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| Race report by Martin Hudy & Alex Hagberg |
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| As with every year, 2011 started with the DHI Cup which is one of the most popular carpet races in Europe. It was shame to find out that this would be the last ever race. Team XRAY was again well represented by itâ™s world-class team of drivers including Juraj and Martin Hudy, Alex Hagberg, Teemu Leino, Adrian Bernsten and other top drivers from Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Germany in both Modified and Stock classes. It was great to hear that once again XRAY was the most used car of the event in both classes. In total, XRAY cars were used by almost 30% of drivers. |
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| The race started on Friday with six rounds of practice and one round of qualifiers. The remaining 5 rounds of qualifying were held on Saturday and the finals were held on Sunday. The organization decided to change the rules this year, so only 9 drivers went directly into the A final but two other drivers had a chance to bump up from the B main. This meant a total of 11 drivers in the A final. This rule was a very good idea mainly because the B final was much more interesting that it used to be. |
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| XRAY drivers were once again in the top spots right from the beginning. In Stock class, Stefen Leinburger and Toni Streit were the front runners from first practice to last qualifier. Stefen won two rounds of qualifiers and Toni won one run. The biggest surprise of the Stock class was Juraj Hudy who drive in the DHI Cup Stock class for the first time. He did well and qualified in 5th place. Even given his⦠maturity⦠Juraj (who is 50+) lead for the first minute in more than 3 qualifiers! This proved that the car was working very well in the hands of an "old guy" competing against âśyoungsters.âť Another bit of proof that the T3â™011 was working well was that XRAY had 7 cars in the A final. |
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Stock class â“ after qualifiers:
1. Martin Lissau
2. SteffenLeinburger XRAY T3 2011
3. Tony Streit XRAY T3 2011
4. Carsten Madsen
5. Juraj Hudy XRAY T3 2011
6. S?ren Boy Holst
7. Lasse Ilvessalo XRAY T3 2011
8. Nicolai Nielsen XRAY T3 2011
9. Morten Iversen XRAY T3 2011
German driver Daniel Horn â“ who qualified 10th â“ had to fight for the A main in the B final. However, he showed that he deserved to be in the A main by winning the B main and bumping up. |
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| The finals were very interesting to watch because in Stock class, one small mistake cost a lot and so everyone was trying to drive as safety as possible. Therefore, there were no big changes in the result after the finals. Martin Lissau showed that as World Champion, he knows how to drive calm and without mistakes. The biggest move in A final was made by Daniel Horn who finished in overall 5th position |
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| Final results - Stock: |
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1. Martin Lissau
2. Steffen Leinburger XRAY T3 2011
3. Tony Streit XRAY T3 2011
4. Juraj Hudy XRAY T3 2011
5. Daniel Horn. XRAY T3 2011
6. Carsten Madsen
7. S?ren Boy Holst
8. Nicolai Nielsen XRAY T3 2011
9. Henrik Heitsch
10. Morten Iversen XRAY T3 2011
11. Lasse Ilvessalo XRAY T3 2011 |
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XRAY cars were working well in the Modified class as well, but there was very tough competition and small mistakes pushed many XRAY drivers back into the B main. The only one who was super fast and making almost no mistakes was Alex. Alex improved from one round to another which led to him winning the last round of qualifiers.
Success in the B main was very important because we still had a chance to add two more cars into the A main:
11. Adrian Bernsten
12. Magnus Vassmar
13. Martin Hudy
15. Teemu Leino |
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| These drivers were still in the game! With only two spots left, we grabbed one when Magnus Vassmar drove superbly in all 3 finals and was able to bump up into his first ever DHI Cup A final. Adrian was one of the fastest drivers in the B main but luck was not on his side. He lost 3rd place in the first final after a minor contact with Teemu; in the second final he drove only ? lap because he mistakenly installed discharged batteries. So even though he dominated the third final, he did not bump up. Martin was on the same pace as Teemu. Before the last B final, both of them still had a chance to bump up, but both of them made mistakes which put them out of the final. |
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| Alex Hagbergâ™s report: |
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| I had prepared for the last ever DHI CUP as always by testing a lot of testing on various tracks using the LRP CPX control tires. I was confident that I had found a fairly good starting set-up even though testing was difficult since track conditions are never the same as at the actual race. |
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| When we arrived at the track it was a slightly more technical layout than previous years. Throughout the first practice rounds I struggled to find overall traction in the car, but when traction came up I quickly found myself on pace with top runners Christer and Ronald. The first qualifier was rather disastrous as I made a couple of mistakes which cost me a Top 5 finish. For the next day I had to get myself together to complete some good runs. I gradually improved my results to finally take TQ in the last qualifier and qualify 3rd overall. The most significant set-up changes that I made in qualifying were to go to slightly harder with the front shock oil, which helped by giving more turn-in. The other change was to raise the roll center under all suspension mountings by 0.4mm to reduce chassis roll. Both changes improved the car; now being both fast and easier handling, I had great confidence going into the finals. |
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| The first final proved to be rather uneventful as Ronald drove perfectly without mistakes and he took the win. I drove the entire race behind Christer trying to pass (or wait for his mistake) but it never happened and I was frustrated by not being able to pass him. The second final started off very similar to the first one, however this time Ronaldâ™s held only a small advantage. I was very close to catching Christer on the second to last lap, but once again was unlucky not to get through as we came together in the chicane. I had to wait for the third and last main to hope to beat him. As we came off the starting grid we immediately pulled away from the pack, as Ronald had decided to sit out this main. After a couple of minutes into the final, Christer made a mistake after the straight which sent his car off the track. I found myself in a big lead and could cruise to victory, thus winning the runner-up spot for the last ever DHI Cup. I was quite pleased with the performance, even though I had hoped for a win, of course. |
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| Final results - Mod: |
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1. Ronald Völker
2. Alexander Hagberg XRAY T3 2011
3. Christer Andersson
4. Steen Graversen
5. Christopher Krapp
6. Marc Fischer
7. Loic Jasmin
8. Viljami Kutvonen
9. Magnus Vässmar XRAY T3 2011
10. Lucas Urbain
11. Juho Levanen
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| In the end we were very happy with the results even though we did not win any class. However we had seven cars in the Stock A final, and Alex finished very well in 2nd place which proved that the car works very well. Most importantly, we dominated the event by having the most cars in both classes. |
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