Volker claims seventh DHI Cup win

Ronald Volker has taken his tally of wins at the famous DHI Cup to seven. The 16th running of the Danish event, Volker secured what would be his third consecutive win by taking the opening two A-Mains in Odense. Top Qualifier for the race, which marks the first international touring car race of the season, the German took A1 with ease but in A2 Awesomatix driver Viljami Kutvonen. After the strong start however Kutvonen faded a little leaving Volker celebrating the start of the 2016 season with overall victory. In A3 Kutvonen would enjoy a straight forward win over Alexander Hagberg and former winner Adrian Berntsen to secure second overall. Finishing on the same points as his team-mate Bruno Coelho, the tie breaker would leave Hagberg to complete the podium.

‘An awesome way to start the year’, was how Volker summed up his latest DHI win. First winning the event back in 2007, he said ‘In A2 Viljami was strong at the beginning and with my car a little loose in the fast corners I had to keep tight lines so as not to give him any opportunities for a pass’. With his LRP powered BD7 having the edge over the similarly powered A800 on the right side of the track, Volker said this helped him ‘break the pressure’ Kutvonen was able to apply on the left section. Thanking Yokomo and LRP, in particular his engineer Yukijiro Umino and LRP’s Ales Dobnikar, for their ongoing support the reigning ETS Champion said the win was a good boost going into Round 2 of the championship in Germany next month.

‘I’m really happy how the new car is working but today Ronald did the better job’, was Kutvonen’s reaction to finishing 2nd overall, a result he also achieved in 2014. Struggling to match Volker’s early A1 pace, the Finn said a tyre prep change for A2 worked ‘pretty good’ and he was able to run fast laps at the start. Able to pressure Volker he said ‘he didn’t make mistakes’ so I couldn’t find a way passed. Setting the fastest lap of the race, he said towards in the final part of the race his pace dropped off due to what he suspects was his rear tyres overheating. Encouraged by the run of A-Main appearances he has been able to achieve with the new A800 and looking forward to building on those results at the next ETS, he said ‘here we were losing too much time in the slow corners so we need to work on with tight corners but overall I’m really happy things are working and its a good result to start off the 2016 season’.

Having made the podium also last year at the DHI Cup, but second on that occassion, Hagberg said third ‘was the best I could do considering our pace’. The Swede said ‘the car was not brilliant for A3 but I managed to hold off Adrian (Berntsen)’. Enjoying a ‘good clean race’ with the Norwegian, the European Champion said ‘we didn’t have the pace to win this weekend and that is how it is sometimes’. He continued ‘I’m hoping for better at the ETS but I am more confident our car will be competitive on the Volante tyre’. Behind Hagberg, Coelho would mark his DHI Cup debut with 4th thanks to a pair of thirds in the opening A-Mains while Gizmo’s Berntsen would claim 5th for the new Danish company at their home event.

In the Super Stock, Tim Benson would stamp his authority on the event. Taking the TQ, the Kyosho driver drove perfect in the first two Mains to give the TF7 its first international race win. With the German able to sit out A3, last year’s winner Marek Cerny held off Xray team-mate Jan Ratheisky with the pair joining Benson on the podium in that order.

View the complete touring car event results here.

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4WD to be decided in 3rd Main as Neumann wins A2

Joern Neumann took a surprise win in A2 of 4WD Buggy at the DHI Cup, the 4-time reigning champion benefiting from a number of incidents involving A1 winner Bruno Coelho. Starting from the TQ, World Champion Coelho would get his landing wrong coming out of the back jump section on the first lap allowing Michal Orlowski to go to the front. The Schumacher driver would stay there for two laps but then as Coelho tried a move on the inside the pair made contact dropping both back down the order. This handed David Ronnefalk the lead but it would be brief, the HB driver making a mistake a few corners later at the table top with fourth place starter Neumann finding himself suddenly at the front. The Serpent driver would stay there despite a number of challenges, one of which came from Ronnefalk until a clearly faster Coelho tried a pass. Ronnefalk saying ‘I got taken out. I know I wasn’t fast but you don’t have to take someone out’. In the end it would be Martin Bayer who would come in second with Orlowski getting third ahead of Coelho, meaning A3 will decide the overall winner.

Chasing a fifth 4WD DHI Cup win, Neumann said ‘my car was much better and my lap times where much closer than before’. Having changed the diffs in his SX4 the German said it now had more forward traction and was generally easier to drive. Suffering one crash over the 5-minute when he over jumped, he admitted his rivals made more mistakes than he did and he benefited from that. Going into A3 as the current leader with a 1st & a 2nd, and much happier with his car, he said ‘I hope we have clean start’.

‘Not bad after what happened’ was how Orlowski summed up his third place referring to when Coelho made contact with him. The European Champion said his car was ‘pretty slow’ and as a result he couldn’t build up any kind of gap once he got by Coelho at the start. Planning to run new tyres in A3, the 14-year-old said he hoped this would give him better pace for the decider.

Coelho, who clearly had the quickest car on the track again setting the fastest lap, said ‘I had a bad landing on the first lap and had to open for Orlowski’. He continued ‘I then tried to overtake him on the inside and we touched. I waited but this made it difficult to go for the win’. Commenting on his contact with Ronnefalk, the Portuguese driver said ‘I was not sure if it was my fault but I waited’. After his perfect A1 performance he will be hoping he can repeat in A3 as he tried to wrap up his DHI Cup debut with the overall win.

View the complete 4wd Buggy results here.

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Orlowski adds DHI Cup win to his CV

14-year-old Michal Orlowski has added the DHI Cup to his impressive list of achievements, the Schumacher driver executing two perfect races to win 2WD Buggy at the Danish event. Taking an easy win in A1, Orlowski would again benefit from a first lap mistake by Top Qualifier Tom Cockerill in A2, and once in front the Pole was the class of the field. With Orlowski able to sit out A3, Cockerill would come good to win the leg from Niclas Månsson but it wasn’t enough for the 2014 winner to make the podium. With the Brit finishing 7th overall, it was Martin Bayer and the only multiple 2WD Champion Joern Neumann that would stand each side of Orlowski at the podium presentation.

‘Winning the DHI Cup is the perfect way to start the season’, was Orlowski’s reaction to his victory. The World Championship finalist said after a rear camber link change following the low traction condition of A1, his LRP powered KF2 SE was the best the car has been all weekend. ‘Really happy with the win’ he added ‘I have to say I got really lucky on the first lap not to hit Tom’. Once in front he said he ‘pushed to build a gap so (he) could go easy to the finish’, and that approach again ‘worked out’.

‘Starting from fifth on the grid and ending up 2nd, I’m happy with that’, was how Bayer summed up his finals. 3rd in A1 and 2nd in A2, the Xray driver said A3 was ‘crazy’. ‘I passed Joern (Neumann, who started fourth) but then everyone came together and I dropped to the back so the race was done’. Only 8th overall last year, the Czech driver said finishing on the podium was ‘a good start to the new season’.

Maintaining his run of podium finishes every year at the DHI Cup since offroad was introduced in 2012, Neumann said, ‘It is my first big race podium in a year so I’m happy’. The Serpent driver continued, ‘I’m happy to make the podium but I’m also a little disappointed as I could have got second with a clean race in A3’. He was particularly happy with his A2 race. After getting caught up in Cockerill’s crash and dropping to the back he would recover to 3rd saying ‘the car was pretty good’. In A3 the German described the race as ‘really aggressive’. In a reference to his contact with Bayer, he said ‘you can’t win the race at the second corner’. He was also unhappy with Bayer’s team-mate Bruno Coelho feeling his battle with the Portuguese driver a few laps later was ‘not a clean fight’.

‘An expert demonstration in how to throw away a TQ’ that was how Cockerill described his day. After rolling out of the lead in A1, in A2 he would get the back section wrong on the opening with his Yokomo popping a ball cup in the resulting clashes as the field streamed through. In A3 again it was not a great first lap as the No.3 starting Team Associated of Niclas Månsson jumped over the YZ-2 on the first jump of the back section after Cockerill ran too tight a line into the section and couldn’t commit to the jump. Behind the Swede, Cockerill said he waited for a mistake from the new leader and that would come just as the race reached half distance. A3 would mark a good race for Dane Jesper Rasmussen,the Associated driver going from 10th on the grid to finish 3rd which would give him fifth overall behind Månsson.

View the complete 2wd Buggy results here.

View the event image gallery here.