Hagberg wins opening Qualifier

The first day of action at the 2009 DHI Cup has come to a close and it is Alexander Hagberg who has taken first blood by setting the pace in the opening qualifier.  After over 12 hours of running today the final heat saw the Swedish factory Xray driver post the fastest time recording 21 laps in 307.88 seconds with local ace and former European Champion Jonas Kaerup next up just over a second adrift.

Hagberg was very pleased with his first day at the office here in Denmark and will only make a change to the setting of his LRP speedo after his batteries started to dump on the very last lap of the run.  ‘The first minute the car was a little loose but nothing too bad and after that it was very easy to drive so I will leave it the same for tomorrow.  I will make a change to the setting of my speedo because run time was on the limit.’

Kaerup, who switched to Tamiya late last season, was delighted with his run having struggled in practice.  The new found pace was down to a simple change of tyre additive on the TRF416 which transformed its handling. Tyre additive is proving a critical factor here with many of the leading drivers having to switch from their normal additive to get a decent level of traction.

Setting the third fastest time for the round, Jilles Groskamp continued to get more speed from his Tamiya.  The 2002 DHI Cup Champion said he drove a safe run but now that he has strong points in the bag he can push a little more.  Behind him was his Tamiya Racing Factory team-mate Marc Rheinard who had set the early pace for the qualifier.  The German openly admitted to making too many mistakes in the latter half of the qualifier but said his car was good.

Corally team driver Marc Fisher, who is running the new RDX Phi 2, managed the fifth fastest time ahead of fellow countryman Freddy Sudhoff’s Xray.  Fisher ran new tyres and struggled for the opening few laps as they scrubbed in but described the new car as working good.

Defend Champion Viktor Wilck suffered five traction rolls as the grip came up and ended the opening day in seventh position. Ronald Volker, Andy Moore and Teemu Leino completed the Top 10.

Modified Results after round 1
1. Alexander Hagberg – 155pts [155 0 0 (0) (0)]
2. Jonas Kaerup – 153pts [153 0 0 (0) (0)]
3. Jilles Groskamp – 152pts [152 0 0 (0) (0)]
4. Marc Rheinard – 151pts [151 0 0 (0) (0)]
5. Marc Fischer – 150pts [150 0 0 (0) (0)]
6. Freddy Südhoff – 149pts [149 0 0 (0) (0)]
7. Viktor Wilck – 148pts [148 0 0 (0) (0)]
8. Ronald Völker – 147pts [147 0 0 (0) (0)]
9. Andy Moore – 146pts [146 0 0 (0) (0)]
10. Teemu Leino – 145pts [145 0 0 (0) (0)]

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