For the past couple of years Rob, our main guy in Europe, has travelled down to the King of Touge event in the Alps, so when he heard that the organisers were going to be hosting two rounds you could be sure that he was going to be there!
The usual event weekend in June had previously been held at the ski resort of Pipay, 1500 metres up the mountains. That event had been moved to later in the year to make way for a downhill event in the foothills around the village of La Chapelle du Bard.
The drivers would have a completely different challenge with the narrow road, sweeping bends and several barriers and rock walls just waiting for someone to run wide.
The weekend of hot and humid, Im glad it wasn’t me sat in the cars as the drivers looked to be struggling with it, many of them carrying water bottles and fans with them in the car to keep cool between runs.
The Saturday was a full day of practice for the drivers to get used to the layout, all of them getting plenty of solo runs before they started to run in pairs.
It was a great track to experience from our media locations, often just a railing between myself and the cars.
The track was proving to be very fast despite the dangers that awaited any driver that made a mistake.
The qualifying session on the Sunday morning saw Anthony Rocci take the top spot….
followed by a very consistent Norbert Kovacik.
Marin Morier managed to take the third spot in his BMW E36, looking strong as ever…
ahead of Swen Burkhard in the awesome SR20 powered AE86, who set the highest recorded speed on his qualifying run.
The battles got underway in the afternoon with it becoming clear who was looking on form and advancing toward the final four.
Anthony Rocci faced Raffaele Rusca in the first battle of the Top 4, a close battle followed with Raffaele Rusca taking the win by a single point.
The other battle for the final was just as close with Norbert Kovacik beating Marin Morier.
Norbert Kovacik would then go on to win the event with a great set of runs against Rafaele Rusca, Marin Morier would earn his third place after his battle with Anthony Rocci.
It was a great weekend in the mountains, it’s always a pleasure to be part of these events and it made us more determined to share this with more people. I’ll leave you with plenty more photos from the event.