Volvos in Denmark
Here’s an account of Volvo 240 Turbo group As in Denmark.
Although group A was introduced here as early as 1982 it took a few years for the Turbo to be used. Jan Lundberg was entered for the 1984 Gran Prix of Denmark at Jyllands-Ringen, but I don’t know if he actually raced this rent car or he stuck with his usual group 1+ Ford Capri 3.0?
Peter Elgaard, for the past decade the organiser of the highly succesfull Danish Touring Carchampionship (DTC), was the first to buy his own mount. Winner of the the 1984 Danish and Nordic title with an ex-Juma BMW 635CSi, he settled for the Deutsche Produktionswagen Meisterschaft, the future DTM, with a 240 Turbo. Discovering that the car had to be laden with 350 kgs of ballast, he decided to stick with his bimmer and likely never raced the 240 Turbo. What happened to this car I don’t know.
It was 1986 when Jørgen Poulsen finally build himself a 240 from a former Anders Lindberg Turbo Cup car of 1984 vintage (all of this according to VolvoGroupA). Poulsen was the class of the field through the next four seasons, winning the title in ’86 and ’87. A change in points distribution meant that the few big cars had little chance of winning the championship against the more well subscribed smaller divisions in the years 1988 and the final group A season in Denmark of 1989. The car remained in group A condition to at least 1992 with Poulsen racing the Grand Prix of Denmark at Jyllands-Ringen, while Erik Madsen raced the car for the final four rounds of the Nordic Cup finals at Ring Knutstorp, Sweden, a few weeks later. During the 1990’s the Poulsen Volvo was modified to Special Saloon Car racing, winning a couple of 2.4 hour Mini Le Mans annually held as part of the final race weekend at Jyllands-Ringen during most of the 1990’s. This is how the car looked like in 2002:
http://www.motorsporten.dk/news.asp?aID=5188. It was nastily t-boned in a start crash during the subsequent race and later sold on to Norway.
Peter Werner Hansen (usually only known as Peter Werner) was next to acquire a 240 Turbo. This happened over the summer of ’86 when he bought chassis VR-0000003 according to a contemporary race programme. As I have pointed out to VolvoGroupA this car has superficial resemblance of the Erle McRae car of Donington ’85. Werner drove this car during the rest of 1986, 1987 and finally 1988, but was never a match for Jørgen Poulsen. Both drivers had plans to race selected ETCC and WTCC races during 1987 together, but likely never did. Since the Werner car was equipped with air jacks and quick fill tanks, it’s likely that this would have been their car.
Gert Rasmussen arrived with a 240 Turbo for the 1987 season. Rated at 230 bhp in an end of year sales add suggest that this was a former Swedish Turbo Cup car. Rasmussen was new to the game, but by the end of ’88 he was a real threat to Peter Werner. Rasmussen was the main Volvo driver of 1989, finally finishing third in the championship and winner of the over 2 litre brigade. At the 1989 Grand Prix of Denmark Rasmussen had a “Taxi” sign mounted on the roof! This car was converted to Special Saloon Car for 1990.
In April 1989 Copenhagen based motoring club ASK held a 6 hour endurance race at Swedish Ring Knutstorp. Jørgen Poulsen was among the driving crew of a Söderqvist Volvo that was badly crashed by Swede Hasse Svensson. This car is likely the same:
http://www.racingsportscars.com/etcc...-07-23-010.jpg
Jens Nykjær appeared in a white Söderqvist Racing Services rent car for the 1989 Grand Prix of Denmark. By 1990 he was driving an all white 240 Turbo at the Swedish championship round at Falkenberg in July and in August at the non championship round at Jyllands-Ringen in Denmark. His 1989 and his 1990 car seemed to be two different cars. The 240 Turbo was a strange choice of car, from a man that since the mid-1970’s had build and raced ever more outrageous Volkswagen Beetles and a Kremer K3 replica of a Porsche 935, culminating in his own Nykjær-BMW group C2 of 1985.