Mike Halder closes in on TCR Denmark points lead with Jyllandsringen win

Mike Halder resisted title rival Kasper Jensen to win TCR Denmark Race 1 at Jyllandsringen, bringing the gap between them down to 19 points with two races to go.

TPR Motorsport driver Halder started on pole and had to hold off championship leader Jensen and other title rival Nicolai Sylvest through the first half of the opening lap.

There was barely a gap between the trio through the first five laps, but Halder then pushed to go nine tenths of a second faster than anyone else on lap six of 14 to bring his lead to over a second.

From there he had a quiet up front, although Jensen was the faster of the two in the final third of the race as Halder came to lap traffic.

“So my goal was to win and have the fastest lap,” said Halder. “At the beginning I was a little bit slow then I pushed for the fastest lap and then it was a controlled race. We will see for the next two rounds [this weekend].”

Sylvest had dropped back from the top two by the middle race and finished 8.166 seconds back in third place, meaning he has now fallen behind Halder to third in the points table, with Gustav Birch a similarly lonely fourth place in the race.

There was almost no overtaking after the opening lap, with Jacob Mathiassen finishing fifth ahead of Philip Lindberg, Anton Bergström and René Povlsen, who did make a pass on Kevin Engman for eighth place in the race’s first half.

Kenn Bach and Allan Kristensen traded places twice but both finished outside of the top ten.

Four drivers were penalised for jumping the start, with Mathiassen the highest placed of those in fifth place and Michelle Halder down in 17th receiving the heaviest penalty as he had to serve a 10s stop-go penalty in the pitlane.

Race 2, the penultimate race of the season, starts at 14:35 local time (CEST).