The expectations for a dramatic race were met to a very high level, when the fourth section of the Porsche Esport Carrera Cup Denmark was held at Daytona International Speedway.

Be fast – and smart

Daytona International Speedway laid virtual asphalt for the fourth division of the 2021/2022 season of the Porsche Esport Carrera Cup Denmark. And the expectations for a wild race were so absolutely met – but without moving around to the top of the championship position. 

“The special thing about Daytona is that three quarters of the course is an oval course with full throttle, which provides extreme opportunities for slipstreaming – that is, utilizing the hole in the air to catch up with your competitors. It can be a disadvantage to be at the forefront, which means your tactics need to be different than usual. It’s actually more about being smart than being fast, ”said racing driver Mikkel Jensen, who together with motorsport commentator Jens Winther formed the expert team in the live studio at TV 2 SPORT. Shortly before the race the Daytona track was given a number of updates through the iRacing platform.

 “It simply came to our notice then. The updates are due to the fact that the physical Daytona track has just been updated as a prelude to the 24-hour race later this month. Such changes at the last minute only add up to even more excitement, and perhaps some of the drivers we do not normally see at the top can suddenly make an impact, ” said Mikkel Jensen. And he was right.

Race 1

After an exciting qualification, where the three fastest in the championship position failed to place in the front – Mikkel Gade (FYRA SimSport) could just squeeze into a fourth place, while the championship leader Lasse Bak (Team Flexlease.nu by FYRA) had to settle for a 14th place and Martin Christensen (Team Flexlease.nu by FYRA) an eighth place – it was instead Lucas Daugaard (VG Racing Apex Academy) and Marcus Jensen (P1 Esport) who secured the front row for the first race at Daytona. Daugaard had a challenging start. Mikkel Gade took second place even before the first turn. Already in the second round of the race, drama arose when Malte Ebdrup (P1 Esport) spun around and created a traffic jam with a number of crashes as a result. 

While especially Marcus Jensen, Lasse Daugaard and Mikkel Gade fought hard for the lead, they generally went for it further down the field. Bastian Buus (Porsche Denmark Esport), for example, was flying and had moved up from a 13th place to a second place in the second half of the race, when he had to collect a penalty for hitting a competitor. In the meantime, both Lasse Bak and Martin Christensen had reached the very top of the field, and Bak was briefly leading on the last lap, but a cunning Lasse Daugaard still managed to slipstream to an incredibly close victory. Thus, Daugaard won the race with just 0.004 seconds ahead of Lasse Bak, while Martin Christensen, who secured the fastest lap time of the race, finished in third place – only 0.013 seconds behind the winner.

Race 2

As the top 10 places on the starting grid in the department’s second race are traditionally lined up in reverse order based on the first race result, it was teammates Louie Stockfleth and Michael Pedersen (Global Car Leasing) and Rasmus Busk (Odense Gokart Hal), who had to start P1, P2 and P3. Already in the first turn there was a change of positions, when Kevin Nielsen (FYRA SimSport) snatched the lead, Mikkel Gade was also flying and took second place on the way into the second round – and secured the lead in the third. Martin Christensen, however, had to walk through the pit as a penalty for hitting a competitor.

Things went better for teammate Lasse Bak, who in the ninth lap had achieved having exchanged his ninth place on the starting grid for a lead in the race. It was again incredibly close – only 0.6 seconds between the first five cars in the 10th lap – and some drivers also escaped the boxing matches without penalty. Thus, an otherwise lightning-fast Bastian Buus again had to take a trip through the pitlane, while teammate Frederik Kjeldgaard had to back two positions as penalty for a collision.

The end of the race even ended up being an incredibly intense affair. Lasse Bak was again leading at the end of the bus stop chicane, but still ended up completely off the podium when he was overtaken by Kevin Nielsen, Mikkel Gade and Lucas Daugaard, who slipped to a victory, a second and a third place respectively. Nielsen and Gade, by the way, in a crushing close fight with less than one thousandth of a second gap over the finish line!

Christensen loses ground

While the fourth Round of the Porsche Esport Carrera Cup Denmark offered a surprise in the form of Lucas Daugaard, who after tonight’s strong results rose from a 15th to a 10th place in the championship position, there were no replacements at the top of the field. Midway through the championship, Lasse Bak is still leading, while last year’s Danish champion, Mikkel Gade, holds second place – albeit with a shorter distance than before. Martin Christensen, on the other hand, had a disastrous second race, which caused him to lose ground. Christensen retains his third place, but Casper Lund and Kevin Nielsen in fourth and fifth place are now starting to get close. The next section of the Porsche Esports Carrera Cup Denmark will take place on the virtual version of American Road Atlanta on Tuesday 1 February and will be broadcast on TV 2 SPORT from 20.30.

Original Text: Nikolaj Karlshøj
Translation : ESR
Photo: Esport Racing
Video: Field Production

Action, drama and flying cars. The third round of the official Danish Championship, Porsche Esports Carrera Cup Denmark had it all. Check out the one-minut highlight video from the Race. 

Lasse Bak defends his leading position in the official danish sim racing championship, Porsche Esports Carrera Cup Denmark. Mikkel Gade takes most points in the third round of the championship.

Iconic Track

Once again it was time for an exciting race in the official danish sim racing championship, this time at the legendary Belgian Formula 1 track, Spa Francorchamps. The track is a classic and on top of the list for many drivers. Not surprising for TV 2’s motorsport commentator, Jens Winther: 

“Spa-Francorchamps is first and foremost a track that is known for offering action and drama. It has everything a race driver dreams of, fast straights, fast turns, but also technical sections and above all shockingly much height difference. It is a track that was created before the Second World War, where you did not have the same digging tools as today, and therefore it is almost just planted in the middle of the mountains, which has given the track that fantastic layout with steep climbs and not least, on of the most iconic turns in motorsport, Eau Rouge.”

In the live TV2 Studio, the host Simon Tordrup had this time presented the newly crowned European champion in the Ferrari Challenge, Michelle Gatting. 

Gatting explained : “Spa is one of those old school tracks where you do not have to turn the steering wheel very wrong to be punished. There is no room for mistakes and you need to hit your turns and curbs very precisely. It takes an incredible amount of training to get wise, but that is precisely why it is a place that racing drivers love to fight for” 

Race 1

After another close qualification, which especially benefited the drivers who were successful in taking advantage of slipstreams, it was for the first time this season last year’s champion, Mikkel Gade (FYRA SimSport), who snatched pole position ahead of teammates Martin Christensen (Team Flexlease.nu by FYRA SimSport), the championship leader Lasse Bak (Team Flexlease.nu by FYRA SimSport) and Kevin Nielsen (FYRA SimSport). The start was marked by intense drama with several cars in a collision, while the four FYRA cars with Mikkel Gade, Martin Christensen, Lasse Bak and Kevin Nielsen quickly ran off and put distance to the rest of the field. The four teammates drove close, and Gade and Christensen exchanged the lead several times in intense duels, where along the way Anton Güllich (Odense Gokart Hal) managed to close the gap to Nielsen in fourth place, but without attacking. Further down the field, there was a battle for the coveted 12th place, which gives a pole position in the second race – and here Bastian Buus (Porsche Denmark Esport) managed to conquer the position in the last lap, but was subsequently punished for hitting its competitor during the overhaul, which triggered a starting position from the pitlane. However, the race was won by Martin Christensen with Lasse Bak in second place, followed by Kevin Nielsen and Mikkel Gade.

Race 2

With the penalty to Bastian Buus, it was instead Casper Lund (P1 Esport) who took the start in the second race at Spa-Francorchamps, where already in the first round a number of positions were exchanged among the first 10 cars. Mikkel Gade was flying and advanced from a ninth – to a third place already in the second round – where four other cars had to go out after a series of crashes. The melee continued in the fourth inning, which triggered another major accident involving six cars and giving a penalty to Anton Güllich. Halfway through the race, Mikkel Gade took over the lead from Casper Lund, but could not escape Marcus Jensen (P1 Esport), who stayed close to Gade. Towards the end of the race, Marcus Jensen attacked and took the lead from Mikkel Gade in a nice maneuver – but only briefly until Gade took the lead again and crossed the finish line as the winner of the race. At the same time, Lasse Bak managed to get past Casper Lund, so he finished in third place. It did not go so well with the other top drivers from the first race, Martin Christensen and Anton Güllich, who had to settle for a 14th and 15th place, while Kevin Nielsen did not complete the race at all.

Lasse Bak still in the lead

With a second and a third place, Lasse Bak came solid from the third division of Porsche Esports Carrera Cup Denmark, where he still leads the championship position – but with a reduced distance to Mikkel Gade, who scored the most points at Spa-Francorchamps. Bastian Buus, however, had a disastrous day in Belgium, where a 12th place (and three points) in the first race and an incomplete second race sent him from a third to an eighth place in the overall standings. This, in turn, means that Martin Christensen moves up to third place and thus rounds off the preliminary podium. The next round of the Porsche Esports Carrera Cup Denmark will take place on the virtual version of the American Daytona International Speedway on Tuesday the 11th of January and will be broadcast live on TV 2 SPORT from 20.00.