2007 Season Review – Part One

The Danish Touring Car Championship 2007 was a strong year for the series. A strong field of almost 30 cars took part in eight races which consisted of two qualifying heats and a main race. The championship came to stand between Michel Nykjær and a BMW-armada consisting of John Nielsen, Jan Magnussen and defending champion Casper Elgaard. TouringCarTimes has put together a season review and we start at the first race held at Jyllandsringen in Denmark.

1st Race
Elgaard dominates DTCC premiere

Casper Elgaard started a very strong title defence in the Danish Tourigncar Championship, when he won the opening round at Jyllandsringen. The BMW-driver won the first qualification heat, moved from eight to fifth in the second, and then dominated the finale from pole position.

In the first of the two qualification heats, which featured rolling starts for the first time in the Danish series, Casper Elgaard made one of his usual getaways to lead team mate John Nielsen by 1.7 seconds after the opening lap. After a safety car phase Elgaard was able to win the first heat before Nielsen and Jan Magnussen, the DTC Champion from 2006.

The grid for qualification heat two was equal to the result of qualification heat one except that the top eight swapped positions. Kurt Thiim started from pole position, but the man on the move was Michel Nykjær, who took his Seat Leon from third to first place within three laps. Michael Outzen also managed to get past Kurt Thiim, and he closed the gap to Michel Nykjær with the result that he had trio of Michael Outzen, Kurt Thiim and John Nielsen on tow in the last third of the race, but he still managed to win.

Casper Elgaard had the pole for the final race and could win the first round of DTCC season before the other BMW pilots John Nielsen and Jan Magnussen. Best non BMW pilot was Michael Nykjaer with his Seat Leon on fourth before Philip Andersen and Kurt Thiim.

2nd Race
Nykjaer wins after big collision

Round two of the Danish Touringcar Championship at Sturup Raceway in Southern Sweden was a very dramatic affair. Several of the leading drivers had to retire after collisions, but it did not take away the limelight of Seat Leon driver Michel Nykjær who turned out to be the big winner. In a large field of 27 cars he won the first qualification race and with sixth place in race qualification race two, he got pole position for the final, which he won.

“It ended as I had hoped and expected,” the jubilant Seat Leon driver said afterwards. Second in the final went to Team Essex driver John Nielsen in front of Michael Outzen, who earlier in the day had become the first privateer since 2002 to win a DTC race when he took the chequered flag first in qualification race two. “It has been a weekend of ups and downs, but luckily it ended well,” the BMW driver said. During qualification race one he got a penalty for hitting Honda Accord driver Martin Jensen.

The fight to become best-of-the-rest in the final was a battle between BMW driver Jason Watt and top Chevrolet man Pontus Mörth, who fought for 13 laps in the final to take fourth and fifth place during a race meeting that saw a lot of car damage. The most dramatic episode happened at the start of the final, when the Honda driver Jens Edman as well as reigning champion Casper Elgaard and 2003 title holder Jan Magnussen were eliminated barely a quarter of a mile into the race.

For Jens Edman the result in the final was an utter disappointment after having finished in second place behind Michael Outzen in the second qualification race. “The second race was just fantastic. It was a mad fight and it was great to take second place, but in the final I just raced for 200 metres, before everything went wrong. Then I became the meat in a BMW sandwich,” the Swede said.

3rd Race
BMW dominates third Round at Jyllandsringen

Before the weekend at FDM Jyllandsringen Michel Nykjær was leading the championship by a single point from John Nielsen, but the Seat Leon driver actually managed to extend that lead even though he both had races with luck and lack of it. The first heat Michael Nykjaer in his Seat was unbeatable but a collision in race two stopped him before the final race.

Casper Elgaard had qualified for pole position in the final, but he was being followed closely by Jan Magnussen, who was far more competitive than previously this year. After three laps the two BMW drivers were virtually running bumper to bumper, and midway through lap nine of the 13 lap final, they collided, when Jan Magnussen hit the side of Casper Elgaard during an overtaking attempt.

The collision meant that the two rivals swabbed places, but immediately afterwards Jan Magnussen was sentenced to go through the penalty lane, although this did not effect the positions at the front of the field. Jan Magnussen was also in the running for a win in qualification heat 2, but he never managed to find a way around Tom Pedersen. The BMW 320i E46 driver took the first DTC race win of his career and it was also the first time that a privateer could won a heat.

Race 4
Seat pilot Nykjaer flew away

Michael Nykjær extended his lead in the battle for this year’s Danish Touringcar Championship, when – following a victory in one of the two preceeding qualifying heats – he dominated the final at Padborg Park, which he won with a solid cushion to the BMW pair of Jan Magnussen and Kurt Thiim. With the result the Seat Leon driver now has a lead of 34 points, as many of the leading contenders lost out in the tyre gamble at a wet and unpredictable Padborg Park.

The Seat driver had won the first qualifying heat from Jan Magnussen and Chevrolet Lacetti driver Pontus Mörth. On the grid for the second qualifying heat the visitors saw Kasper Jensen’s Peugeot 407 on his first ever pole position. But just before the race should start, it started to rain again, and many drivers switched tyres. Some of them took some risks and lost.. One of them was Jensen because he chose slicks.
But the big winner of the gamble was Kurt Thiim. The dane could pass John Nielsen, Jan Magnussen, Michel Nykjær, Jens Møller, Michael Outzen and Jens Edman to take his first DTC race win for five years.

A lot of drivers found the wet conditions difficult. Jason Watt spun twice in his hand-controlled BMW following a good drive through the field in qualifying heat 1, while reigning champions Team Essex lacked speed. On top of this reigning champion Casper Elgaard was sent off the circuit, while John Nielsen’s sixth place was the team’s best result. But several drivers did untraditional things which gave them a bonus. Tom Pedersen thus chose to switch from rain tyres to slicks midway through qualification heat 2, and he duly got sixth position for that, finishing two places further up than Robert Schlünssen, who had started that heat from 28th position.

Among the privateers Michael Outzen did best. He took two fourths – one of which was in the final – where he scored the maximum number of points for the DTC Cup ahead of Team Sturup Raceway Seat paring of Carsten Leveau and Gunnar Kristensen.