fankhauser while the 1/8th Championship was already sealed by Simon Kurzbuch. To keep his title hopes alive, Patrick had to finish in the top 3 and at least two spots in front of Raphael. During the qualifiers, Patrick struggled a but with his car’s setup, however this was sorted out for the finals and he could win his semi with a 2-laps margin. Due to the high tyre wear, Patrick opted for a high-pace strategy with a full stop for tyres in the finals that were at first lead by Thilo Tödtmann until he ran into radio issues that would cost him the win. After the mid-race tyre change, Patrick found himself on P6 while Raphael was on P3. With fresh tyres however Patrick was able to go a higher pace and he soon closed in on the top drivers. At the 25-minute mark, Patrick was already in P4 and while Raphael was on a different tyre strategy, Patrick was able to get past while Wicki ran out of tyres that would also cost him another position to Niclas Scherrer. In the end it was Marco Rizzo with the win from Simon Kurzbuch as Patrick Fankhauser took the 3rd place and with it the overall championship title in front of Raphael Wicki, Marco Rizzo and Traugott Schär.
Source: Xray [teamxray.com]
