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The day Super Nova and their 2008 GP2 Danish driver Christian Bakkerud raced against an F16 Fighter Jet could not have come round quicker enough for the guys involved. It seemed like the ultimate challenge; the team's 600hp GP2 car up against a Royal Danish Airforce Fighter Jet!
The terrific event took place at the Karup Air Force base in Jutland, Denmark as part of their air show. An estimated 75,000 spectators travelled from far and wide to witness the unusual contest. As
anticipation built, Bakerrud pulled away from the start taking his 680kg team car into the lead, finishing the 1km race at 300km/h in just 20 seconds. Yet as the 10,000hp F-16 fired up, it roared past before gracefully looping up around, and back onto the runway to finish at 450km/h just ahead of the teams trademark blue and yellow car.
In high spirits after the event Christian said "The build up to the event was just awesome! It’s hard to describe in words the day and weekend we experienced but I’m sure I’m speaking for both myself and my team when I say that the guys at Karup Air Force base and especially Søren Jessing who was our main contact made us feel enormously welcome and took care of all details perfectly. We just couldn’t have asked for more and we will always remember this very special weekend."
As we were getting ready to go it was just flooded with spectators around the runways where it was all taking place but as time drew nearer we were told the schedule was slightly delayed. At this point I was already in my car with the engine running and with my Engineer, Patrick Coorey, in the air traffic control tower co-ordinating with me via my radio and our movements in the car with that of the fighter jet pilot’s. As the engine temperature slowly went up he had to ask me to drive around to try and keep the engine temperature down and we all started to get a bit tense.
We certainly didn’t want it all to go pear-shaped so close to the show down! Afterwards I was told that another 5-6 seconds and my engine would have over-heated and died and that would have been a very disappointing finish for sure...
But as it transpired, it all went beautifully to plan and as we suspected, right at the last tenth of a second, the plane caught up and finished ever so slightly ahead of me but it wasn’t a clear win and I’m pleased about that!! ...Its not everyday you see a F16 Fighter Jet in your rear mirrors!!"
"After the race, Danish F16 fighter pilot Nick Kenneth Hansen, flew low next to me and we showed the spectators these two fantastic machines together in a drive/fly past.
So, a big thank you to everyone! I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!"
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