Third Danish NASCAR race sunday 25th. April 2004

The third NASCAR race of the season was run at the Hilleroed Mini Race track. A fairly varied layout with interesting corners and a good straight, it is 40 meters long, so not exactly a short track. However the track is very narrow and very bumpy as it is made of Ninco track pieces, the track with is so close that the NASCARs rarly goes thru a corner without exchanging paint!!. The NASCARS race closely and it is a very lifelike rough and tumble type of racing.

18 drivers turned up for the race, slightly down on the last two races but still a very good turn out. The top guys where there, as well as the winner of the last race, Martin Borch. During practise Martin Borch did very fast and consistent lapping, thoug the locals proclaimed him to be around 0,8 secs off the pace!!!! Quite a bit of phsyking going on here;-) But again Martin Borch looked to be among the favorites along with Kenny Winther, Michael Sivertsen, Henrik Hasager and Pål Hanson.

All heats where to be 4 min. per lane affairs, 1 min. between stints.

It was quite evident from the start that Martin Borch had a very well set up car, using a PlaFit chassis. Martin Borch started in the third heat, due to a computer glitch qualifying was suspended and the heats made on the basis of the championship standings. So in the third heat Martin proceded to drive rings around the others, and ended on 77 laps, with a fastest lap of 11,817. At this point in the race no one seemed to stand a chance of beating Martin.

The real humdinger came during the last heat. This heat consisted of Michael Sivertsen, one of the local club members, Lars Beneke fast but wayward, Pål Hanson and championship leader Kenny Winther. Kenny Winther however was to bee docked 5 laps penalty for bad marshalling after the race, and unknown to him had something to prove.

The first stint was a close run thing with Kenny, Michael and Pål on the same lap. All doing a respectable 19 laps. Next stint was a real crasher, and all three leaders seemed to loose sight of Martin Borchs 77 laps. However Kenny again did a good job of finishing first. Pål Hanson lost concentration, and a few laps, so winning was now quite out of the question!! Third stint saw very fast driving by Pål Hanson, setting the fastest lap of the day with 11,716 secs and docking a cool 20 laps. So the racing was on again. Then came the last stint and again Pål took the lead, taking the lead to around 6 seconds from Michael and Kenny. However, mid way thru the stint Pål encountered some bad luck, deslotting at a very hard to get at point, and thereafter loosing all chanses of another good result, loosing several laps in the process of being put back on track.

So eventual winner was Martin Borch. No big surprise regarding the winner. But it seems as though Henrik Hasager has finally gotten his act together ending the race in second spot after a respectable and stable drive. Earlier this year he had difficulty in concentrating thru a whole race!! Michael Sivertsen ended up third, and as one of the locals he even should have been higher. Fourth spot went to Pål Hanson thanks to the Race Directors, for Kenny Winther who actually drove 77 laps was docked 5 laps penalty for leaving his marshals post to watch the start of the Imola Grand Prix. A bad choice for him!

However the championship is still a very open affair with Pål Hanson and Kenny Winther in the lead with only 5 points separating the two. Also one should remember that Martin Borch is still fairly far down the championship standings only because he did not race at the first race! So watch out, Martin Borch will keep pushing Kenny ét ál!

The complete result of the third Danish NASCAR race is.:

1. #8 Martin Borch 77 laps (PlaFit)– Fastest lap 11,814
2. #30 Henrik Hasager 73 laps (Motor Modern) – Fastest lap 12,160
3. #18 Michael Sivertsen 73 laps (Motor Modern) – Fastest lap 12,042
4. #24 Pål Hanson 72 laps (Motor Modern) – Fastest overall lap: 11,718
5. #31 Kenny Winher 72 laps (PlaFit) (77 laps –5 lap penalty = 72 laps)-Fastest lap 11,986
6. #28 Rolf Næhr 71 laps (PlaFit)
7. #3 Mads Sørensen 70 laps (Motor Modern)
8. #93 Henrik Kristiansen 69 laps (PlaFit)
9. #1 Lars Englund 68 laps (PlaFit)
10. #40 Christian Høfler 67 laps (PlaFit)
11. #90 Kai Bach Andersen 65 laps (PlaFit)
12. #15 Jens Peter 64 laps (Motor Modern)
13. #45 Gorm Nørregaard 64 laps (PlaFit)
14. #29 John „Mc“ Larsen 63 laps (Motor Modern)
15. #38 Keld Høfler 62 laps (PlaFit)
16. #71 Per Sejer 60 laps (Motor Modern)
17. #Lars Beneke 58 laps (Motor Modern)
18. #Morten Hinsch 46 laps (PlaFit)

The complete championship standings with pictures will be posted soon!!

I got my body from the painter friday evening, decided not to participate in the race.
Sunday morning I changed the descision, and started to assemble the chassis, paint the driver and put it all together.
I showed up, only 5 mins. to late, with a pretty wet car.
My #90 Taurus was (still is) about 10mm to tall, 4 pieces of 16,5mm wheels and my guide almost didn't reach down the slot.
I finished as no. 11, which I concider pretty good for a newbie.
The next un-official race was held on my hometrack, and I did a little bit of practice before
...then I finished first, still holding the tallest Nascar in the state of Denmark

This story was written only to tell that I really got into 1:24, and hope to discover some more about setup an so, on this fora.

Regards,
Kai, Denmark.