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| Race report by Martin Hudy |
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The one of the most popular annual indoor carpet races â“ the DHI Cup â“ was held for the 10th time in Odense, Denmark. The drivers from all over Europe and Japan participated in the two categories, Modified and Stock. Team XRAY participated at this event with the new T3. The team was represented by its core drivers Teemu Leino, Alexander Hagberg, Freddy Sudhoff, Martin and Juraj Hudy, and was supported by XRAY drivers from Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Germany and other countries.
In total the race was attended by 156 drivers of which 57 drivers were driving XRAY. The numbers were definitely in XRAYâ™s favour as XRAY cars were by far the most used car in the event. |
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The race started on Friday with five rounds of practice, continued on Saturday with 5 rounds of qualifiers, and then on Sunday were 3 rounds of finals. Of the 5 qualifying rounds, the 3 best rounds were counted.
As usual, the XRAY car was one of the fastest cars right from the beginning when Teemu was able to drive 0.2sec faster lap times than anyone else. Traction increasing rapidly during the day and drivers were able to drive very consistent lap times. The differences between top drivers were very small, letting us know that the qualifiers would be very close and exciting. |
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| The first qualifier held on Saturday morning was under Teemuâ™s control, and he won by 1 second ahead of Marc ; Teemu was 0.1 second per lap faster than anyone else. This was a very good indication to XRAY that its brand new T3 was performing very well. The whole team was doing very well in all rounds and in the end XRAY had the most cars in the A final. The highest position went to Teemu who qualified 4th ; he had a good chance to set the TQ but two small mistakes in last two rounds of qualifiers dropped him down slightly. Alex qualified 7th ahead of Freddy who qualified 8th. Last on the grid was Martin Hudy who bumped up into the top 10 in the last round of qualifiers when he finished 3rd overall and set the fastest lap time of that run. |
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The team had to make only few set-up changes over the weekend, but in changing those small details the team was able to gain a set-up that made the car easy to drive while still being blistering fast. First of all it was necessary to use harder shock oil ; most of the drivers were using 500 or 550 XRAY shock oil. All four A finalists were using the rear upright with the center hole for better cornering speed and less roll, which again made the car easier to drive.
The tires were creating oversteer which made the cars more difficult to drive, so by adding 2mm shims under the servo saver (between the servo saver and steering linkages), the car became much easier to drive and the front did not stop in the corners⦠therefore the drivers were able to push harder in corners. For the last round of qualifiers, Martin increased the shimming above the front C-hub from 1mm to 1.5mm shim. Even though this set-up change was minor, the car became 0.2sec per lap faster, was more stable, easier to drive and rolled through the corners much faster. |
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Qualifiyng results:
1. Christer Andersson
2. Ronald Volker
3. Marc Rheinard
4. Teemu Leino XRAY T3
5. Steen Graversen
6. Yannic Pruemper
7. Alexander Hagberg XRAY T3
8. Freddy Sudhoff XRAY T3
9. Marc Fisher
10. Martin Hudy XRAY T3
The most unpopular 11th place belonged to young talented XRAY driver Adrian Berntsen, ahead of another XRAY driver Magnus Vassmar. |
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| Due to the very small differences between drivers, everyone expected an interesting and very close final. The fastest XRAY driver in the first round was Martin who was able to move from 10th to 4th position. Martin, who found a very good set-up in the last qualifying round, was once again the fastest on the track and he achieved the fastest lap time. Teemu finished 5th, Alex 7th, and Freddy 8th. |
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| The second final was very close and interesting to watch as well. After the start, Teemu was very fast and after a short time he was able to move into the lead but because of a minor mistake he dropped to 2nd place. Although he was pushing very hard on Christer, Christer made no mistakes and therefore Teemu had to settle for 2nd place. Martin moved up very quickly to 6th place but a front CVD pin came out and didnâ™t give him a chance to finish better; he finished 9th. Alex was very fast as well and was able to move from 7th to 4th position. He kept this place until the last lap when he got into contact with another driver who was driving behind him. Unfortunately, Alex then dropped from 4th to 7th place. |
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| The last final was the deciding final. There were three drivers who had a chance to win and one of them was Teemu. Teemu was fast enough to do it and therefore he immediately started to push on Marc right after the start. Teemu put on a lot of pressure but this led to contact between them. Teemu waited and let Marc go in front of him, but then unexpectedly he got a âśstop-and-goâť penalty. With this, Teemuâ™s shot at winning disappeared. Alex finished in 6th place and Freddy finished in 8th place. Martin â“ who was once again very fast after the start and moved up to 6th place â“ lost the pin from another front CVD and was again unable to finish the final. This was a good (though tragic) reminder to never forget to use threadlock on the setscrews that secure the front CVD shafts. |
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Final results:
1. Ronald Volker
2. Christer Andersson
3. Marc Rheinard
4. Teemu Leino XRAY T3
5. Steen Graversen
6. Marc Fisher
7. Martin Hudy XRAY T3
8. Yannic Pruemper
9. Alexander Hagberg XRAY T3
10. Freddy Sudhoff XRAY T3 |
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| Even though the team was partly unlucky in the final and was not able to repeat last yearâ™s result where Alex had TQ and finished 2nd and Teemu 3rd, the entire team was happy because car was very fast and we had not only the most cars in the final but also the most cars in the whole event. |
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