Merli wins penultimate European round in Slovenia
In his Osella FA 30 Judd LRM Christian Merli wins the penultimate round of the 2024 European hill climb championship, the 30th Ilirska Bistrica hill climb in Slovenia. The Scuderia Vimotorsport driver has climbed the top step of the podium in Portugal, Italy, Poland, Switzerland and Slovenia this year.
Christian, a great duel with Schatz from France
“A very strong opponent who doesn’t make any concessions to his adversaries. I didn’t think I’d be able to win this race, where you often have to pick up speed again. Early this week we did a test in order to improve traction coming out of corners and braking. In the second race run there was a startling moment when I was red-flagged about a kilometre before the finish line because of an incident involving an opponent who had started before me. We went back down and retook the start. I had a really hard time. I’d hoped to improve on the time of the first run. But I’m very happy. Today has been a big success. It’s our fifth overall victory this season, and that’s fantastic in a year where I was fortunate enough to race and win at Pikes Peak in Colorado. That trip took a lot of effort and I had to skip one of the most beautiful races in the calendar, Ecce Homo in the Czech Republic.”
The weekend in Slovenia
Saturday sees the two practice runs on the 5.010 km track. Christian Merli in his Osella FA 30 Judd LRM tops the timesheet of the first run, 1”371 ahead of Geoffrey Schatz (Nova Proto NP01). In the second practice run in the afternoon Christian finishes again first, with Fausto Bormolini (Nova Proto NP01 C) 9”433 behind and Geoffrey Schatz 10”349 behind. In the first race run on Sunday morning Merli is 0”480 ahead of Schatz. It is worth mentioning that the times of both race runs are added together for the final classification. In the second race run in the afternoon the champion from Trentino is 0”477 faster than Schatz.
The final round of the European championship will be the 43rd Buzetski dani in Croatia on 15 September.
The podium on accumulated times
1st Merli (Osella FA 30 Judd LRM), 2nd Schatz (Nova Proto NP 01) 0”957 behind, 3rd Iraola Lanzagorta (Nova NP01) 4”072 behind.
Translation by Ruth Scheithauer