Volker takes easy A1 win at DHI Cup
Ronald Volker claimed an easy win in the opening A-Main at the DHI Cup this morning in Denmark. The Top Qualifier and reigning champion lead from start to finish with an anticipated challenge from Awesomatix driver Viljami Kutvonen failing to materialise. In the end, after a late roll by Kutvonen, Volker’s Yokomo would win by over 4-seconds with Xray’s Bruno Coelho a distant third.
‘A good start to the day’ was how Volker summed up his win. Chasing his 3rd consecutive win at the famous Odense event, which he has won 6 times, Volker said while his LRP powered BD7 was ‘a little loose’ it was ‘the same for the entire run so it was predictable so it was not an issue’. Pushing hard at the start so as to try break away from the pack he said once he got the gap to around 1-second he was able to drive a controlled race. Coming up on a group of traffic, he said it wasnt a problem as at the same time Kutvonen had his roll so there was no pressure to force the issue with the group of battling cars, all driving being well informed of Volker’s presence by the race referee. Planning no set-up changes for A2, Volker said he will try to repeat his A1 strategy of trying to making an early break.
Summing up his race Kutvonen said it was ‘Not perfect, I lost too much time over the first minute’. Setting the fastest lap of the race as he put on a push to try make back the time but he said the gap was too much and his recovery attempts lead to his roll which lost him over 2-seconds. Looking to A2, the Finn said ‘I guess I’ll have to win the next two finals’. In terms of his A800, he said he will do his tyre prep ‘slightly different’ with a view to having better pace early in the race.
Putting a completely different set-up on his car for A1, which he said made little difference, fifth place starter Coelho said his result was only possible because Adrian Berntsen made contact with Alexander Hagberg, both having started ahead of him. The Portuguese driver is putting his lack of pace on his DHI Cup debut down to a bad set of tyres. Coelho’s team-mate Hagberg would finish 4th ahead of another of Xray’s drivers Marek Cerny. The Swede said, ‘Berntsen hit me and I flipped. And I was too slow to catch up’. After the contact Berntsen would fall to the back of the field, the Gizmo driver finishing last behind Meen Vejrak.
In Super Stock, Top Qualifier Tim Benson took an easy win with his new Kyosho TF-7. Behind the German the big battle was between Xray’s reigning champion Marek Cerny and Jan Ratheisky for second. Cerny would see off the challenge of his team-mate, finishing 1-second off the leader.
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