The 2015 DHI Cup was as always held at the Odense Congress Center in Odense, Denmark. The race was well attended in both on-road and off-road classes. Part of the XRAY European team was in presence and hoping to perform well. The track was always, fairly fast and flowing with a few bumps. The controlled tires were the LRP CPX, a tire which provides a bit less grip than the ETS Ride tire, which makes car setup tricky. Anyway, after some pre event testing back home, we felt well prepared. The off-road track was equally impressive with some challenging jump sections as well as some faster and more flat sections.
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In modified, I had a bit of a rocky qualifying (which was extremely close) which would award me the 4th spot on the grid. I knew this wasn't ideal but I suffered from a lack of feel in qualifiers and made too many small mistakes. I eventually got my setup right for the finals where I could improve my position every time after some intense driving. In both A1 and A2 I benefitted from the mistakes of two of the front runners and could finish 2nd behind Ronald, it was a shame that, when I came through to 2nd place, Ronald was already gone and I had no chance to catch back up. In the controversial A3 I was fighting with Yannic for the lead, and as I was clearly faster once again, I tried a move coming onto the straight which eventually sent him on the roof, so that I had to wait. I then fought myself back to 2nd place and was eventually awarded the win after a late penalty to one of the other drivers. I was really happy with 2nd place overall as well as with how the car handled in the finals! A decent start to the year. It was also great to see the T4 designer Martin Hudy finishing 6th overall after a solid drive!
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In the stock class, Marek Cerny was closely followed by team mate Jan Ratheisky in all qualifiers and the first two finals. Eventually Marek would drive two faultless finals to take the overall win narrowly in front of Jan. It was great to see these two drivers battle it out. A nice 3rd place finish by the fast Danish driver Mike Gosvig would round out the podium for the XRAY team.
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In 2WD off-road, Martin Bayer made the final for XRAY and eventually finished 8th overall in 2WD after some nice fighting. In 4WD, he was the pace setter in practice, narrowly missed out on TQ and then was fighting for the win in the finals, but eventually would have to settle for 2nd place overall after a nice drive. The XB4'15 once again showed its potential!
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TC Modified results:
1. Ronald Völker 2. Alexander Hagberg - XRAY T4'15
3. Freddy SĂĽdhoff
4. Yannic PrĂĽmper
5. Marc Fischer 6. Martin Hudy - XRAY T4'15
7. Martin Lissau
8. Patrick Folman
9. Viljami Kutvonen
10. Marc Rheinard
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TC Stock results:
1. Marek Cerny - XRAY T4'15
2. Jan Ratheisky - XRAY T4'15
3. Mike Gosvig - XRAY T4'15
4. Merlin Depta
5. Soren Boy Holst 6. Christoph Kirchhhefer - XRAY T4'15
7. Helge Johannessen 8. Manuel Wagner - XRAY T4'15
9. Steven M. Olsen
10. Martin Christensen
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4WD Off-road results:
1. Jörn Neumann 2. Martin Bayer - XRAY XB4'15
3. David Ronnefalk
4. Niclas M?nsson
5. Tom Maquel
6. Oskar Levin
7. Jesper Rasmussen
8. Fredrik Hovgaard
9. Kim Nielsen
10. Jonas Kaerup
