Michel Nykjaer calls for all races to be in Salzburg following second win

Target Competition’s Michel Nykjaer bounced back from a zero score weekend last week at Monza with his second victory of the season at the Salzburgring, a track where he has a winning history in touring car racing.

The Dane took his first win in the FIA European Touring Car Cup at the circuit back in 2008, driving a Chevrolet Motorsport Denmark run Lacetti, and followed that up with a pair of victories in 2010 with SUNRED Engineering in the SEAT León TDI.

During his FIA World Touring Car Championship campaign, the Salzburgring was where one of his three career victories came in 2013, winning the infamous event which saw over half the field penalised for driving dangerously slow in qualifying, and so went on to win from pole position in the Nika Racing Chevrolet Cruze.

On Sunday, the 35-year-old put on a sterling performance in the second race to take his second win of the season, getting the jump on Igor Skuz’s WestCoast Racing Honda Civic at the start and holding off team-mate Andrea Belicchi, and later Craft-Bamboo Lukoil’s Pepe Oriola for the victory.

“I didn’t make the best start in race two, but I was in the lead at the first corner,” said Nykjaer. “Then I could see Belicchi was behind me and it was tough race, he was pushing hard but it was fair.

“After Belicchi was gone (after falling off on Markus Östreich’s Opel’s oil) I saw I had a big gap and I slowed down a little, but that maybe was a little stupid as they caught up really fast, but I still managed to get to the finish line first.”

Reflecting on his winning history at the Western Austrian circuit, the Dane added:

“In all the classes I’ve driven here I’ve won, so I think it has to be my favourite track now. If we can have 12 rounds here in Salzburg, it’d be good.”