The sudden fluctuations in the weather in the Dobsina region came as no surprise to the regular contenders of the European Hill Climb Championship. In the past, the race has often been subject to extreme and abrupt changes in the conditions.

Already on Saturday, during the practice sessions, the drivers had to contend with variations in grip. Over the course of the climbs on Sunday, the sky became darker and more threatening, with the storm finally sweeping in when there were only a few cars left on the pre-grid. Among them, Christian Merli in his Osella FA30 Zytek, who lost all hope of being able to close the six-tenth of a second gap that Simone Faggioli (Norma M20FC Zytek) had achieved during the first climb. After a fairly tough start to the season and having tested new developments on his car, which had not proved to be very effective, Faggioli was starting the second half-season with a second overall victory, after winning – under similar weather conditions – in Trento, Italy. That being said, as Faggioli and Merli each won their Group in Slovakia (E2-SC for Faggioli, E2-SS for Merli), they remain tied for first place in the provisional classification of the European Championship’s Category 2.

Czech Petr Vondrak scored a surprising 3rd overall and 2nd in Group E2-SC in Slovakia.

Taking advantage of the unusual conditions, Per Vondrak from the Czech Republic (Osella PA21S Evo-Honda) moved up onto the podium, taking third place in the overall classification (and second in Group E2-SC), ahead of Austrian Christoph Lampert (Osella FA30-Zytek) and Czechs Dusan Neveril (Norma M20FC-Judd) and Petr Trnka (Ligier JS53Evo2-Honda).  Marek Rybnicek won his third victory of the season in Group E2-SH with a MC F1 Evo that he had built himself. Heat after heat, the usual suspects of Group CN dropped out (Dall’Oglio due to mechanical issues in Race 1 and Capucci who was unable to restart after spinning off the road during Race 2). This led to an unexpected win for Frenchman Christian Bouvier (Wolf GB08-Honda), one that was warmly welcomed by his peers.

On his home turf, the Slovak Jan Milon (McLaren 650S GT3) clearly dominated the Lamborghinis of the Czechs Zdenek Kminek (Gallardo) and Martin Jerman (Huracan) in GT. In Group A, Lukas Vojacek (Subaru Impreza WRX STI) narrowly won against the Honda Civic Type-R of the Italian Luca Zuurbier. Finally, Groups N and S20, were won by the Slovaks Peter Jurena (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo9) and Vlastimil Majercak (Ford Fiesta R5), respectively.

It should be noted that the course had to be shortened by approximately 220 metres compared to the one used for previous editions, due to the road being severely deteriorated near the usual finish line.

The European Championship will continue on 27 and 28 July, only 150 km away from Dobsina, but across the Slovakian-Polish border, in Limanova.

To see the provisional classifications of the FIA European Hill Climb Championship, click here.

To see the photo gallery of the Dobsinsky kopec event, click here.