10 June 2001

Jyllands-Ringen - Danish Touring Car Challenge Round 3

Close but no cigar for the Danish boys in round three of this year's Touring Car Challenge although there was much to cheer about at Jyllands Ringen. Casper Elgaard raised everyone's hopes with a sensational second place in qualifying behind ex Stewart Grand Prix star Jan Magnussen. ”Unlike Jan I am carrying 25 kgs of ballast, and that of course has some effect, but I still believe that I could have been closer to him,” Casper said. “Unfortunately I did the mistake to pit to late for new tyres, as I would have needed another two laps to get them up to perfect working temperature.” The rest of the team were close behind - Gunnar Kristensen in 4th, Kent Bo Lauridsen in 5th and Carsten Leveau in 10th.

Casper took 2nd place in the sprint race with Kent Bo in 5th, Gunnar 8th and Carsten 12th. The feature race saw a broken water line force Casper into retirement but Kent Bo took over the challenge and came home an impressive 2nd whilst also taking the fastest lap. Gunnar finished in 8th with Carsten Leveau in 13th.

Mads Leveau (Saxo cup) found his best form of the year so far after qualifying a lowly 15th for the first race. He qualified 6th for the second race then whizzed through the field to take 7th in the opener and a superb 4th in the second.
Dennis Holbaek Pedersen (Formula Ford) qualified 14th and took the same position in the first race before moving up two places to 12th in the second.

V-Sports - Snetterton

Conditions that can best be described as changeable greeted the drivers at Snetterton. Team Brask's flying Finn Miku Santavirta set a blinding pace in qualifying - nearly two seconds faster than his nearest rival. Any promise of a win evaporated when Miku's car suffered a sticking throttle as he joined the circuit for the formation lap of the first race but some skillful driving got the car home in third place. Rob Fountain in the other Team Brask car put a wheel on the grass and was forced to retire. In the second race Miku was victim of an accidental hit from behind by Peter Falding as the two cars entered the Esses. The team were able to remove the rubbing bodywork in a speedy pit stop and Miku rejoined the race. Any chance of a recovery was short lived as he went off the circuit at Riches to join Rob Fountain in retirement.