2020 DHI-Cup – Report
The 2020 edition of the popular DHI-Cup was hosted by the Odense RC Minirace team this past weekend. The race was held in Touring Modified, Touring Super Stock, Front Wheel Drive and Formula classes and it attracted many of Europe’s fast electric on-road racers. In the Touring Modified class, Patrick Hornum took the overall TQ and he also took a commanding win in leg 1 of the A-mains and although having a few problems with traffic in leg 2, Hornum also managed to win the second A-main for an early overall title. Florian Joos from Belgium did his best to challenge Hornum in the third and final race of the weekend – and ended up winning A3 after Hornum was off track in an incident on the deciding laps of A3. Jakub Rozycki made it through to 2nd on this occasion, while Hornum managed to cling on to 3rd. The A3 win handed Florian Joos a 2nd place overall in Modified while Jakub Rozycki took 3rd. Mike Hansen was close to Rozycki but had to stick with 4th overall ahead of Moritz Flügge.
In Touring Super Stock, a class that attracted over 50 entries, Patrick Folman managed to clear his bad start to the qualifying on Saturday and ended up with the overall TQ. The Dane got the most out of that advantage in the first leg of the Super Stock A-main after defending the lead throughout the race. A2 of Super Stock was a very entertaining bit of racing. Once again, Folman took the start, but it didn’t took long before Martin Lissau could put pressure on Folman. The battle went on, and both parties made small mistakes here and there – not handing anyone a deciding advantage. Folman ended up taking the heat win and the DHI-Cup title after some rather defensive driving on the deciding laps – not letting Lissau through. Lissau had to stick with 2nd place in the leg while Steven M. Olsen took 3rd ahead of Jesper Rasmussen in 4th. Patrick also attend A3 even though he already had won the title. This time with a different livery in honour of a longtime friend, who sadly passed away recently. Folman took the A3 win after another very entertaining duel with Martin Lissau – with Lissau ending 2nd overall. Steven M. Olsen made it to 3rd overall followed by Florian Joos and Lukas Ellerbrock.
The title race was short lived in Front Wheel Drive as Henrik Heitsch continued his strong performances right through the finals. Having won all five qualifiers and scored a solid Top Qualifier spot on Saturday, Heitsch continued his streak in the finals. Leg 1 was a solid win for Heitsch, who gained an early advantage from pole position. Initially, Steven M. Olsen followed, but a mistake proved rather costly for Olsen who lost out on 2nd place to Dennis Fadtke and ended up in 3rd. The second leg handed Heitsch the title after another strong performance. Once again, Heitsch took the advantage right from the first metres of the finals and quickly stretched out a solid lead. Fadtke was under fire from Steven M. Olsen in the deciding laps of the leg with the dane constantly gaining time. Making the move on Fadtke was, however, a completely different story. The third and final leg was won by Steven M. Olsen, but Dennis Fadtke made him work for it. Fadtke took the lead within a few corners, and from there on the German driver had to defend all the way. With about 30 seconds left on the clock, Fadtke made a small mistake, but it was enough to let Olsen through. This handed Olsen 2nd overall in FWD, while Fadtke ended up in 3rd.
Local hero Jesper Rasmussen made it to a commanding lead in the first leg of the Formula A-main, continuing the battle the local driver has had all weekend long with Kim Nielsen and Alexander Bremer. Jesper scored a good advantage early on and managed to keep it all the way to the line in the first leg. The second leg was in many ways a continuation of what happened in race 1. Jesper Rasmussen got off to a great start while Kim Nielsen lost out on an early mistake. The early setback for Nielsen brought Bremer and David Hansen into the fight for 2nd place – but out in front, Jesper had secured a lead that stood for the full five minutes. Jesper decided to also attend the third and final leg after winning the title early. Rasmussen started at the back of the grid and A3 saw an entertaining drive right through the grid by Rasmussen. Nielsen got away from what was now pole position, and Kim Nielsen never looked back. He was not really challenged, either. Meanwhile, Jesper Rasmussen drove all the way through ending in 2nd with 18 laps whereas Nielsen made it to lap 19.
Source: DHI-Cup [odense-rc.dk]
