Nykjaer picks up ‘fantastic’ result after disastrous start

SUNRED driver Michel Nykjaer picked up both of the Jay-Ten class wins and two top ten overall positions at Zolder after a disastrous start to the weekend, crashing out in qualifying.

Nykjaer had made a mistake on his first flying lap in Q1, damaging the suspension on his SEAT León TDI and had to sit out the rest of qualifying, resulting in what should have been two 20th place starts under the new qualifying format.

After the carnage on lap three, the Dane found himself in eighth place and would hold on to that position, despite close competition behind from Bamboo Engineering’s Darryl O’Young and Proteam Racing driver Javier Villa.

In race two, Nykjaer started 13th after several cars dropped out of Parc Ferme, and went on to finish in fifth, despite being chased down by a damage stricken Rob Huff in the RML Chevrolet in the closing stages.

“To start 20th and get up to 8th and P5, it couldn’t be more fantastic this weekend after our bad start,” said Nykjaer to TouringCarTimes.

“Of course we knew the Chevy was very fast, and I thought I’d do what I can to keep him behind, and defended my position.”

Nykjaer now sits in second place in the Jay-Ten Trophy for non-1.6 engined cars, one point behind team-mate Pepe Oriola, but admits the Jay-Ten Trophy is not really a true objective for him.

Nykaer’s focus is on the Yokohama Independents’ Trophy, which fellow Danish driver Kristian Poulsen currently leads with 26 points, with Nykjaer in joint second with Javier Villa on 23 points heading to the high speed Monza circuit in three weeks time.