The Grid.co.uk    the national & club motor racing website - est1998          

  ^News

Continued from News 

 mail your news to editorthegrid@yahoo.co.uk   

James Thompson extends championship lead

The Honda driver won two out of three races at Padborg Park

James Thompson extended his lead in the Danish Touringcar Championship with wins from two of the three races held at Padborg Park on Sunday. The Brit had been fastest in practice in his Honda Accord Euro-R, and he nearly got maximum points from the weekend by winning the first race, progressing from eighth to second in the second race and then winning the final.

The first race was marred by a number of start collisions. When the field started braking for the lefthander after the straight, a chain of collisions started from the rear of the field. Per Poulsen, arup, was hit from behind and duly ended up crashing into John Nielsen, Randers, who sent Henrik Lundgaard, Hedensted, into a slide, the former European Rally Champion's Chevrolet Lacetti ramming Jason Watt, Herlev, and eliminating him.

At first Jason Watt seemed to be the only casualty, but in the next corner John Nielsen got sent into a spin, and he was collected by former champion Michael Carlsen, Vissenbjerg, who was also hit from behind by Kim Morgan, Vrå. After a safety car period to clear up the mess the re-start saw James Thompson leading from Michel Nykjær, Næstved, and Henrik Lundgaard, who ended up having a race-long battle for second place, while former Lister LMP1 driver Jens Møller claimed fourth.

Due to the high number of casualties and the reserve grid for race two, Tom Pedersen was to give Mercedes its first pole position for a DTC race, after having also been involved in a race one collision that had damaged his car. The Mercedes driver managed to lead the second race from Joachim Stephansen, Sønder Omme, but the BMW driver soon lost his place to Henrik Lundgaard, who then started to put pressure on Tom Pedersen. The Mercedes wasn't the fastest car in the field, and little by little a train of cars was cueing behind it. On lap seven a mere 3.2 second separated Martin Jensen, Albertslund, in ninth place from Tom Pedersen in the lead, as the Mercedes driver didn't put a foot wrong and Henrik Lundgaard couldn't find a way past him.

However, just when the win seemed to be within reach, a linkage to the gearbox broke with two-and-half lap to go, so Tom Pedersen coasted to the side, and instead Henrik Lundgaard could take the race win from James Thompson with Michel Nykjær in third.

For the final James Thompson and Henrik Lundgaard started on the front row, but on the sprint to the first corner there was a slight contact between their cars. While Henrik Lundgaard suffered a puncture from this, James Thompson could continue despite his right rear wheel having lost a 5 inch piece of the rim.

The Brit was clearly the fastest driver and built up a small cushion to Michel Nykjær in third, while Jens Møller was holding third place. After his retirement from race one former Formula 3000 race winner Jason Watt had moved his way up through the field, and he was now putting pressure on Jens Møller. Even though the SEAT Leon pair negated several corners side by side, the privateer managed to take the third and last spot on the rostrum.

Thompson and Poulsen claims first 1-2 win for Honda

The Japanese cars dominated the final of the third DTC round

James Thompson managed to maintain his points lead in the Danish Touringcar Championship, when he won the prestigious final at Jyllandsringen for the second time in succession where his main opponent turned out to be team-mate Per Poulsen, driving a similar Honda Accord.

The opening race, however, had been dominated by pole man Michel Nykjær, whom nobody was able to match. The reigning Euro Cup winner managed to open up a minor gap, which proved to be sufficient, as James Thompson and Jan Magnussen battle for second behind him with Per Poulsen in fourth place waiting to get the opportunity to challenge the pair.

The first race, however, had two safety car periods. The first time the safety car came out was immediately after the start, when John Nielsen went off in a big way, the veteran putting his BMW hard into the tyre barriers and having to go to hospital to get a medial check up afterwards. The second safety car episode appeared when Joachim Stephansen and Casper Elgaard tangled in their battle for eight position and eventual pole position for race two.

Instead Kasper Jensen started that race from the top grid slot, but unfortunately he ran wide at the first corner, handing over the lead to Chevrolet's Henrik Lundgaard, who did a virtual copy of his team mate's run-away win from race one. Second place was fought out between former champion Jason Watt and series returnee Per Poulsen, and it was the latter who managed to take the runner-up spot, while James Thompson and Jan Magnussen once again battled, this time for fourth position.

Having finished the two qualification heats as fourth and second, Per Poulsen had qualified himself for his first ever DTC pole position for the final, where he had to start with Jan Magnussen alongside him. However, the latter made one of the most obvious jump starts, as when the safety car pulled away, his car was more than half a car's length in front of that of Per Poulsen.

"I tried to back off, but it wasn't enough. The stewards should really have made a re-start," Jan Magnussen said after having been handed a stop-and-go penalty, eventually dropping out of the race all together.

Instead privateer Per Poulsen was leading the race from James Thompson and Henrik Lundgaard, but soon the Brit was putting pressure on his team mate, and at the beginning of lap 4 James Thompson moved by and soon built up minor cushion, while Per Poulsen had to fight to keep Henrik Lundgaard at bay.

"I had not expected to win here," James Thompson said. "I have to say that it was a tough weekend. We struggled a bit in qualifying. We broke the power steering and had a few little problems in the race. I broke the anti roll bar blade in the first race and in the second one the car was not so good, so it was a bit of a roller coaster ride and then in the third race the car was fantastic, so I had a good dice with Per. He has really been fast over the weekend."

Per Poulsen was over the moon with his second place finish.

"This is the best experience I have ever had in motor racing," the former Renault Clio champion said. "The last hundred metres or so towards the chequered flag were just great, and I think I even managed to scream something over the intercom, as it was such a release."

Chevrolet take three wins in DTC opening weekend

Michel Nykjær and Henrik Lundgaard now lead the championship

Chevrolet Motorsport Danmark claimed three wins from three races, when the 2009 Danish Touringcar Championship kicked off at Jyllandsringen on Sunday. Former DTC champion and reigning Euro Cup winner Michel Nykjær won the first qualification heat as well as the final, and with team mate Henrik Lundgaard taking a win in the second heat, the pair now lies first and second overall with James Thompson in third place following the Brit's and the Hartmann Honda Racing's best performance at the circuit.

Michel Nykjær had qualified on pole position and in the opening race he swiftly managed to build up a cushion to the drivers behind him as they were involved in a tough battle for most of the race. Having claimed a starting position on the outside of the front row James Thompson ran almost a third of the opening lap side by side with Henrik Lundgaard before eventually gaining the upper hand. Soon ex-champions Jason Watt and Jan Magnussen caught up with the pair, and the quartet circulated with little less than 1.5 second separating them until the end.

Driving a Seat Leon for the first time Jens Møller finished as top privateer in eight place overall, and he thus got pole position for the reversed grid of race two -- a race he led until midway through lap five, when series returnee John Nielsen tried an overtaking manoeuvre on him, eliminating them both.

This promoted Henrik Lundgaard to the lead, and even though the former European Rally Championship initially was under pressure from Jan Magnussen, he managed to pull out a small gap. Behind them, however, a great battle was going on between James Thompson and Michel Nykjær for third place. For three laps the Brit managed to hold of the Chevrolet driver, but on the start of the eighth lap Michel Nykjær made one of his trade mark late braking manoeuvres at the end of the straight to claim third place. Behind them Per Poulsen and Jason Watt had a tough battle for fifth place -- a battle seeing the Honda driver being pushed sideways and Jason Watt given a penalty for the offence.

The final was an all Chevrolet front row, but from third on the grid James Thompson managed to squeeze inside Henrik Lundgaard so that he could put pressure on Michel Nykjær. Instead Henrik Lundgaard had his mirrors full of Jan Magnussen, but no matter what the reigning champion did, he could find a way past and get on the podium. At the front Michel Nykjær managed to open up a gap to James Thompson, who could catch up, but the Brit nevertheless claimed the first top three positions from himself and the Honda team at the Jyllandsringen. In the final Jens Møller managed to battle his way past Per Poulsen to claim privateer honours.