At Barum rally, spectators had chance to see Suzuki Swift Maxi 2000 for the third time, but this year Kenneth Madsen arrived with brand new evolution of car. At demanding rainy and mudy conditions of this year edition of Barum rally, he finished at 17th place overall and also have won 2WD class. In 2018 it was his second start in Czech republic, as he also competed at Bohemia rally in the beggining of summer. But back to Barum rally. Kenneth Madsen wasn´t for the first time the only representatn of Suzuki Motorsport Denmark as he was accompanied by Anders Lysen with second car (older evolution of Swift Maxi 2000). Anders wasn´t lucky to finish as he had to retire.Because these cars have once again cought attention of many visitors, we bring you interview with the team behind them and you can find out more info about Suzuki Motorsport Denmark, its crews and mainly about cars.

First of all, could you introduce Suzuki Motorsport Dennmark? When was team estabilished, who found it, where is it located and so on?

The startup of Suzuki Motorsport Denmark was in 2006, with Anders Lysen as the key-founder. The team has been under constant development over the years and there have been many different setups with different Suzuki car models and drivers, including some of the best talent drivers in Denmark. The base of the team is at Lysen Biler, which is a Suzuki car dealer located in a small town called Sorø and owned by Anders Lysen and his brother.

Looking at your web, first crew and also more known to Barum Czech Rally Zlín visitors is Kenneth Madsen and Mette Felthaus. Could you briefly introduce the crew?

First up is Kenneth Madsen, who is 29 years old and has been into rallying his entire life. He started as a co-driver at the age of 16 in 2005, in a car the he had bought together with his dad, who has been a co-driver for many years. When Kenneth got his driver license at 18 the roles switched and he has been driving ever since. He joined Suzuki Motorsport in 2008 in a Swift Gr. N car, that he had built himself. He won his first Danish Championship at the first season that he participated the series (2008) at the age of 19 and became the youngest driver in DK ever to do so. Up until now he has won the Danish Championship 6 times and has got the title as “Rally talent of the year” in 2008. On a daily basis Kenneth is working as a Car Mechanic.

Next up is Mette Felthaus, who is 36 years old and has been a co-driver since 2012. She has been driving with 2 different drivers before teaming up with Kenneth in 2016. She is at daily basis a Fleet Coordinator.

This year your team brought two cars to Zlín and second crew was Anders Lysen and Henrik Dernoff. Again, could you introduce the crew for our readers?

Anders Lysen is 42 years old and has been the head of Suzuki Motorsport Denmark since the beginning. He started rallying in 1995, and has been driving in many different rally cars during his career. Lately he has mostly competed in the Danish “Yokohama Championship”, which is a series of rally sprints. He has won this championship six times – most recently in 2016. When not driving in his rally car, Anders is a car dealer together with his brother at Lysen Biler, which they own.

Henrik Dernoff is 50 years old and has been a co-driver since 1986. He has teamed up with different drivers over the years, including Kenneth Madsen from this team. He has won the Danish Championship 4 times together with Kenneth. He has been in the team since 2011. His daytime job is as a car salesman at a local car dealer.

At Barum Rally Zlin 2018, Henrik was prevented from participating, and therefore Anders had John Madsen at his side instead. John is Kenneth’s father and he has been a co-driver since 1977. He has previous been partnering with Anders, so he jumped at the offer, as Anders asked him to join him in the car again.

What is the biggest achievement of team? Last year´s championship crown in Denmark with Kenneth?

The best result in an international rally is the result from the just finished Barum Rally Zlin 2018 for Kenneth and Mette. At the national Danish scale, the biggest achievement is the overall victory in a section of the Danish Championship in 2015, where Kenneth won the race ahead of both R5 and WRC-cars in his Swift Maxi 2000.

This also brings me to Danish rally championship. I think that not so many readers are familiar with it, could you give us brief summary about it? What is level of competition, what is the character of events and so on?

The Danish Rally Championship is on its way back up again after some difficult years. There is a lot of fine R2, R3, Gr. N and R4 cars that is competing, but currently there is only 3 -5 R5 cars that is participating. There is many “home built” cars like ours. The stages of the races in Denmark is faster and not as bumpy to drive, as the stages at Barum Rally is. Normally there is six rounds of the championship, which is located all over DK.

And now lets move to, I think for majority of readers most interesting part, cars. Lets start with Suzuki Swift Kit car 1600. Could you introduce the car? Was it the first one build by your team or not? And as I´m seeing 1600 in the name of care, are there big differencies to Swift S1600?

We have built a lot of Suzuki cars since the start in 2006. The greatest successes are probably the Swift 1600 Maxi (replica Swift S1600) and the Swift Maxi 2000. At the moment we have 3 different cars in the team, which we all have built ourselves. One is the Swift 1600 Kit-car and its Specifications is:

• Effect: 200 hp
• Max. speed: 180 km/h at 8500 revolutions
• 4 Throttles
• Breaks – front: 304 mm D2 4-piston
• Breaks – rear: 265 mm Alcon 2-piston
• 16″ Wheels
• Suspension: D2 / Rieger
• Gearbox: 6 steps sekventiel – Sadev

More powerful is your next car Suzuki Swift Maxi 2000 which Czech fans were able to see at Barum rally in 2016 and 2017. Why did you decide to build 2,0L car, what is its tech spec? As is written on team´s web pages, you have twi cars, on for Madsen, second for Lysen. Are they similar?

We had built two similar Swift Maxi 2000 cars, one for Kenneth and one for Anders. They both participated in those of a couple of years up until this year, where the new Swift maxi 2000 EVO was built for Kenneth. His old car has been sold, but Anders still has his Swift Maxi 2000. The Maxi 2000 cars was built for the 2012 season, because it was the most optimal Suzuki possible, that could fit into the regulations of the Danish class/group called Gr. DK. The specs for Swift Maxi 200 is:

• Effect: 270 Hp
• Max Speed: 183 km/h
• Breaks – front: Alcon 355 mm
• Breaks – rear: Alcon 280 mm
• 18” Wheels
• Suspension: Øhlins
• Gearbox: Sadev 6 step sekventiel
• Weight: 1080 kg
• Dry sump and 4 throttles

Most recent car of Suzuki Motorsport Denmark is Suzuki Swift Maxi 2000 Evo which is Kenneth using this year. What are the most important improvements of car apart of bodyshell which seems from the latest road version of Swift.

The engine and gearbox is similar to the old Swift Maxi 2000 model. The suspension is new and has improved long dampers (Bose/Öhlins). The chassis of the car is wider and longer than the old model, but other than that the specs is pretty much the same as previous.

• Effect: 270 Hp
• Max Speed: 183 km/h
• Breaks – front: Alcon 355 mm
• Breaks – rear: Alcon 280 mm
• 18” Wheels
• Suspension: Boss/Øhlins
• Gearbox: Sadev 6 step sekventiel
• Weight: 1080 kg
• Dry sump and 4 throttles

The new Swift Maxi 2000 EVO is built on the request of Suzuki Denmark, the import of Suzuki in DK, who is a great partner of ours. They would, of course, like the new model to be displayed into the public, and therefore they supported us in the built of this new Swift Maxi 2000 EVO.

Although it is still way too early, what are future plans of team, for example for 2019? Could Czech fans look forward to seeing your Suzuki´s again next year? :)

This year has been a test year for us with the new Swift Maxi 2000 EVO. The plans for 2019 is competing in the full series of the Danish Championship and hopefully winning it. Other than that, we would be participating in a couple of international rallies – among these of course Barum Rally Zlin . :)

For more informations about team: Facebook a oficiální web.