Jelle De Coninck scored a superb victory at the European Hill Race in Eschdorf this weekend. The Belgian Champion demonstrated the potential of turbo engines by beating Eric Berguerand and Cyrille Frantz. Rainshowers on Sunday meant that only the final second race session was in the dry. Here De Coninck put in a time that was .5 seconds faster than Berguerand and more than a second quicker than Frantz. Just outside the podium, but already 2,5 seconds behind the winner, finished Marcel Steiner in fourth and Anthony Loeuilleux in fifth.

Romeo Nüssli was the only touringcar driver to complete the 1,85 kilometres in under 1 minute. Norbert Handa and Mario Fuchs were second and third fastest. Egidio Pisano was the best of the 30 entrants in the E1 -2000 class.
More …

In one week time it is time for the European Hill Race in Eschdorf. It is the only hillclimb in Luxembourg and apart from the national championship it also counts towards the German Hillclimb Championship and the Berg-Cup. Almost 170 drivers are planning to compete. Last year’s winner David Hauser is not one of them. The Luxembourg Champion is however present to do demo-drives with his LMP3 sportscar.

Eric Berguerand heads the entrylist in his famous Lola FA99 Cosworth. Although he has come close several times the last few years, he is still aiming for that first victory at Eschdorf. His main challengers in the singleseaters will be locals Tommy Rollinger and Guy Demuth. In the sportscars it will be interesting to see how Jelle De Coninck and his new Norma M20 FC Turbo fares. With Cyrille Frantz, Marcel Steiner and Patrik Zajelsnik the Belgian will face two rivals that are among the best in Europe. A special entry is that of Frank Maas. The former Luxembourg champion will make a one-race comback in the Osella PA20/S of Uwe Lang.

The touringcars look to be dominated by Porsche. Nicolas Werver, Yanick Bodson and Anthony Dubois all bring 997’s to Eschdorf, although they are all in different versions. Frédéric Neff enters in a slighlty older 996 and of course multiple Eschdorf touringcar winner Herbert Stolz is once again present in his impressive Porsche 935 DPII. There are also several “bergmonsters” on the entrylist. The Opel Kadett C GT/R driven by Holger Hovemann and the Ford Escort Cosworth of Romeo Nüssli are just two examples…

German and Berg-Cup champion André Wiebe will not compete a full season in 2017. His championship winning Renault Laguna Williams is present next weekend but with another family member behind the wheel. The most competitive class is as always the E1 -2000 class. Local Canio Marchione, Austrian Thomas Strasser or Belgian Fabrizio Casciario will head the challenge against the best drivers from Germany.
More …