Thompson and Poulsen to ETC Cup

The Danish Hartmann Honda team today confirmed both James Thompson and Per Poulsen for the ETC Cup in Portugal. Thompson is aiming to take home the crown to England.

James Thompson won most of the DTC finale heats this year but lost the championship to Michel Nykjær in the last round where the Brit was absent.

“I don’t know how other people rate our chances in the race, but I would like to think that we are among the favourites. I certainly hope so. We have no fear for the competition, and we have the advantage that we are bringing two cars.

We need to exploit that in the qualification, where you need to use slipstreaming on the 900 meter long straight with the hammer down,” said team boss Hans Hartmann.

Neither Thompson nor Poulsen has ever been on the track before, but Hartmann doesn’t regard that as a problem.

“We all saw what James could do last year, where he on his first day ever on Jyllandsringen managed to set the fastest time, so he should be able to cope with this track as well.

Per will get the challenge of his life, but I believe that he will grow with the task at hand. He will get thrown out at the deep end, and then we have to see what he can do. He might get a shock, but usually that only makes you stronger.”

The ETC title has been won two years in succession by the newly crowned DTC champion, Michel Nykjær. But that doesn’t seem to put the Danish Honda team off.

“The goal is to help James take the title,” Poulsen explained. “That is my job, and after that I just have to do my best. I think that we have the team needed to do so, so the only thing which can fail is me.

We have got the right people, and an optimistic bet would that I would be content making it into top five. But I will do anything I can to hang onto James. He must be the biggest favourite, even though I know that Michel Nykjær has won it the last two years.”