| Race report by Danni Eyde-Nielsen |
|
The last round of the Danish Championship was held on August 29-30, hosted by the G.R.C. club. There were 26 drivers at the race: 11 drivers in Modified and 15 drivers in Super-Stock.
After Saturdayâ™s practice it was clear that the top 3 in Modified was going to be between
Danni Eyde-Nielsen (XRAY T2´009), Steen Graversen, and Soeren Boy Holst (XRAY T2â™009). |
|
|
This was a day I had waited on for a long time, and both me and my car felt 100% ready.
1st Qualification: I was setting the fastest first lap and got in front with Steen following pretty close. We changed positions continuously, and were within 0.1sec throughout the entire 5 minutes. Soeren was very unlucky with his tires (making his car very difficult to drive) so he ended up in 5th place. I ended up setting the fastest time of all, breaking into the 21-lap club with a lap time 14,6sec. Steen ended up 2nd about 1/2 second behind me.
2nd Qualification: This session I just had to defend my time, so I drove the best I could but the car didnâ™t feel as good as in the first Qualification⦠maybe because the tires werenâ™t new. I didnâ™t drive 21 laps that time, and unfortunately for me Steen got a better time than my TQ time. Since we were driving with the FTQ system, Steen had taken TQ spot away from me. Soeren was still fighting with his car because of a bad set of tires, so he struggled a lot. He improved his time, but it wasnâ™t enough to place and again he ended up in 5th place. |
|
(click to enlarge) |
|
|
|
3rd Qualification: Since I was pretty secure for 2nd place on the grid, I used the last Qualification round to test another tire combination. I drove 2 laps and the car felt very good, so I drove in and my mechanic took my car. Nobody was improving this time.
After qualifying it looked pretty good for XRAY, with 4 out of 8 cars in the A-main
A-main grid:
1. Steen Graversen
2. Danni Eyde-Nielsen XRAY T2´009
3. Troels Troelsen
4. Christian Lehm
5. Soeren Boy Holst XRAY T2´009
6. Morten Iversen
7. Carsten Madsen XRAY T2´009
8. Johnni Andersen XRAY T2´009 |
|
(click to enlarge) |
|
|
|
FINALS
1st Final: I got a pretty good start and came very close to Steen. After the first lap we had made a nice gap down to Soeren Boy Holst, who got a good start by overtaking 2 guys in the first corner. But he still had a distance up to me and Steen. While Soeren was driving for himself, I was pushing as hard as possible to overtake Steen but he didnâ™t even make one mistake. I kept trying to make a hole so I could get past, and one time in the corner after the main straight he was going a bit wide and I saw my opportunity to overtake him. I came up side-by-side with him, but unfortunately he was on the inside for the next turn. I didnâ™t give up, but again his experience showed and he didnâ™t make any mistakes. Steen took 1st place and I came in 2nd only 1/2 second behind, with Soeren ending in 3rd place. |
|
(click to enlarge) |
|
|
|
| 2nd Final: This time I got as good a start as the first final, and I could start to chase down Steen. Soeren had some trouble with his start and ended in the grass, so he went down to last place by 1/2 lap from the rest. He pushed his car really hard and started the get through the field. This time I was pushing even harder, because I could see my car had more steering than Steen. I came up side-by-side on him many times and it was a really intense battle which of course thrilled the audience. At the same time they could see Soeren fighting his way back, then up into 4th place, and he was driving his fastest times of the weekend in this final. After the 5 minutes were over I finished in 2nd place after battling all 5 minutes with Steen. So Steen had taken the overall win of the race and championship. Soeren finished 5th after his bad start. |
|
|
| 3rd Final: This time I got a really good start, and could get past Steen in turn one. Within the first minute I was making the gap between us larger and larger. I had a nice lead and could relax a bit so my tires wouldnâ™t overheat. I was driving 3 minutes with a good lead, and then Steen came closer so I started to push a bit more⦠and unfortunately made one mistake so Steen came really close. We had a good battle but I made a little mistake at the end of the main straight and Steen took advantage of this to get past me. For the final minute I tried to catch up to him but ended up (again) in 2nd place behind Steen. Soeren ended in 8th place because he was really unlucky and got hit by another driver, which totally wrecked his car. |
|
(click to enlarge) |
|
|
|
Final results in MOD:
1. Steen Graversen
2. Danni Eyde-Nielsen XRAY T2´009
3. Troels Troelsen
4. Christian Lehm
5. Soeren Boy Holst XRAY T2´009
6. Johnny Andersen XRAY T2´009
7. Carsten Madsen XRAY T2´009
8. Morten Iversen |
|
(click to enlarge) |
|
|
|
Final Results in Super-Stock:
1. Nicolai Nielsen
2. Johnny Pedersen
3. Thomas Larsen XRAY T2´009
4. Michael Johnsen XRAY T2´009
5. Steven Olsen
6. Dennis Hassing
7. Johnny Lyng
8. Mads Groth Olsen XRAY T2´009 |
| Final Results of the 2009 Danish Championship: |
|
|
|
(click to enlarge) |
|
|
|
Top 3 MOD:
1. Steen Graversen
2. Danni Eyde-Nielsen XRAY T2´009
3. Soeren Boy Holst XRAY T2´009 |
|
(click to enlarge) |
|
|
|
Top 3 Super-Stock:
1. Johnny Pedersen
2. Nicolai Nielsen
3. Thomas Larsen XRAY T2´009 |
|
|
| I want to thank XRAY for making such an excellent car, GM for the great power, and also all my other sponsors. A 2nd place overall in the Modified class in the Danish Championships after only 3 years of racing is a great result for me, and I am really happy and proud. Of course, none of this would have been possible if my tutor Soren Boy Holst hadnâ™t helped me. I am so very grateful for all of his help; by myself I would have taken me years to learn all the things he taught me. The next big races for me will be EFRA GP in Prague, DHI-Cup, and Indoor EC. |
|
(click to enlarge) |
|
|
(click to enlarge) |
|
|
(click to enlarge) |
|
|
(click to enlarge) |
|
|
(click to enlarge) |
|
|
(click to enlarge) |
|
|
