Nykjær: “It was really crazy”

The newly crowned Danish Touring Car Champion, Michel Nykjær, was baffled after securing his second DTC title this Sunday. The rain made it a rather difficult race, a mass collision in the second heat took all the title contenders out, and the third heat was make or break.

“It was by far the craziest race I’ve driven, ever,“ Nykjær explained.

“We were dominant in the rain this weekend. We were more than a second quicker than the next, every time we went out. But then something went wrong with a damaged car, and in the third heat I ended up getting it home. I have never tried anything like it. It was crazy, really crazy.”

The dominant victory in the first qualification heat meant, that the Chevrolet driver passed the points score which his absent competitor James Thompson had amassed. But still both his teammate Henrik Lundgaard and Jan Magnussen, had a chance to catch him and claim the title.

”We made quite a lot of calculations today, and when I went out to the second heat I thought that I would probably not win, even though I tailed Jan.”

But like his title competitors he ended up retiring from this race. A mass collision took out both Magnussen and Lundgaard.

“When I rolled in with a broken gearbox, and I saw Jan stationary, I thought that it was quite nice because it was my competitor in the championship. And when I rolled into the pits, I saw that Lundgaard was parked further ahead. That was good news, but now we had to get my car fixed for the third heat.”

“Because I was leading with eight points, Jan should win and I should at least be placed in fifth-sixth spot. I had to start from seventh. And Jan had to start from twelfth spot, so I had to go out and drive safe. In the middle of the third heat I was placed in fifth-sixth spot. I thought that I just had to bring it home. That was it!”