The fans experience a motorsport dream day at the European Hill Climb Championship in Tulwitz.
The best are piling deep, so everything is wide open for race day.
Despite the cool temperatures and drizzly weather, the spectators came in droves, saw and were amazed: “What the organizing team has put together again this year is wonderful. We came all the way from Bavaria and were really blown away. Everything was spruced up, wonderful natural grandstands and excellent regional delicacies – plus that pure racing feeling – what more could you want!” said a group of fans from near Passing.
The organizational trio Mario Klammer, Peter Eibisberger and Christian Ferstl are also very satisfied with the first day on the Rechberg. “Several thousand fans were here today and praised us for our work. But we would also like to say thank you – because without spectators such an event simply doesn’t work. The atmosphere was already great today and we are already looking forward to tomorrow! But above all we would like to thank our team…everyone did an incredible job last night and this morning to save our training day.”
What went on in the background due to the adverse weather conditions in the previous days shows just how great the cooperation is between the clubs, the fire departments and, last but not least, the farmers in the Almenland. All entrances to the paddock, which is mostly located on the meadows in and around Tulwitz, were completely muddy and therefore no longer passable. In an unbelievable overnight operation, tons of wood chips, tile and formwork were dredged and the first training run started just one hour late.
Now to the sporting side:
238 starters gratefully accepted the two training runs and showed from the second, now completely dry, training session what they intended to do on race day.
Despite the late start, the timetable held, as all the vehicles arrived back in the paddock just after 6.00 pm.
A few slips into the botany and technical problems were quite manageable and all went without any significant damage. Karl Schagerl suffered gearbox damage after the first practice run, removed it in the paddock and rushed back to Lower Austria to fix everything in his workshop so that he would be ready to drive again on race Sunday: “I’m doing this for the fans, because they deserve it!”
Reto Meisel (Mercedes SLK 340 Judd V8) was the fastest in the touring car category. He was followed by Kevin Raith from Weiz (Porsche 992 GT3 Cup) and Jürgen Halbartschlager (VW Golf 17 Turbo).
The fastest Styrian is Kevin Raith with his Porsche,
The fastest Styrian is Kerstin Taus with her Subaru P4 Turbo.
The top pilots were very deep in the pile… none of them really let themselves be seen in the cards and so we will be able to see some more time fireworks on race day. So excitement is well provided for.
After 2 training sessions, the top favorite is in first place in the table.
Christian Merli (ITA) drove his Nova NP 01-2 C Cosworth to the top of the pass in a time of 1:44.915. Kevin Petit (FRA) followed him with a time of 1:46.622 and the fast Joseba Iraola Lanzagorta (ESP) was just behind him in third place with a time of 1:46.930.
So the fans can look forward to Sunday. The first race starts at 09:00, the second race has been scheduled by the Rechberg team for 14:00.
The link for the livestream is available on the homepage, Facebook and Instagram, as well as for live timing.
The ceremonial opening of the 51st edition of the Grand Prix of Austria will take place at 08:20. LH Mario Kunasek, the mayors Peter Raith (Fladnitz) and Gottfried Rieger (Semriach), as well as the top of the organization management are looking forward to this official act.
Information about the race for fans – updated on an ongoing basis, of course – is available on the homepage www.rechbergrennen.co.at, as well as on the social media channels of Facebook and Instagram under #rechbergrennen.
Timetable Sunday:
08.20 am: Opening
09.00 am: Start 1st race
14.00 pm: Start 2nd race
19.00 pm: Award ceremony in the marquee