Unpredictable DTC season to start

There is no doubt among the drivers in the Danish Touringcar Championship. When the opening round is held next Sunday on May 6th, it will mark the start of one of the most unpredictable seasons ever. A cocktail of rulebook modifications, new cars and new drivers indicate that 2007 will as well an unpredictable and very even year.

”At least 5 or 6 drivers can win races. I don’t know whether there will be just as many candidates for the championship, but I believe my chances of taking the 2007 title are just as great as in previous season,” Casper Elgaard says. And the reigning champion feels comfortable that he will be making it four in a row.

“The only difference will by the margin of points by which I take title, and this year I will be winning by at least ten points,” he concludes.

Last year Jan Magnussen was the driver he beat. The margin was then three points, and the former Grand Prix driver also predicts a close fight this year.

“It will be the toughest year ever. I believe we will be getting a very close championship, as various tests indicate that the whole field is lapping faster than last year,” Jan Magnussen says. “A lot more drivers will be mixing it at the front and win races throughout the season, but when the season nears its end, I still feel it will be a two-way-fight like last year. But 2007 will be the hardest season yet in the series.”

In comparison to last year the rules and regulations of the Danish Touringcar Championship have undergone a number of adjustments. The Super Pole qualification format returns. The previous pre-final has been replaced by the qualifications heats, where the combined results will determine the starting order for the final. The tyre and weight regulations have also been modified, while the two qualification heats will be having rolling starts with the final retaining its standing start.

“The rolling starts will make it much more even, because all the cars will be reaching the first corner at the same speed,” Seat Leon driver Michel Nykjær gauges. “Combined with the other modifications I think this will lead to a very exciting season, where things will be much more even.”

The entry list has also undergone a number of modifications. A lot of drivers have swabbed either car, team or both, while new entries have appeared. One of those is Chevrolet.

”It is a completely new combination, but I do believe that we have the right potential,” 2000 European Rally Champion Henrik Lundgaard says.

”We do have quite a good car over a single laps, and we are now working on improving it over the distance, and that is the tricky part, because you can only properly learn it through the races. But we have a strategy about how to do things, and if we succeed in it, we will be competitive.”

The former series runner-up predicts that 2007 will be a tough season.

”The competition gets tougher and tougher all the time, but we will also see a number of new drivers,” Henrik Lundgaard says. ”Clio Cup winner Kasper Jensen is moving up, while Tom Pedersen and Jason Watt will be getting better material than previous, so the competition will be tough.”