Nielsen tips Magnussen as champion

The fight for the Danish Touring Car Championship is heating up to a frenzy. Sunday the series will drive the last race of the season. The fight is close with only 14 points separating first to third in the championship, and 60 points in total to fight for in the three heats. Veteran DTC driver and Le Mans winner, John Nielsen, has decided on his favourite for the title.

Nielsen drove most of the season for the Team Telesikring team, before retiring from the season after round 5, which was GP Danmark at FDM Jyllandsringen. But he is a keen observer of the series, and he has made his mind up.

James Thompson is leading the championship with 239 points, but he is absent due to driving obligations in Australia. Chevrolet teammates Michel Nykjær and Henrik Lundgaard are following, with 232 point for Nykjær, and Lundgaard tailing only 2 points on.

However rules apply that a driver can only rate the points from the best 16 of the 21 races in the 2009 season. Underlining that it is not all the points achieved in the last three races in the upcoming seasonclosing round which goes into the championship fight. Of the last three races, only the finale is going directly to the driver’s championship.

The crash between the two Chevrolet teammates in the last round at Ring Djursland has put a serious dent into the Perfection Racing championship fight, which allowed reigning champion Jan Magnussen back into the fight with now 225 points. On that basis, Nielsen is not hesitant to point out his favourite.

“It will be Jan Magnussen, “Nielsen explains. “He is too strong for the opposition. Chevrolet made a fool of themselves in the last round with their crash. I find it hard to believe, that they haven’t decided internally how to go for the title, and now they are paying the price.”

“Jan has a race craft non plus ultra, and he is helped by the fact that he drives so many races, both domestic and abroad. The Ree Sport team has been working so hard with their bio ethanol fuel, and they developed it through the season. And now Jan is harvesting the results.”

The independents Cup is lead by Hartmann Honda driver Per Poulsen with 285 points, followed by FDM Motorsport driver Jens Møller with 263 points. Poulsen is driving under an appeal, after he was sentenced a penalty of six places back on the grid at the next qualification session. The appeal was planned to be tried Tuesday this week, but the meeting was inexplicably called of.

“Per Poulsen will take the honours, I have no doubts about that. You might say that Møller is a genuine privateer, but Poulsen is consistently the faster of the two. We still have the penalty and the following appeal, but unless something unforeseen happens, Poulsen will take the title.”

“The race will be exciting as always; I will look forward to follow it. But Jan and Per will lift the trophy in the end!”