Third round of the Danish Championship was hosted by the SOS club, 50 km south of Copenhagen. The track is very technical and with a lot of tight corners and demanding jumps. The track has also different levels with a 180 degree corner that are about 10 meters above the straight. This racing day the wetter was perfect and the atmosphere was absolutely good.
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With only 5 minutes of morning practice it was very difficult to learn much. Seeing the track I did decide to have my first run with a setup that gives a lot of steering and therefore I among other things removed the front anti role bar (never tried this before but recently read about it at the forum). This meant the fastest lap time of all drivers but also a very difficult car to drive â“ especially due to the bumpy conditions. So for the first qualifying I put the anti role bar back and went from 3 to 2 degrees rear toe in â“ due to the many jumps on the track I also changed from light blue to dark blue springs in the front. My car was then much better and I made the third fastest time.
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For the second run I decided not to change any thing, because the lap times were fast but the consistency could be improved. The big double jump before the straight was really causing every driver problems, only the local guys could lap by lap to this in one â“ so I decided to take it easy and do it in two. By that I had stable lap times and the consistency giving me first spots on both round 2 and 3. The fourth run was with one mistake and a sleeping marshal.
Overall I was very satisfied with the TQ â“ but also the fact of Xray XB8 taking 3 of the first 4 positions:
After qualifying: 1. Peter Harder, XRAY XB8
2. Steffen Culmsee 3. Robert Hansen, XRAY XB8
4. Rune Gustavsen, XRAY XB8
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The semi finals were with various feelings. Personally my engine was to rich causing me to loose time and to change the fuelling strategy. Rune Gustavsen had engine problems and my father Ole Harder had to retire with a broken gas servo. But overall four Xrayâ™s made it to the final and the first four was: Tim Culmsee (Caster), Steffen Culmsee (Caster), Peter Harder (Xray) and Claus Nielsen (Xray).
For the final I changed back to 3 degrees of rear toe in, because the track was very dusty and the grip worse. The track was also getting more bumpy and I went from 4 to 5 degrees of rear camber.
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Steffen Culmsee had to retire early in the final with a broken clutching. Tim Culmsee and I had a really good battle and the lead changed several of times. Tim was running 9 minutes pit strategy and I a 7.5 minutes, but I did manage to catch up on the extra fuel stops and take the lead. Just before our last pit stop and about 36 minutes of racing I had about 3 seconds. Tim then made a mistake and broke his car. Claus Nielsen could then take his Xray XB8 to second position and third was Max Pedersen.
Final results:
1. Peter Harder, XRAY
2. Claus Nielsen, XRAY
3. Max Pedersen
4. Martin Antohony 5. Anders Thue Pedersen, XRAY
6. Steffen Culmsee
7. Tim Culmsee 8. Robert Hansen, XRAY
9. Johnny Andersen
10. Ronnie Stormly
Nice race with good results. Next week we will have round 4 of the Danish Championship and really believe that we can keep up the same Xray results!!
