Danish Electric Off-road Champs Rd3 – Report

Round 3 of the Danish Electric Off-road Championship was held at the RC Kongen outdoor track last weekend. The track was laid out with both old and new carpet, making setup a bit difficult. The track is also the home track of the Douglas and Kaerup families and both showed instant speed during the practice rounds. In the 2WD class Jesper Rasmussen set the pace in Q1 in front of Frederik Hovgaard. Jesper and Frederik upped their speed in every round of qualifying with Jesper holding the upper hand. Behind the two the battle for 3rd was closed between Lasse Bak and Marcus Kærup. Just behind the top 4 it was on-road driver Mike Hansen as Jonas Kærup was showing great speed but some electronic problem in every round stopped him to make full five minute runs.

In A1 Jesper Rasmussen started from pole and already made a big gap on the first lap when Frederik was trying to holding back Lasse and Marcus who were trying to get by. Jesper was stretching the lead and Frederik got a small two second gap down to the battle for third between Marcus and Lasse. Ultimately Jesper took A1 with a 9-seconds margin on Frederik and Lasse. A2 Jesper again got a good start and Frederik came close to him but the latter got passed by Lasse on the first lap. What followed was a crazy 5-minute battle for the 2nd place between Lasse, Frederik and Marcus. Up front Jesper took it slow to bring home the win and with it the overall while Lasse came in 2nd in A2. Jesper was sitting out A3 and so the fight for the runner-up spot was on between Marcus, Lasse and Frederik. The latter took the lead after the start with Marcus and Lasse behind and was stretching the lead constantly. Christoffer Henriksen stormed to a 3rd place but hat to stock due to transmission problems. Marcus also ran into trouble following some mistakes as Lasse and Mike came in 2nd and 3rd. Ultimately it was Frederik with the win from Lasse and Mike meaning Frederik would grab the runner-up spot from Lasse in 3rd.

2WD Buggy top 5 results:
1. Jesper Rasmussen
2. Frederik Hovgaard
3. Lasse Bak
4. Mike Hansen
5. Marcus Kærup

The 4WD qualifying was close if looking on one lap but it was hard to drive and push hard over the whole five minutes. Jesper Rasmussen took Q1 and Q2 for the overall but losing power in Q3 meant Marcus was taking the last round to line up in 2nd for finals behind Jesper.

For the finals Jesper lined up on pole in front of Marcus and Frederik and in A1 the TQ holder would lead for about two minutes until he hit a pipe and lost the lead to Frederik. The two then had a nice battle for the lead that was decided when Frederik got a little bit wide on the corner jump so Jesper went inside to take lead again, taking the win in A1 in front of Frederik and Lasse. In A2 Jesper was building a fine gap between him and Frederik who was battling with Marcus until Rasmussen went flying after hitting an overlapping piece of carpet, losing the lead to Frederik and Marcus. In the closing stages Jesper was able to get past Marcus but the time was running out and so Frederik took the win from a storming Jesper in 2nd meaning the decision for the overall win would be made in A3. In the final leg Jesper was pushing 100 percent right from the start while behind him Lasse moved to 2nd in front of Marcus while a mishap of Frederik send him almost dead last. Later Marcus came back to and while up front Jesper was pushing hard. Further down the field Frederik moved up to 4th again and eventually took P3 following a mistake of Lasse. In the end Jesper would bring home the win and with the the overall from Frderik 2nd and Marcus 3rd.

4WD Buggy top 5 results:
1. Jesper Rasmussen
2. Frederik Hovgaard
3. Marcus Kærup
4. Lasse Bak
5. Christoffer Henriksen

The Truck class qualifiers saw a close battle between local Kim Boelslund and Ulrich Rasmussen with newcomer Søren Hempel splitting the two after the qualifiers. In the finals Kim was pushing hard to get past Ulrich and in the end it would work out as Kim took win in A1 and A2 for the overall as the decision for the runner-up spot was made in A3 when Søren took the win, leaving Ulrich Rasmussen behind in 3rd place.

Truck top 5 result:
1. Kim Boelslund
2. Søren Hempel
3. Ulrich Rasmussen
4. Per Eriksen
5. Erik Pedersen

Thanks to Jesper Rasmussen for the report. Images: Jens Otto Frederiksen