For the third time, we at RSC started the season with Austrian European Hill Climb Championship event, located between Tulwitz and Rechbergdorf. It was already 43rd edition of the meeting known as Rechberg Hill Climb. About 230 drivers arrived to fight not only for European points, but also to Austrian and Slovakian national championships, zone championship and there was also a significant portion of participants running European historic championship. On Saturday morning the weather was nice and sunny, everything looked well and what was set to be a great racing weekend turned into nightmare and the worst Rechberg race in its modern history.
It started normally. Having found a good place for taking morning photos just before the first practice heat on Saturday we saw a yellow bicycle and in it Otakar Krámský in his morning ride, as he usually do. When he was running back, he stopped nearby and had a talk with us (my brother and me). He commented the first chicane, which was changed this year - it was moved closer to the start, and the asphalt was a bit inconsistent. Otakar shared more of his views and a few minutes later we wish all together a successful day and he continued to the starting line and to his parking place. Then the practice started. All went usual way with some short breaks to recover or take off the track cars that did not finish the heat (one actually stopped a few meters after the start, still we could have a photo - so near the start we stayed) until the car number 4 with Otakar Krámský at the wheel ran around us, moved through the chicane and disappeared from the view. Two or three seconds later, at the maximum speed for unknown reason, the car spun, left the road and hit the biggest tree. The yellow Reynard F3000 was broken into three pieces, Otakar Krámský, the most successful Czech Hill Climb star, three time European Champion, was killed instantly. A long break follow and it took many hours till organisers released any official or unofficial information. So we learnt about it in pieces very slowly with still some hope the accident, we were already aware of, was not that serious. While in direct contact with some closest people of Otakar Krámský present in Austria, our chances and hopes decreased every minute, until the reliable information really came to us more than 90 minutes later - it turned out to be one of the worst moments I have ever experienced as a motorsport spectator or a photographer. It was also disappointing that organisers tried to keep this sad and tragic news in secret, losing any trust in their reporting for the rest of the weekend when something stopped racing.
The entire Saturday programme was then cancelled. In the afternoon it was decided that the meeting will continue on Sunday in a limited form. In the end the second practice heat was held on Sunday morning followed by just a single racing heat. So the third practice session, as well as the second racing heat was called off. Moreover Sunday programme was spoilt by brief rain which handicapped some faster silhouette drivers - then organiser decided to stop racing for about an hour to allow prototype driver running on a tried track.
Unfortunately most of the Czech drivers decided not to continue in the meeting after the accident, which really harmed the competition, especially for the top positions. With some other drivers, like Renz Nappione and Fausto Bormolini missing for apparent technical reasons, it left European champion, Simone Faggioli, nearly without any competition. Most of the prototype drivers were real beginners or slow drivers at all, and those few quick were either home, or missing the heat for other reasons. Formula field was also reduced missing all top drivers. So Simone won without any real competition, way ahead of David Hauser from Luxemburg, who started here for the first time, with a factory single-seater Wolf - actually a prototype, with covered wheels, like eightees Can-Am cars. No one else in a sports car or single-seater was able to cover the one racing heat quicker than touring cars, special touring cars or GTs, which occupied next thirty places in overall classification for modern cars. Best of them was a silhouette based on VW Golf and driven by very quick Karl Schagerl. It seemed that not many were too concerned about all that in this really unhappy, sad and tragic race, which was not really handled well by the organisers.
