100 years of St. Ursanne-Les Rangiers
The 81st edition of the St. Ursanne-Les Rangiers hill climb in western Switzerland will take place on August 15-16, 2026. However, the 100th anniversary of this sporting event can be celebrated. Although the starting point on May 16, 1926 was still in Develier and not in St. Ursanne, it was not until 1955 that the race started there. As early as 1930, the event was part of the Swiss Mountain Championship, and from 1972 the race was also part of the European Mountain Championship. The crowds were always impressive and the enthusiasm for motorsport was great.
I myself only witnessed a small part of the impressive history - after all, people like Jim Clark, Jo Bonnier, Jo Siffert, Henri Pescarolo and Clay Regazzoni started in the Les Rangiers hillclimbs - in person. But in 1976, 50 years ago, as a schoolboy, I was able to convince my father to take me to the hill climb. As we were spending our summer vacation in a small REKA village in the Jura, the journey was relatively short.
Naturally, we sat down on the slope by the "little Susten" (photo from the 1964 Automobil Revue with a great audience backdrop), which is the name of a combination of bends just below the finish line.
And of course I took out my camera (at the time a cheap Carena 35 mm SLR) and photographed the cars that impressed me. Or drivers who ran out of talent when braking in the small Susten.
I pasted the results into my photo album and labeled them neatly. When I leafed through the album, I was able to read that Walter Brun was the class winner and Jean-Claude Béring drove a Porsche Carrera. Thanks to our Zwischengas magazine archive, I was able to find all the results in the Automobil Revue (issue 34/1976) and learned that Béring was European hill climb champion in the production car category that year in his Porsche.
I also immortalized Pierre Maublanc, who set the track record in his March 762, or the attractive Sauber C4 with Artos paintwork (picture at the beginning).
But I remember something else from those years. One evening, there was a lot of noise near the vacation home estate in Montfaucon. Of course we had to go and see what was going on. A local garage owner had his racing car prototype (2-seater) warmed up and then went for a test drive on the country road in preparation for a race, without license plates, silencer and all. Yes, that was still possible back then.
It is not a matter of course that a motorsport event turns 100 years old and is still on the racing calendar. We would like to congratulate the St. Ursanne-Les Rangiers hill climb on its 100th birthday and wish it all the best, exciting races and lots of spectators for the 81st edition. Information about the event and its history can be found on the hill climb website.
