After finishing up my rollout for 2011 at Anneau du Rhin on the 30th of March my thoughts were already with the upcoming event on the 1st of April at the indoor karting track in Roggwil, Switzerland.
Since this event is an invitational only you could not sign up for it. But fortunately I got asked if I wanted to participate with my AE86 race car after I previously showcased my car there some time ago.
Arriving there around 2pm on Friday we unloaded the car and entered the complex through a labyrinth in the basement and stuffed the car into an elevator. Arriving at the karting track level the organizers set up an area for all the cars inside the karting track.
Andreas Lanz at Race Inn 2011 from Tobias Welti on Vimeo.
Right on point at 4pm the whole event started. For the 9th annual race the format stayed the same and each car got got 4 practice laps and then 4 race laps. I started the first laps rather slow since space is very limited on this track and I did not want to crash at the first race of the season. But I got faster with every lap I did. I managed to do all laps without any problems or scars on the car. I was very happy with the way I drove and was sure to place in the top 10.
The top 10 ended up in a final race. Here the format switched slightly. We had a standing start and did 2 laps. Both laps were counted as a total. I did not manage to put in better times here but ended up with 7th overall which was quite respectable concerning what kind of machinery took part in the event.
Winner was Bruno Ianello with his crazy Lancia S4 which sports around 650hp. Second came Reto Meisel with his ex DTM Mercedes 190.
Other cars in the line up included some historic cars like a Morgan 3-wheeler, a Formel Ford V6, Jaguar E-Type or a VW Bug with a Porsche engine. More modern stuff like the ETH Formel Student car or some Formel cars with bike engines also have been in the line up of the event.
My personal highlight of the event was when Rob Huff, current WTCC driver for Chevrolet, came out in a tiny Chevrolet Matiz with a crazy V8 and RWD came out for some laps. Unfortunately the car was just too insane to push hard on this track so he just did some donuts wherever the space allowed this.
All in all a cool event which I will definitely take part again if I get invited and the schedule allows it.
Andreas Lanz