Autosportfoto

Positives for Hansen in tough Dutch event

At the end of an event in which no-one had an easy run as mixed weather conditions made the Dutch round of the European Rallycross Championship one of the most challenging and testing of recent years, and certainly the hardest event this season, Kenneth Hansen Motorsport was able to draw positives on the speed of its drivers, even though the final results were not quite what had been expected.

"It's been one of those weekends," said team boss Kenneth Hansen, "All three drivers were quick in both the wet and dry, and I'm especially pleased with our speed in the wet conditions because we didn't have that with all of the cars all of the time before. But sometimes in motor sport the speed doesn't translate to results and this was one of those, small things turned everything round."

The team's Supercar racers, Timur Timerzyanov and Liam Doran ended the event in 11th and 15th places. Timerzyanov was unable to start the B final after a crash in the third qualifying heat.
"The crash was not the problem. The problem was that I hit a curb very hard and that broke a mounting bolt. Then the subframe [holding the front suspension and engine] broke and I went off the track," said Timerzyanov, "There was not enough time to fix it before the final so I could not go to the start. Before that my results were good and even from the B final there was a good chance to win and be in the A final."

Doran also had an off in the heats, the Englishman non-finishing the second heat. He recovered from this to qualify for the C final which he led from the start until the last lap. "The engineers have not been able to get a good look at the car yet so I don't know exactly what happened but it looks as though something in the suspension broke and allowed the right front wheel to move around. Eventually that caused the driveshaft to pull out of its joint," said Doran who was then unable to steer the car properly.
"I couldn't get round the corner and the rest just went past me. The car felt so good at the start of the race that I am sure I could get up to the front of the B final too and probably made it to the A final. I'm disappointed with that but on the whole it's not terrible and having the speed we had in the wet is a real positive."

Racing in the Super1600 class, Johan Larsson finished ninth and again improved his championship position, the Citroën C2 driver now third in the series. Larsson qualified for the C final, which he won comfortably to get into the B final. "The C final was no problem at all, everything went well and I won that. Then at the start of the B final the car was creeping forward and I was afraid that it would be a jump start so I had to dip the clutch and then the lights came on and I had a bad start," said Larsson. "I hoped for better than ninth place, but it's a little strange the way the championship is going and I am up to third place now, so that's a good thing. I know that I am fast enough to be in the A final, I just need a little bit of luck."

There is a now a three-week break before the next event in the championship which takes place at Greinbach in Austria, a track that will be new to all three Kenneth Hansen Motorsport drivers, but at which they will all, again, be able to draw on the experience and knowledge of the team.

Results Supercar
1 Sverre Isachsen (N)
2 Ludvig Hunsbedt (N)
3 Andy Scott (GB)
4 Michael De Keersmaecker (B)
5 Jean-Luc Pailler (F)
6 Mats Lysen (N)
11 Timur Timerzyanov (RUS)
15 Liam Doran (GB)

Championship SuperCar
1 Isachsen 84
2 Timerzyanov 80
3 Tanner Foust (USA) 71
4 Frode Holte (N) 67
5 Toomas Heikkinen (FIN) 67
6 Lysen 67; 7 Doran 65

Super1600
1 Andreas Bakkerud (N)
2 Jussi-Petteri Leppihalme (FIN)
3 Ulrik Linnemann (DK)
4 Julian Godfrey (GB)
5 Ildar Rakhmatullin (RUS)
6 Krzysztof Skorupski (PL)
9 Johan Larsson (S)

Championship Super 1600
1 Bakkerud 111
2 Linnemann 86
3 Larsson 61
4 Clemens Meyer (D) 58
5 Rakhmatullin 55
6 Zdenek Cermak 52

Next event: Greinbach, Austria, September 2-4