The FIA European Hill Climb Championship is back in full swing this season after two years disrupted by the pandemic. As in the last few “normal” editions, the Championship will open this weekend in France on the course of the “Corniche des Cévennes” between St Jean du Gard and the Col St Pierre, with a record entry list.
A small town of less than 3,000 inhabitants nestled in the mountainous Cévennes region, Saint Jean du Gard has been accustomed for the past 50 years (this will be the 48th edition of the race) to seeing all sorts of racing cars parade through the streets of the town centre. A peculiarity of the event is that the Paddock is located in the heart of Saint Jean, but the race course is 4 kilometres away, which requires convoys under police escort and gives rise to improbable sight of prototypes and single-seaters travelling on a major public road.
Since the race became part of the FIA Championship, never before has it recorded so many entries in its European section. There are 48 entries from 12 different countries. The event also counts for the French Championships for modern cars and historic cars, so that the list of entrants includes no less than 226 competitors – another record.
Outgoing European champion and with three European titles to his name, the Italian Christian Merli starts the season as a favourite. He will continue to run his faithful Osella FA30 Zytek. The announced absence of his eternal rival Simone Faggioli strengthens his favouritism.
That said, Hill Climb races remain difficult and sometimes unpredictable. The Czech Petr Trnka, bronze medallist at the last FIA Hill Climb Masters in Category 2, and the Frenchmen Sébastien Petit (Nova NP01 Zytek), winner in St Jean in 2018, and Billy Ritchen (Nova NP01 Judd), winner last weekend of the opening round of the French Championship, will surely be aiming for a place on the podium.
After a few sporadic appearances in the past, Spain’s Joseba Iraola (Nova NP01 Honda) and Germany’s Alexander Hin (Osella FA30 Zytek) have put the European Championship at the heart of their 2022 programme and can claim a respectable Championship ranking.
Category 2 in St Jean du Gard will shine by the variety of its cars, with single-seaters and prototypes with very different engines and cylinder capacities: motorbike engine for some (Wolf GB08 Thunder Aprilia of Michele Fattorini), turbocharged motorbike engines for others (Silver Car CS Suzuki of Raul Ferre, BRC BR53 Suzuki of Javier Villa). There is the more conventional F3 (Thomas Clausi and Samuel Guth) or Tatuus Master (Marc Pernot and Marcel Sapin) or even Formula Renault (Didier Chaumont), without forgetting the various Norma and Osella, 2 litres and V8 3 litres, of the Czech David Dedek, the Austrian Ferdinand Madrian, Switzerland’s Xavier Vermeille and the French drivers Etienne Pernot, Cédric Lansard, Franck Bellières, Pascal Campi or Olivier Berreur.
In Category 1, even though he will be discovering the course, Karl Schagerl and his demonic VW Golf Rallye are the scarecrows and the Austrian, who has chosen to focus his 2022 programme on the European Championship, will certainly allow himself to tease some Category 1 cars.
The cars in Groups 2 to 5 of the closed car division, divided according to the Pf classification, will still offer a wide range of vehicles from different horizons, between GTs (Lamborghini Huracan of Ronald Garces, Porsche of Nicolas Werver, Vojtech Bejda or Paul Reutter, Alpine A110 of Anthony Dubois, Ginetta G50 of Jose Alonso Liste), touring cars (Hyundai i30 TCR of Igor Stefanovski, Cupra Leon of Nicolas Granier and Geoffroy Bouhin, Audi A4 STW of Matija Jurisic), rally cars (Fiesta R5 of Sergi Panella) and the inevitable pack of Mitsubishi Lancers, including those of ex-European Champions Antonino Migliuolo (2021) and Tomislav Muhvic (2013) or of the returning Christian Schweiger. Among the entries in Category 1, the Smart Forfour of former three-time European Champion Nico Pulic will not fail to attract the curious.
Two practice heats are scheduled for Saturday, April 9. The two race heats will take place on Sunday, April 10 starting at 9 am.
Rankings, live timing, live streaming and virtual scoreboard are available here.