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Prize-giving for the 2012 FIA European Hill-Climb Championship

On 3 November in Olomouc, in the Czech Republic, the winners of the 2012 season of the FIA Hill-Climb Championship were honoured during a prize-giving ceremony organised in association with the Alliance des Organisateurs du Championnat d'Europe de la Montage (the Alliance of European Hill-Climb Championship Organisers). For those familiar with the Championship, Olomouc is a well-known destination, as the town is not far from the course of the great classic Ecce Homo race, a Czech hill-climb that is over 100 years old (first edition in 1905).

 
Having won all the events in which he took part, i.e. ten out of the eleven events comprising this year's calendar, Simone Faggioli (aged 34) was awarded the title of FIA European Hill-Climb Champion for the fifth time. At the wheel of his Osella FA30, the Italian has reigned as the uncontested master of hill-climb for several years, to the extent of also holding the absolute record on each of the courses in the European Championship! To the delight of his fans throughout Europe, 2013 will see him launch the campaign to win his sixth crown.

 
The runner-up in the Championship classification was the Czech Petr Vitek (Osella PA30). Four other drivers from the Czech Republic complete the Top 6 in the 2012 season, namely, from third to sixth: Milos Benes (Osella FA30), Vladimir Vitver (Audi WTTR), Otakar Kramsky (Reynard K12) and Dusan Neveril (Norma M20 FC).

 
The Serb Dusan Borkovic (28) was presented with his trophy as FIA European Champion in Category 1 by Paul Gutjahr, the President of the FIA Hill-Climb Commission. Borkovic is the first Serbian driver to enter his name on the list of FIA European Champions in this discipline. In a generous and always spectacular style, he drove his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9 Group N to victory in seven of the ten events in which he took part, scoring five consecutive wins in the first half of the season, to finish first in the final classification ahead of Austria's Christian Schweiger, the Czech Republic's Lukas Vojacek and Oskar Benes, and Switzerland's Roger Schnellmann. Two women drivers, Dominika Benesova (seventh) and Gabriela Sajlerova (tenth), feature in the European Top 10, which was monopolised by Mitsubishi Lancers, whether Group N or Group A.

 
The prize-giving ceremony at Olomouc was also the occasion to reward the victors in the FIA European Hill-Climb Cup and the FIA International Hill-Climb Challenge, which were won by Dan Michl (Lotus Evora) and Vaclav Janik (Lola B02/50) respectively.

 
FIA European Hill-Climb Championship results: HERE