With 48 starters, as against 36 in 2015, the line-up for the FIA Historic Hill Climb Championship made a fine sight in the streets of Tulwitz, the epicentre of the Rechbergrennen Hill Climb this last weekend (23-24 April).

Category 2 was by far the most popular among the competitors, with 14 starters. The Porsche Carrera of the Italian Giuliano Palmieri led by a single second by during the first ascent, the Austrian Max Lampelmaier (Ford Escort) responded in the second run, putting in a performance that propelled him right to the top of the general classification, around two seconds ahead of Palmieri. With their smaller cylinder capacities, the other cars were simply unable to go for the final victory. The NSU TT of the Czech Miroslav Adamek grabbed third place, ahead of the Skoda 120S of Indra Jindrich.

Small capacity machines are in the majority in Category 1. Expertly driven and almost as light as a kart, the small Bergspyder Steyer Puch of Harald Mössler was quite simply untouchable and the Austrian secured another stunning victory right in his own back yard. The Czech Vladimir Konicar (BMW 2002 Ti) and the 2015 Champion, Christian Holzer (Steyer Puch 650 TR) joined him on the podium.

In Category 3, the Austrian Gerald Glinzner (Porsche 911 Carrera) raced to glory, due primarily to his time in his first climb, ahead of the Porsche 935 driven by the triple European Champion (1978, 1979, 1980) Jean-Marie Alméras. Category 5 – the small single-seaters – saw the Formula Easter MTX 1-03 of the Czech Ondrej Chytil edge out the Tecno-Lotus FB/1 of Jochen Landmann.

Notwithstanding the fact that in historic competitions any general classification is, by necessity, relative given the disparity in ages, design and cylinder capacity of the cars, the performance achieved by Stefano Di Fulvio, with his Osella PA 9/90 was highly impressive.

In addition to running away with Category 4, the Italian would have managed to rank himself absolute sixth had there been a classification combining the modern event and the historic event. Of all his adversaries, the defending Champion, Uberto Bonucci, was the nearest challenger at the end of the first race climb, although the slightest of contacts at the chicane during run number two forced him to abandon the race.

The Championship now heads eastwards for the next three events, gearing up for visits to Slovakia (Moris Cup Jahodna, 21-22 May), the Czech Republic (Ecce Homo Sternberk, 4-5 June) and Slovenia (Gorjanci, 18-19 June) in quick succession.