09 season is go as DHI gets underway

It’s only the second week of 2009 but already the best drivers in the World are back down to the serious business of racing as the DHI Cup here in Denmark once again gets another new season of international Electric Touring car action underway.  Race organiser Kim Moldt Bendiksen and his team have again put together a great racing facility at the Odense Congress Center which is hosting the event for the second time.

Heading the 207 strong entry for the 8th edition of the DHI Cup is defending Champion Viktor Wilck who following a recent snowboarding accident is sporting a bandaged left hand, but the Tamiya Racing Factory driver’s throttle finger remains functional. Wilck’s biggest challenger is sure to be his own team-mate and newly crowned World Champion Marc Rheinard.  Unfortunately the DHI’s most successful driver Atsushi Hara, winner in 2004 and 2005, is absent from the entry list but former Champions Jilles Groskamp (2002),  Juho Levanen (2003), Rheinard (2006) and Ronald Volker (2007) are all here along with all the other big names in the sport including former World Champion Andy Moore.

In the Pro Stock class we are without defending Champion Jimmy Maddison but we still have a quality line-up with German Christoph Thiele, the Top Qualifier here last year, heading the entry.

Drivers have just completed their first of four free practice runs scheduled for today however new carpet made it a fluffy affair but the organisers have been out with the vacuum cleaners which should now allow drivers to start laying down some decent times in preparation for the first qualifier later this evening.  As a result of the track cleaning things are now running approximately 15 minutes behind.

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