VOLKSWAGEN RACING CUP RACE REPORTS 2014 |
22 APRIL 2014 ROUNDS 1 & 2: MASON HEADS HOME HIS TEAM-MATES FOR OULTON PARK VICTORY Reigning champion Aaron Mason started the new season of Milltek Sport Volkswagen Racing Cup competition just as he left off at the end of 2013, with an Easter Monday win at Oulton Park from pole position at the wheel of his Scirocco. Mason led home his team-mates Joe Fulbrook and James Greenway for a AWM/Warranty Direct podium lock-out. Mason smashed the lap record for the Cheshire track on the way to his 17th career VW Cup win but he didn’t get things entirely his own way – his new team-mate Greenway, who was making his saloon-racing debut, outgunned him at the start and led the opening lap in his White Rose Volkswagen-backed Scirocco. There were plenty of other star performances up and down the grid, and there might have been many more but for a sequence of race-halting accidents. The first attempt at running the opening round came to grief after 100 yards because of a pile-up which blocked the circuit. A number of cars were involved, most seriously the Golf of Howard Fuller, which spun across the track and took several hits from pursuing cars. After stabilisation at the circuit medical centre following extrication from his car, Fuller was airlifted to hospital for precautionary scans. There was a clean restart later in the afternoon, but the race was halted after only a handful of laps because of a crash involving another Team Hard driver, Kieran Gallagher. The Scotsman was uninjured but the barriers at Shell Oils Corner were sufficiently badly damaged that the red flags had to fly once again. The results were declared after four laps, by which time Mason had reasserted himself and passed Greenway into Cascades, followed through by wily ex-champion Fulbrook. Fulbrook was struggling with a power steering failure which made his Golf more than a handful – he at least was pleased the race did not go the distance. Aaron Mason Joe Fulbrook James Greenway Despite the shortness of the race there were some notable performances behind the leading trio, with SlideSports recruit David Sutton holding on to fourth place for the duration after a rocketship getaway from sixth on the grid. Sutton was under intense pressure all the way from a gaggle of pursuers, Stewart Lines looming largest among them. “I was looking forward to getting past Sutton and having a good scrap with the leaders in the final laps,” said Stewart, “but then the red flag came out… But I’m happy with fifth and it’s better than I’ve done here in the past.” Jack Walker-Tully made a good start from P2 in the Cooke and Mason Scirocco but got boxed in and fell back to seventh after a missed gearchange; he improved to sixth by the end after passing championship newcomer Matt Hamilton’s Golf, which was suffering from a lack of power. Hamilton slipped to 10th by the end, overhauled by the youngest driver in the race, 16-year-old Sam Morgan, and by Milltek Sport prize drive winner James Walker, who was driving like a man possessed. “From 18th to eighth – I’m pleased with that,” said James. “It’s a shame about the red flags because I think I had the pace to make the podium…” Josh Caygill, having his first run in a Scirocco, was another to find a way past Hamilton and into the top 10, improving from 11th on the grid to ninth at the flag. Phil House battled manfully through handling and gearbox problems caused by broken engine mounts to salvage 11th ahead of Team Hard man Paul O’Neill, with car-racing debutant Lucas Orrock staging the drive of the race from 32nd on the grid to 13th. “I think we showed what we are capable of,” said KPM’s former karting champion, and hopefully at the next meeting we will be starting from a bit higher up the grid.” Other championship newcomers to make the top 20 were Stefan Di Resta, younger brother of F1 star Paul, who placed 16th despite a gearbox offering fewer gears than usual, George White, whose car was badly damaged at the first start and was patched back together brilliantly by the KPM team to take 19th, one place ahead of James Pile, the wheelchair user making his championship debut in a SlideSports Golf. Tom Barley joined his Team Hard colleague Gallagher on the sidelines after a hub failure, with Tim Snaylam suffering a variety of mechanical maladies after just two laps at the wheel of his brand new Scirocco. Other than the injured Fuller, the only driver unable to make the restart was Robin Riley, whose Scirocco suffered both front and rear damage in the start smash.
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5 MAY 2014 ROUND 3: MASON WINS AT ROCKINGHAM AS FULBROOK FALTERS Aaron Mason claimed a lights-to-flag win in the first of the Rockingham rounds of the Milltek Sport Volkswagen Racing Cup, but the reigning champion was fortunate to get things all his own way. Pole man Joe Fulbrook looked to have the legs of everybody in the 31-car field and was lining up to take the lead from Mason when his power steering failed just before mid-distance. Fulbrook dominated Saturday qualifying in his AWM/Warranty Direct Golf GTI, posting three lap times which would have earned him the pole – his best was more than a second quicker than last year’s pole time. However Joe did not make the best start and was swamped away from the line by Mason’s AWM/Warranty Direct Scirocco and by the JWB Scirocco of Stefan Di Resta. Di Resta nosed ahead of everyone for a hundred yards before a gearchange problem left him with a sudden lack of impetus and he too was swallowed up. When the dust settled on the opening lap it was Mason out in front from SlideSports Scirocco man David Sutton, with Fulbrook third from James Greenway’s White Rose Volkswagen-backed Scirocco and the Maximum Motorsport Sciroccos of Chris Panayiotou and Stewart Lines, with Di Resta seventh. Less than a second covered the top three over the course of the opening laps and Fulbrook was soon lining himself up to take second away from Sutton; he found a way though on the fifth lap and then prepared to mount his challenge on leader Mason. Disaster struck at Kirby corner on the sixth lap when Joe suffered a repeat of the power steering problems which afflicted his Golf at Oulton Park. “The system failed and pumped fluid on to my tyres, so I spun off and then got completely lost,” said Joe, whose evasive action took him way off track and effectively ended his race. Despite Fulbrook’s demise Mason had no opportunity to relax – he had Sutton breathing down his neck for the duration. David stayed on Aaron’s tail throughout, waiting for a mistake to materialise, but otherwise unable to challenge. “We knew from qualifying that the tyres were only going to be at their best for three or four laps,” said Sutton, “so I was trying to preserve them but to be honest Aaron made more out of the corners than me and there weren’t many places I could have got him.” Mason crossed the line eight-tenths of a second ahead for his 17th career win and his third in a row, taking into account his 2013 final-round victory at Donington Park. He felt fortunate: “It definitely would have been Joe’s race, but I’ll take the win. To be fair, I thought David might have got me towards the end, too, because my tyres went off a couple of laps before his. There were bits where I was quicker than him, though, and I managed to bring it home.” Di Resta overcame the Sciroccos of Panayiotou and Greenway to slot into fourth, which became third with Fulbrook’s demise. “I burnt my clutch out on the line and tried to shift into second a got a bunch of nothing,” said Stefan. “I dropped back and the whole race I was battling with the gearbox – in fact for the last three laps I was stuck in fourth. But I came through and at the end of the day it’s my first full race and I’m happy to be on the podium.” Di Resta set a new lap record on his charge. A flat-spotted set of tyres hampered Greenway’s chances; he finished fourth, just ahead of the mercurial Tom Barley in his Team Hard Golf; Tom started 12th and described it as “probably my best race – I just seemed able to pick people off”. Philip House was six seconds behind Barley, holding off a final-lap challenge from KPM’s Lucas Orrock to secure sixth and with it pole position for race two. Orrock was rueing a poor start which dropped him well back at the start; the rookie did well to battle through from 13th after lap one to seventh by the end. Josh Caygill drove through the night from Germany, where he was contesting the opening rounds of the Scirocco R Cup, to start the race from the back of the grid. He made up the most places of anyone, charging through to eighth by the end in his AWM Scirocco. “It was not a bad drive, and good fun from the back,” said Josh. “I’m happy enough with eighth and a better start spot for race two.” David Fairbrother scored his best finish for two years with ninth for SlideSports, ahead of Lines, whose Scirocco was suffering from steering damage following an incident in qualifying. The Walker family battle went the way of father Richard, who lifted 11th place from son James’s Milltek Sport-backed Golf in the closing laps. Walker Junior endured an eventful race, making a mistake on the opening lap which dropped him to 12th, and then clashing with the Scirocco of his cousin, Jack Walker-Tully, as they disputed sixth. Walker-Tully retired his car on the final lap. Sixteen-year-old Sam Morgan brought his KPM Golf home 13th ahead of Simon Rudd’s Golf and Robin Riley, whose Scirocco had undergone an extensive rebuild by the AWM/Warranty Direct team following the Oulton Park startline shunt of a fortnight ago. Tim Snaylam, James Pile, George White, Kieran Gallagher and Paul Dehadray completed the top 20, with Fulbrook classified 26th with an overheating engine following his off-track adventures. Simon Andrews retired his Golf with a blown turbo pipe, while Matt Hamilton’s Golf suffered a puncture after a clash of wheels with Gallagher. Panayiotou exited the race at Kirby on the eighth lap when he ploughed into the gravel trap.
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5 MAY 2014 ROUND 4: GREENWAY TAKES FIRST WIN AND CHAMPIONSHIP LEAD The Volkswagen Racing Cup welcomed a new winner to its ranks in the second race at Rockingham, with James Greenway pulling off what he threatened to do at Oulton Park last month. But, as with Aaron Mason in race one, the victory spoils might have gone a different way but for the intervention of mechanical problems, this time for David Sutton. Greenway’s White Rose Scirocco took the lead on the opening lap, the Yorkshireman getting a better getaway from P3 on the grid than did pole man Phil House in his Scirocco and Tom Barley in his Golf. However, they were very nearly all passed on the drag down to the Deene hairpin by Mason, who rocketed up the outside only to have his power steering fail him at the crucial moment. Aaron had to manhandle his Scirocco around the tight bend, losing several spots; he completed the opening lap eighth. SlideSports team-mates Sutton and David Fairbrother both made superb starts, the former from fifth and the latter from ninth, to slot in behind Greenway on the opening lap, and this trio circulated as one, separated by a bare second, for four laps, with Barley in hot pursuit. Sutton made his move on the leader on the fifth tour, slotting ahead at Deene but finding himself unable to make much of a break. David lasted three laps in front before gremlins attacked his DSG gearbox and he found himself unable to select anything but fourth gear. Exiting the Tarzan hairpin he slowed and Greenway swallowed him up. Fairbrother tried to follow suit into Deene on the next lap but locked up the Pall-Ex Scirocco and slipped down the order, promoting Barley to third. After his promising fifth place in race one, Tom was keen for even better and, spotting Sutton had a problem, wasted no time in demoting him to third. Greenway, Barley and Sutton crossed the finishing line in that order two laps later, separated by just 1.6s. It was Sutton’s second podium of the day but David could not help but think of what might have been: “I got James into Turn 2 and I thought that was it, I was away and off to a win, but then I got stuck in fourth gear... Still, two races and two podiums make it not a bad weekend.” “Dave was pretty quick out there until his problem set him back a bit,” agreed Greenway. “He managed to build a bit of a gap to me, but then he slowed and that allowed me to get back past him and get the race win which was on the cards for us after Oulton Park. Today’s first race was disappointing for me because I only got fourth, but then I scored good points and now I am leading the championship, so all in all it’s been a good day.” Barley was delighted by his best-yet finish: “I struggled at Oulton because we had to fit a road-going differential. I knew coming here that with the right equipment in the car I could have a good day. I love this track and I just had a fantastic race.” Reigning champion Mason had looked set to rejoin the party after his first-lap steering wobble; he set fastest lap of the race as he climbed back from eighth to fourth by mid-distance only to suffer a sudden loss of engine power. Aaron slipped to the very back of the field but salvaged two points for finishing the race; it was his first major mechanical problem in more than a year. There were dramas for others also as they chased a podium place: James Walker fought a long and tough battle with Josh Caygill and Stewart Lines but was forced to lock up to avoid a collision ahead between House and Di Resta. James spun the Milltek Sport and dropped back behind both Caygill and Lines; he battled back past Lines but couldn’t recatch Caygill before the end. Josh’s fourth place was a career best. Joe Fulbrook, whose Warranty Direct crew performed wonders between races not only to reconfigure his Golf’s power steering but also to fit a fresh engine, charged from the back of the grid to seventh behind Lines. “The boys did a great job in less than three hours,” said Joe. “The car was perfect and I have at least salvaged something from the weekend.” Fairbrother recovered from his mishap to claim eighth – a personal best – ahead of Lucas Orrock, who recovered well from a third-lap spin at Tarzan in his KPM Scirocco. Di Resta survived the clash with House to take 10th ahead of Howard Fuller, who started from the back after a first-race spin and a penalty for exceeding track limits. There were no errors from Chris Panayiotou in this race on his way to 12th ahead of Jack Walker-Tully, Simon Rudd and Richard Walker. The top 20 was completed this time by George White, Kieran Gallagher, the ever-improving Robin Riley, Tim Snaylam and Craig Mason. Matt Hamilton’s THM Racing Golf suffered further mechanical woes and he limped home 21st. Like House, Sam Morgan’s race ended with accident damage, his KPM Golf coming into contact with an unyielding Rockingham wall.
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1 JUNE 2014 ROUND 5: FIRST WIN OF THE SEASON FOR FULBROOK After a succession of disappointments at Oulton Park and Rockingham, it all came good for Joe Fulbrook at Silverstone this morning, the double champion scoring his first race victory for 12 months. Joe’s win, the 15th of his Volkswagen Racing Cup career, came ironically at the expense of his AWM/Warranty Direct team-mate Aaron Mason, who fell from the lead with a suspension problem. Fulbrook’s Golf GTI was again the class of the field in qualifying, the Berkshire man claiming his second successive pole position. Fulbrook qualified 0.165s ahead of the youngest driver of the race, Sam Morgan, to set up an all-Golf front row. And it was Morgan, who has just celebrated his 17th birthday, who made the better start, his KPM Golf getting ahead of Fulbrook on the charge down to Copse corner. Mason slotted into third off the line ahead of the KPM Scirocco of Lucas Orrock, who had started third and who, like his team-mate Morgan, had enjoyed his best qualifying result so far. Sam clung to the lead for half a lap until a flying Fulbrook stuck his nose down the inside into Village corner and muscled past him and into top spot. Mason sensed his chance to pounce and followed Joe’s example by diving for the inside into Luffield and demoting Morgan to third. Orrock crossed the line for fourth at the end of the opening lap, and that’s how their positions remained for two laps as the race was neutralised to remove the stricken Golf of Matt Hamilton, which was damaged in an opening lap disagreement with David Fairbrother’s Scirocco. Fulbrook held a useful 1.5s advantage over Mason at the restart but it wasn’t enough – by the end of lap four Aaron had closed the gap on the leader. The pair ran side by side through Priory and Luffield before Mason was able to edge in front. Orrock had meanwhile snatched third from Morgan, and Stewart Lines, whose Maximum Motorsport Scirocco had been running fifth, was sidelined with a gearbox problem, promoting his team-mate Chris Panayiotou to the top five. Mason’s tenure of the lead lasted for two laps and, while he could not shake off Fulbrook, the champion appeared to have the measure of things. But Aaron’s race fell to pieces on the penultimate lap when a suspension mount broke, possibly as a result of some early-race kerb bashing. He ran wide at Farm and Fulbrook gratefully regained the lead, with Mason slipping to fifth by lap’s end. Joe crossed the line 1.6s ahead of rookie Orrock, with Morgan third and delighted to score his maiden podium finish. Panayiotou came home fourth, his best finish of the year. Said victor Fulbrook: “Aaron had the pace to win, so things have worked out pretty well for me. This is really good news for me and for the team after all the hassles we have had with the car this season. We’ve been trying hard and it’s a result which is deserved.” Orrock said: “I didn’t really have the pace to catch the guys in front so I was just biding my time and hoping someone had a problem, which is what happened. It’s a great result for us – we have had a bit of a troubled start to the year, so all the better for that.” “It’s a great birthday present,” said Morgan, “especially after all the damage my car suffered at Rockingham. KPM have done a brilliant job repairing it. I made a great start but the others came at me a bit too quick to stay in front.” Championship leader James Greenway suffered a dire qualifying session, low turbo boost leaving him 14th on the grid, but he battled through to eighth on the opening lap in his rejuvenated White Rose Scirocco and was soon up to sixth. His tyres spent, he was unable to prevent Josh Caygill from passing him on the final lap but James netted sixth – and pole for race two – nonetheless because of Mason’s dramas. Stefan Di Resta was another leapfrogged on the final lap by Caygill but was able to hang on to seventh ahead of Jack Walker-Tully, who smashed the lap record by three seconds en route to eighth. Howard Fuller’s Golf was the leading Team Hard car to finish, in ninth, with Phil House 10th in his PH Motorsport Scirocco. Mason survived his late-race ordeal to take 11th ahead of a subdued David Sutton in the SlideSports Scirocco, with Hard men Tom Barley and Kieran Gallagher next up ahead of championship debutant Joe McMillan in the Cobra Motorsport Scirocco.
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1 JUNE 2014 ROUND 6: MASON CARVES HIS WAY THROUGH TO SILVERSTONE WIN Robbed of possible victories at Rockingham and in the first Silverstone race, Aaron Mason this afternoon enjoyed a trouble-free run to his third win of the 2014 Milltek Sport Volkswagen Racing Cup season. Mason’s AWM/Warranty Direct Scirocco stormed from 11th place on the grid – his worst starting position of the season – to the lead within four laps of the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit, and held off massive challenges from Jack Walker-Tully and Stefan Di Resta to take the honours. Round six provided numerous changes of lead and the result was uncertain right to the line, where less than a second separated the top three after the most exciting race of the season so far, contested by a near-capacity field of 30 Volkswagens. Having taken sixth place in race one, championship leader James Greenway started from the pole in the White Rose Volkswagen, ahead of the Sciroccos of Josh Caygill and Chris Panayiotou. A gearchange issue cost Greenway his chance to convert pole to lead, however: “I really struggled to get it into second away from the start and that messed things up a bit and dropped us back,” said James. Caygill led the opening lap but was unable to hold back Di Resta, who had enjoyed a superb opening lap from seventh on the grid in the JWB Motorsport Scirocco, through Stowe on the second lap. Panayiotou followed Di Resta’s example to push Caygill back to third, and then the mercurial Mason stole that position from Josh also before the second lap’s end. Lap three saw Mason draft past Panayiotou for second through Vale, and on lap four Aaron took the lead with a neat manoeuvre on Di Resta into Stowe. But any hopes that Mason may have harboured of pulling clear in the remaining five laps faded with his tyres. Di Resta never allowed him to pull more than a car’s length ahead and Jack Walker-Tully, who took over second place four laps from the end, was even more aggressive in his pursuit. Walker-Tully tried everything in his repertoire to try to force an error from the reigning champion but had to settle for second at the flag. “I think I had the pace to beat Aaron but he kept the door closed and I just couldn’t find a way past. Second is the best I could have hoped for and I’m really happy with it,” said Jack. Post-race, Jack's Scirocco was found to be marginally over power and he was excluded from the results. “I was really lucky to get the car home at all in the first race, and therefore fortunate to start this one from 11th,” said Mason. “I was even more fortunate to be able to get all the hard work done in the first few laps so that I didn’t have too much battling to do later on with tyres that were going off.” Added Di Resta: “I’m happy. I feel I should have finished the first race sixth and started this one from pole, but I did well to get in the lead early even though I didn’t have the pace to stay there. I misjudged the end of the race – the chequered flag came out a lap earlier than I was expecting – which was a shame because I was planning to try a move on Jack.” Panayiotou, rueing a decision to fit only one fresh Hankook to the front axle of his Maximum Motorsport Scirocco, came home third, ahead of Joe Fulbrook’s first-race-winning Golf, another car suffering from worn tyres. After leading the opening lap, Caygill’s Scirocco started to succumb to oversteer and he slipped to fifth, chased hard by Lucas Orrock’s KPM car. They tangled as they disputed the position on lap six and both men were delayed, Caygill recovering to fifth following Walker-Tully's exclusion. Delayed by a puncture and a pit stop in race one, Tony Gilham enjoyed a better time in race two of his seasonal debut, battling through to sixth by the end after starting 16th in the Team Hard Golf. Despite failing to make the podium in either race, Greenway maintains his lead in the championship. He finished race two in seventh place, saying: “We made some changes to the car between the races to try to make the tyres last longer but we really struggled, so it was a case of trying to salvage the best position I could. We’ll get some testing in before Snetterton and things should be different there.” Slowed by the success ballast his Golf earned from race one, Sam Morgan came home eighth ahead of Tom Barley’s Golf, Orrock’s battle-scarred KPM Scirocco and Phil House’s PH Motorsport car. After failing to finish race one, Stewart Lines came from the back of the grid to 12th, with David Fairbrother’s Pall-Ex car, George White’s KPM Scirocco and Joe McMillan's Cobra car completing the top 15. Fairbrother’s SlideSports team-mate David Sutton, a double podium finisher at Rockingham last time, completed a miserable down-on-power Silverstone weekend in 26th and last place following a pit stop.
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21 JUNE 2014 ROUND 7: FULBROOK GAINS A WIN AT MASON’S EXPENSE An uncharacteristic mistake from reigning champion Aaron Mason handed victory in this afternoon’s seventh round of the Milltek Sport Volkswagen Racing Cup to Joe Fulbrook, but it is Mason who is back in front of the championship after erstwhile points leader James Greenway struck trouble at Snetterton. Mason’s AWM/Warranty Direct Scirocco led from pole position to just past half-distance, shadowed all the way by Fulbrook’s Golf GTI, after the team-mates had annexed the front row of the grid with a dominant display in qualifying. Aaron and Joe left their rivals floundering from the start, with Mason looking set to collect his fourth race win of the season. But, as he rounded Oggies for the sixth time, he ran wide: “I just dropped a wheel into the dirt and it sort of pulled me off the track. I was lucky to be able to collect it up and tuck back in behind Joe without losing any more places. But after that my tyres were past their best and I couldn’t do much…” With three-and-a-half laps to run, Fulbrook found himself in the hot seat. Said Joe: “Aaron just dropped a wheel on the grass and I got a run on him. Then it was just a case of praying that my car didn’t break. I drove well and the boys set the car up really well and that’s what it’s all about here. I don’t know if I’d have caught Aaron had he not dropped it off… he was a bit quicker than me in places.” JWB Motorsport man Stefan Di Resta made a very smart getaway from the line to pull alongside the front-row men on the drag down to Riches before his Scirocco was beaten back. Stefan held on to third up to the penultimate lap when, like Mason before him, he misjudged Oggies and the closely pursuing Lucas Orrock was able to pounce down the inside in the KPM/Vindis Scirocco to seize the final place on the podium. “Stefan got a bit deep into the corner and I managed to sneak inside him,” said Orrock, who was making his racing debut at his home circuit of Snetterton, and who had qualified third. “I had a really good race but unfortunately I got a bad start. If I had got away in third place I think I would have been able to challenge for the win.” Di Resta claimed fourth, 2.2s ahead of Maximum Motorsport Scirocco man Stewart Lines, whose fifth place equalled his best finish of the season. “I made a fantastic start,” said Stewart, “and was going well until Fulbrook shut the door on me. I had the legs of Di Resta but before I could do anything about him I got passed by Orrock and suddenly I was having to defend like mad.” The man putting Lines under pressure towards the end was Josh Caygill, who was another to lose ground at the start; Josh passed Jack Walker-Tully for sixth two laps from the end and crossed the line 0.7s back from Lines. Walker-Tully brought the Cooke and Mason Scirocco home in seventh place, some 3.5s ahead of Team HARD Golf driver Howard Fuller, with Maximum Motorsport’s Chris Panayiotou and KPM’s Sam Morgan completing the top 10. Sam was delighted to have gained five places on his starting position after a disappointing qualifying session. David Fairbrother finished ahead of his SlideSports team-mate David Sutton for the second race in succession, Fairbrother’s Pall-Ex Scirocco gaining six places from its start slot to finish 11th, ahead of Cobra Engineering driver Joe McMillan, with Sutton 13th after his Scirocco overheated and lost power. Kieran Gallagher (HARD Golf) equalled his best finish of the season with 14th, ahead of Philip House who, like Sutton, overheated. Championship newcomer Simon Deaton claimed 16th for Team HARD, ahead of Craig Mason and Simon Rudd, with Tom Barley, another Oggies spinner, in 19th and Tim Snaylam 20th. James Greenway endured a dire qualifying session which left the White Rose Scirocco driver languishing 27th on the grid. The mystery loss of engine power continued into the race and James gained but one place, finished ahead only of George White, who had lost time in the pits with a puncture. James Walker’s Milltek Sport Golf was bashed from behind into retirement on the opening lap, suspension damage stranding the car in an awkward position, necessitating a brief safety car period.
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22 JUNE 2014 ROUND 8: SNETTERTON SCORCHER SEES DI RESTA CLAIM MAIDEN VICTORY In only his seventh race in the Milltek Sport Volkswagen Racing Cup, Stefan Di Resta this afternoon proved that he not only has fast genes but also a cool head as he held off a late challenge from reigning champion Aaron Mason to claim his maiden racing victory in a car. Stefan, younger brother of DTM racer Paul, took charge of the race on the third lap and built a handy lead in the JWB Motorsport Scirocco, only for Mason to whittle it away to a bare second entering the final lap. Despite a missed gearchange at the final corner, the 25-year-old from Bathgate in West Lothian crossed the line two-tenths of a second in front. “It’s brilliant,” said Stefan. “I think we deserved a few wins already this year, and then after yesterday’s race we discovered during the dyno test that we were 10 horsepower down. We’ve not fixed the problem completely but we’ve made a big improvement, and that’s evidently what has got me the win, so I’m happy.” JWB team manager Nick Beaumont paid tribute to his young charge: “He did well yesterday in a down-on-power car and he’s proved today with the car back to where it should be that he has the pace. The whole team is delighted with his result.” Di Resta started the race third on the grid behind Josh Caygill – who was making his first start from the pole – and Stewart Lines. It was the more experienced Lines who made the better start to slot ahead of Caygill, with Di Resta third and firmly slamming the door shut in the face of Lucas Orrock as they entered Riches. Stefan’s first scalp was that of Caygill, whose Scirocco he demoted to third on lap two. Lines’s Maximum Motorsport Scirocco led the train for two and a half laps but Di Resta found his way past for the lead through Agostini and was soon pulling clear as Lines started to slow and delay his pursuers. “I had decent pace for four laps,” said Stewart, “and then something started to give out and the car lost its punch.” Lines slipped to fourth before a clutch or gearbox problem brought him to a halt on lap seven. Mason, who started fifth, struggled for three laps to find a way past Orrock but managed to get the job done on the fourth lap, into Riches and, after dispatching the slowing Lines, Aaaron set about narrowing the gap to leader Di Resta, lopping at least three tenths from it every lap to bring the Scotsman within range on the final tour. But a last-gasp victory for Aaron was not to be: “Di Resta missed a gear in the last corner and I got a good run on him but wasn’t quite close enough,” he said. Mason’s brace of Snetterton second places return him to the lead of the championship. Orrock’s third place was his second podium of the weekend for KPM Racing and the third of the novice’s season. “We’re getting in the swing of it now,” said Lucas. “In a straight line I just couldn’t keep up with Aaron’s car, so I knew it was right to concede the place to him, try to stay with him and to focus on getting a top-three finish.” Saturday race winner Joe Fulbrook survived a bruising encounter on lap five with Jack Walker-Tully’s Scirocco to take up fifth place, which became fourth with Lines’s demise. Walker-Tully retired as a result of the clash. Team HARD’s Howard Fuller enjoyed another strong Snetterton run to secure fifth place, his best finish of the season to date. Caygill, complaining of a down-on-power engine in his AWM/Warranty Direct Scirocco, came home sixth. After his Saturday race ended early with accident damage, James Walker was on impressive form in the Milltek Sport Golf GTI, making up 11 places on the opening lap from the very back of the grid and fighting through to seventh at the line. That place would have gone to James Greenway, who put in an equally impressive drive from the back to make it up to into seventh as he entered the final lap, only for his Scirocco to overheat and stutter within sight of the flag. James limped in 10th, repassed also on the Senna straight by Chris Panayiotou and Sam Morgan, who finished eighth and ninth respectively. Another to score his best result so far was Team HARD Golf GTI driver Kieran Gallagher, who made steady progress to 11th, ahead of David Fairbrother, Simon Deaton and David Sutton. Aaron Mason’s brother, Craig, was 15th to score his best finish, ahead of Joe McMillan, who recovered well from a first-lap excursion at Riches. The top 20 was completed by Simon Rudd’s Team HARD Golf, and Scirocco men George White, Robin Riley and Paul Dehadray, who were followed home by Mark Clynes, James Pile and Tom Barley. Pile had had to make a brief pit stop after a tap from behind sent Tim Snaylam’s Scirocco into the back of his Golf, and Barley was hobbled by a turbo issue. Joining Lines and Walker-Tully in retirement were Simon Tomlinson, Phil House and Snaylam, all with mechanical woes.
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11 JULY 2014 ROUND 9: MAIDEN WIN FOR KPM’S LUCAS ORROCK AT SPA Standing atop the podium celebrating your first race win is a highlight for any young driver. When that moment comes at Spa-Francorchamps, the spiritual home of European motorsport, the sentiment is all the stronger. Lucas Orrock’s beaming smile this afternoon said it all as he savoured the podium celebrations following the ninth round of the Milltek Sport Volkswagen Racing Cup. Despite it being his maiden racing experience of the 7km Belgian Grand Prix circuit, 23-year-old Orrock showed steely nerves to hold off reigning champion Aaron Mason and take the win for KPM Motorsport, the team’s fourth Spa win in three years. Any hopes Mason may have had of depriving Orrock of the victory evaporated when one of the tyres on his AWM/Warranty Direct Scirocco suffered damage on the penultimate lap – Aaron was forced to the pits for a safety check and result-sheet anonymity. Orrock, Mason, SlideSports man David Sutton and Milltek Sport-backed James Walker staged a brilliant race between them, with Sutton’s Scirocco stealing the lead on the opening lap after relatively slow getaways from front-row men Mason and Stefan Di Resta (JWB Motorsport). Mason reasserted himself in front at the start of the second lap, but then both he and Orrock made momentary errors: “It was a strange one,” said Lucas. “Aaron was leading with David in second and me third going up through Eau Rouge, and there was a red light at the side of the track. Both Aaron and I saw it and thought it might mean a red flag and a race stop, and we both throttled back. We got to the top of Eau Rouge and saw there was no red flag, but by this time David had gone in front.” Orrock managed to displace Mason from second on the inside at Stavelot and gave chase to Sutton. Added Lucas: “David hadn’t really got too far away, and I managed to get a good run on him down the start/finish straight and slip up the inside into La Source.” From there on Orrock was never headed, but Mason took advantage of Sutton’s by now overheating Scirocco to slot into second and bring lap-after-lap pressure on the leader. But by the seventh of the nine laps Lucas had managed to pull clear by nearly two seconds and the race was in the bag. Mason’s eighth-lap tyre trouble handed second to a delighted Sutton: “In traffic my temperature gauge went right up and I lost power, but I managed to stay with them. But then I spun – the rear just snapped. I managed to save it and caught back up. But I can’t complain. After the last couple of meetings I’ve had, second is a great result for me.” Walker claimed third, unable to fend off Sutton after the latter’s spin, and had a good battle with Di Resta who, after his startline stall, was like Walker suffering from a lack of straightline speed. “It was hard,” said James. “I had no power down the Kemmel Straight; I was a sitting duck. I’m a bit lucky to get third, really, and I wouldn’t have but for Aaron’s problem.” Di Resta came home on Walker’s tail for fourth, with Joe Fulbrook making mercurial progress from 14th on the grid to pass Stewart Lines on the penultimate lap and claim fifth, and with it a slender lead in the championship. Lines was not disappointed with sixth, which brings with it pole position for tomorrow’s Spa race. Scirocco R Cup racer Chris Smiley was seventh, and Team HARD’s leading finisher, on his debut in the championship, with George White scoring a best-yet eighth in his Scirocco ahead of his KPM team-mate Philip Morris, who was delighted with ninth on his return to the championship in his new Golf. Kieran Gallagher continued his recent run of good form with 10th – another personal best – in his Team HARD Golf. Eleventh-placed Sam Morgan was the luckiest finisher, surviving more or less unscathed a scary lap-one accident at Les Combes. Said Sam: “Cold tyres, started to go sideways down the Kemmel Straight, then I lost the rear end completely at the corner, clipped the barrier and the car went up in the air. People tell me it was quite spectacular. Then I bounced back down on the road and set off again. I think if the barrier had not been so high there I would have ended up in the forest…” Chris Panayiotou lost time with a second-lap incident and battled back to 12th for Maximum Motorsport, ahead of Tim Snaylam – his best result of the year – Simon Rudd’s Team HARD Golf and David Fairbrother’s Pall-Ex SlideSports Scirocco. After his late pit stop, Mason got back into the race to finish 20th. Three cars failed to make it – James Greenway’s, which was withdrawn after engine problems in qualifying, Josh Caygill’s, which succumbed to electrical problems, and Darelle Wilson’s self-built TDI Golf, which stopped after a lap.
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12 JULY 2014 ROUND 10: DI RESTA TAKES THE WIN AND CHAMPIONSHIP LEAD There was to be no fairytale follow-up win at Spa for Lucas Orrock, for although the Friday race victor led the lion’s share of Saturday’s Belgian finale his hopes came undone along with the front bumper of his KPM Scirocco just three laps from the chequered flag. With his car hobbled, Orrock had to cede the lead to Stefan Di Resta, and settle for third place behind both Di Resta and Joe Fulbrook. Di Resta, who slips just ahead of Fulbrook for the championship lead, was more than pleased to inherit the win – his second in three weeks: “I was catching Lucas but I don’t think I would have had to time to pass him before the end of the race. Then he had his problem; we all have problems, and I had mine at start of the year. I’ll take any win that comes my way.” It was David Sutton who led the way initially, the SlideSports Scirocco driver making a great start from fifth on the grid to overhaul pole man Stewart Lines (Maximum Motorsport) on the way through Eau Rouge. Sutton repulsed an attack from Di Resta, another fast starter, but had no answer to Orrock’s pace on the third lap. Lucas sped ahead to open a gap of approaching two seconds over Di Resta by mid-distance. It all went wrong for Lucas on lap seven. “It had been a fantastic race for me up until that point,” said the Cambridge youngster. “As soon as I hit the front I thought I had it all sewn up and I could control the race. Coming through Stavelot I heard something drop; I knew something was wrong and when I hit the brakes coming into the Bus Stop chicane the front just locked up. What had happened was that the front bumper had dropped and been sucked underneath the car. The lock-up flat-spotted my tyres and I knew at that point that all I could do was drive within the limits of the car and try to salvage a half-decent result.” Di Resta passed Orrock with ease and went on to win by 1.3s from Fulbrook’s AWM/Warranty Direct Golf GTI. Joe was delighted with his maiden Spa podium: “We made some big changes to the car after qualifying and it made a massive difference and the car was brilliant. The boys got it absolutely right – they did a cracking job for me.” Sutton survived getting Orrock’s dislodged bumper under his car to finish fourth. “It was a big battle the whole race,” said David, “and a good way to end what has not been a bad weekend for me and the SlideSports team.” Lines’s Scirocco came home fifth. James Walker, his Milltek Sport Golf still struggling for straightline speed, was pleased with sixth, pipping Aaron Mason to the place with a final-corner move. Sam Morgan was classified eighth, behind Mason, after the application of a five-second penalty for exceeding track limits. Mason broke the lap record on his charge through from 20th on the grid. George White impressed again for KPM, the Scirocco driver claiming ninth ahead of the leading Team HARD finisher, Kieran Gallagher, Maximum’s Chris Panayiotou and AWM man Josh Caygill, who had started dead last. In his 50th VW Cup race, Philip Morris took 13th spot, ahead of Team HARD men Chris Smiley and Simon Rudd. Simon Andrews pinched 16th from David Fairbrother on the final lap.
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30 AUGUST 2014 ROUND 11: SUTTON AND SLIDESPORTS SWEEP TO VICTORY AT BRANDS HATCH David Sutton claimed his first-ever Milltek Sport Volkswagen Racing Cup victory this afternoon at Brands Hatch, and the first this season for the SlideSports team, when he triumphed in the championship’s eventful 11th round. The 24-year-old from Rotherham recovered from a fluffed start to take the lead at the start of the second lap, and endured a lengthy safety car period before reasserting his superiority at the restart. Sutton was on mighty form all day in the SlideSports Scirocco, annexing pole position in qualifying by a two-tenth margin to push Team HARD Golf GTI driver Howard Fuller off top spot in the dying minutes of the session. But it all went wrong for David moments before the lights went out when his foot slipped off the brake and he crept forward an inch or two. As he brought his car to a halt once more the starter threw the switch and the race almost went without him, Fuller diving ahead into Paddock Hill Bend at the wheel of a new Golf enjoying an impressive race debut. Sutton recovered his composure to slot into second behind Fuller, with Jack Walker-Tully (Cooke and Mason Scirocco) and championship leader Stefan Di Resta (JWB Motorsport Scirocco) hot on his heels. Into Paddock at the start of lap two, Sutton edged ahead of Fuller to take the lead. As he did so, Fuller started to slide luridly; by the time he had gathered things together again, Howard had slipped to 12th. Walker-Tully had to take avoiding action, slipping to fourth behind the AWM/Warranty Direct Scirocco of James Greenway. The race was by this stage under the control of the safety car, which was scrambled after the Golfs of championship debutant Chris Knox (THM Racing) and Craig Mason (AWM) came to rest in the Clarke Curve gravel trap. The incident was triggered when Knox and Paul Dehadray (JWB Scirocco) came together and Mason was forced to spin in avoidance. None of the three drivers was hurt but recovery of their vehicles held up proceedings for four laps. If he was worried about the Safety Car period and the restart, Sutton did not show it. When the race went live he eased away of Di Resta and the rest and by the end of the sixth lap was a half-second clear of his pursuers, which is as close as anyone would get. He went on to take a long-overdue maiden win by a nearly eight-tenth margin. “It’s been a long time coming,” said Sutton, “and it feels good. I had a bad start – my foot slipped off the brake, so Howard managed to get in front of me. I got a bit of a gap when he spun after I overtook him at Paddock, but then the safety car came out and backed it all back up again – a nightmare. But at the restart I managed to get away again and get a gap, and the guys battling behind me helped me out after that.” The battle for second place raged to the chequered flag. Greenway pushed Di Resta back to third on the restart lap, Stefan suffering the effects of carrying near-maximum success ballast. Walker-Tully lifted third from Di Resta next time around and set about a major campaign to relieve second from Greenway, achieving the feat with a neat down-the-inside manoeuvre through Surtees on the penultimate lap. Said Jack: “It was plenty hard, but he gave me just enough room to do it.” Greenway was pleased to have brought an end to the run of poor mechanical luck which has kept him off the podium since his May Rockingham win, but disappointed not to have made the top step: “I think I had a car which was capable of winning today. I made a couple of mistakes which allowed Jack to get close enough to mount a challenge and then get past. Third’s not a bad result after what I’ve gone through in recent races, though. I was here to win the championship; that’s not going to happen now but at least I can aim at getting some good results in the remaining races.” After running second behind Sutton on the second lap, Di Resta was disappointed to fall to fourth by the end, even though he managed to keep Lucas Orrock at bay after a charging drive up to fifth by the KPM Racing driver from P10 on the grid. “After the restart I just didn’t have the straightline speed,” said Stefan. “I was a sitting duck on the straight and both Greenway and Walker-Tully came past me; there was nothing I could do.” “It was a shame I didn’t qualify better,” said Orrock, “because I seemed to have pretty good race pace. I managed to reel Stefan in and we ran side by side up the Derek Minter Straight – one of us had to give in, and I decided I had to back off and live to fight another day. Fifth is a good result given where I started.” Joe Fulbrook slipped to eighth after contact on the opening lap but recovered in the closing stages to pick off Aaron Mason’s AWM Scirocco and the rapid turbodiesel of Golf of Darrelle Wilson to make it up to sixth by the end. Wilson claimed an excellent seventh (the top Team HARD finisher) ahead of Mason, who had been involved in a lap-one clash with the Milltek Sport Golf of James Walker which spun Walker to the tail end of the field. Aaron’s pace was blunted by a week-old ankle injury which hampered his ability to brake effectively. Philip House’s re-engined PH Motorsport Scirocco and Stewart Lines’s Maximum Motorsport car completed the top 10 – Lines battling through from 17th on the grid after qualifying issues – with Crayford’s Tom Barley (Team HARD) 11th for some local glory ahead of George White’s KPM Scirocco, White getting the better of a long battle with the KPM Golf of Sam Morgan. After his second-lap spin, Fuller recovered to take 14th, and a new lap record, ahead of Walker and David Fairbrother’s SlideSports Scirocco. Kieran Gallagher’s Team HARD Golf finished 17th ahead of the Sciroccos of Joe McMillan and Josh Caygill, the latter having been caught up in the lap-one clash between Aaron Mason and Walker; Josh spun back to 26th and enduring a long fight thereafter to claw his way through to 19th. Tim Snaylam’s AWM Scirocco completed the top 20 at the flag.
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31 AUGUST 2014 ROUND 12: SUTTON SCORES A SECOND BRANDS HATCH WIN His first win may have been a long time in the making, but David Sutton’s second Milltek Sport Volkswagen Racing Cup victory came around very quickly indeed. Thanks to some robust manoeuvres on the opening lap, the SlideSports driver shot from sixth to second, and he went on to lift the lead from Lucas Orrock on lap three. Sutton is the first double winner of the 2014 season, and his timely victories lift him into contention for the championship crown as the series heads towards its concluding rounds at Donington Park in a fortnight. Sutton’s Saturday win meant that under the reverse-grid rules he would start from the third row of the grid. A lightning getaway thanks to his Scirocco’s DSG semi-auto gearbox allowed David to make up several spots on the run into Paddock Hill Bend. As Orrock gained the lead ahead of pole man Joe Fulbrook, Sutton launched his Scirocco down Fulbrook’s inside to steal second. Unfortunately his manoeuvre caused a ripple effect through the frontrunners which led to Joe Fulbrook’s Golf bumping James Greenway’s Scirocco, which went for a time-consuming trip through the Paddock gravel trap along with Aaron Mason’s sister AWM Scirocco. There was further first-lap drama at the Druids hairpin, where Darrelle Wilson and Jack Walker-Tully collided, with the former beaching in the gravel, which necessitated a one-lap safety car period. It was Orrock’s first time leading a train of cars under the safety car, and unfortunately his inexperience cost him the lead at the restart: “I thought we were going around again, but then the safety car went for the pit lane, and I thought, ‘OK, right, we are racing…’” Orrock’s hesitation allowed Sutton to pounce down his inside at Paddock at the start of the third lap, and by mid-distance David had built a useful lead. Another fast-starter was Howard Fuller, who climbed from 14th on the grid to sixth on the opening lap. He went on to pick off Stefan Di Resta, Stewart Lines and Fulbrook before seizing second from Orrock down Cooper Straight on the sixth lap. Fuller gained quickly on leader Sutton and attacked him into Surtees on the penultimate lap to go ahead, only to run wide on the exit and slip to fourth behind Sutton, Orrock and Fulbrook. From that point Sutton was home free; he crossed the line half a second clear of Orrock. “I got a great start,” said David, “and managed to build a bit of a gap, but then my tyres just went off and I slowed right down. Howard caught me and got by, but then ran wide. It’s great to win both races here, and good for my championship hopes, although it’s going to be difficult for me to win it…” Lucas Orrock was magnanimous about his chances of beating Sutton in a straight fight: “To be fair, I think David was too quick for me – we didn’t quite have the pace today and it was a case of trying to get the best result I could in what was not the quickest car.” Fulbrook’s third place, his fifth podium of the year, puts the double champion back on top of the points table heading for the Donington finale. “I had a great race with Lucas,” said Joe, “wheel to wheel, bumper to bumper, fast and fair and with respect for each other, which is how it should be. Third is a good result for me and now it’s all going down to Donington, so that will be an interesting weekend...” Fuller’s run of troubles continued into the final corner, Clark Curve, where his Golf got out of shape, started to slide and was collected by James Walker’s GTI. Fuller was cannoned into the pit wall and Walker delayed long enough by the fracas for Aaron Mason to nip through and steal fourth. Walker recovered to take fifth, well ahead of Lines, with Barley seventh to be Team HARD’s highest finisher. Greenway recovered from his first-lap visit to the gravel trap to fight back to eighth by the end, one spot ahead of his team-mate Josh Caygill, with George White completing the top 10 in his KPM Scirocco. David Fairbrother maintained his 100% scoring rate with 11th ahead of Kieran Gallagher and Tim Snaylam. Erstwhile championship leader Stefan Di Resta was a disappointed 14th after an early hit from another car knocked his steering awry. “The steering was all over the place,” said Stefan, “so there wasn’t much I could do.” Chris Knox made up for the disappointment of his early departure from race one to secure 15th in the THM Racing Golf, ahead of Simons Rudd and Andrews, Graham Ewing and Robin Riley. The JWB Motorsport technicians did a great job to rebuild Paul Dehadray’s Scirocco after his Saturday crash, and he repaid their efforts with a 20th-place finish. Championship newcomer and race debutant Paul Inglis was 24th to record his second successful finish of the weekend for Team HARD.
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14 SEPTEMBER 2014 ROUND 13: MASON WINS AT DONINGTON TO SET SCENE FOR A DRAMATIC FINALE Five drivers went into the penultimate round of the Milltek Sport Volkswagen Racing Cup with a chance of the championship title and, after a thriller of a race at Donington Park, there are still five men in the hunt for title glory with only one race remaining in which to decide the outcome. Joe Fulbrook increased his championship lead slightly, to eight points, thanks to a fourth-place finish this morning, but the race belonged to reigning champion Aaron Mason, whose Scirocco crossed the line 1.5s ahead of the sister AWM/Warranty Direct Scirocco of James Greenway. It was Mason’s fourth win of the year, bringing him within 22 points of Fulbrook’s tally. Pole-sitter Mason lost out at the start thanks to a fast getaway from the driver alongside him on the front row, SlideSports Scirocco man David Sutton. Aaron managed to fend off a strong challenge from the Cooke and Mason Scirocco of Jack Walker-Tully to hang on to second, and then wrested the lead from Sutton at the Old Hairpin on the third lap. Greenway followed Mason’s example to demote Sutton to third on lap three also, and chased the leader hard for the duration but was unable to get on terms. “I made a good start and managed to gain a couple of positions early on,” said Greenway, “and then I managed to get past David for second. I wanted to preserve my tyres a bit – I’ve had this problem all year of my tyres dropping off towards the end of the race – and perhaps I backed off a bit too much. In the last couple of laps I was coming on to Aaron, but it was too late.” A delighted Mason said: “I think Sutton was always going to get me off the start; I knew I had the faster car but my concern was that I might get backed up into the pack, so I was keen to get past him early on. I got a good run on him at the Old Hairpin and that was that.” Sutton finished third despite last-lap pressure from Fulbrook, and felt that that was the best that he could have hoped for. “Aaron and James were just that bit better than me out of the tight corners… The rest of the track I’m fine and I could catch them back up. We had a slight issue with a misfire at low revs also.” “My car was good,” said championship leader Fulbrook. “The boys made some changes after qualifying and that was a big improvement. Now we just have to finish the final race somewhere near the front, and that’s not going to be an easy thing to do…” Lucas Orrock (KPM Scirocco) survived a lurid mid-race wobble through the Esses to finish fifth ahead of Stefan Di Resta’s JWB Motorsport Scirocco. The pair had been battling hard all race. “I was following Joe and not really making any inroads,” said Lucas, “so I had to try something. I noticed that a lot of cars were taking a lot of kerb at the Esses, so I gave it a go… My inside wheel hooked on to the kerb and it just threw the car.” Orrock saved the slide and Di Resta had to take avoiding action, as a result slipping briefly to seventh behind the THM Racing Golf of Robert Barrable. Stefan then regained sixth on the following lap to keep alive his championship chances. Rally star Barrable’s drive was an impressive championship debut. The Irishman started 15th on the grid and made it into the top 10 by the third lap, then gained places with the demise of Stewart Lines (engine) and Jack Walker-Tully (puncture), and passed Sam Morgan’s KPM Golf to secure seventh. Old hand Richard Walker claimed ninth in the Cook and Mason Golf, with a strong drive from Tom Barley in the Team HARD Golf to complete the top 10 after qualifying issues left him 16th on the grid. Morgan placed 11th ahead of James Walker, who started from the back after electing to switch to a spare KPM Scirocco, and the Sciroccos of Josh Caygill, Tim Snaylam, David Fairbrother and Joe McMillan. The top 20 was rounded out by Darelle Wilson’s TDI Golf, Cameron Thompson and Andy Wilmot (both enjoying their first outings in Sciroccos) and Paul Dehadray, who qualified his JWB Scirocco an excellent 11th only to suffer a wayward moment on the opening lap which dropped him to last but one. The Team HARD Golfs of Simon Rudd, Graham Ewing and Kieran Gallagher joined Walker-Tully and Lines in retirement. Walker-Tully’s consolation was a new lap record.
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14 SEPTEMBER 2014 ROUND 14: BARRABLE WINS THE FINALE, FULBROOK THE CHAMPIONSHIP Joe Fulbrook emerged from the chaos of a dramatic final round of the Milltek Sport Volkswagen Racing Cup season at Donington Park this afternoon to claim championship victory – his third title win in seven seasons. Third place in the last race of the year was enough to clinch the crown by just six points for the Berkshire-based 43-year-old and his AWM/Warranty Direct team. The outcome of the championship hung in the balance all the way to the final corner of the race as KPM Racing driver Lucas Orrock battled with the cars of Irish rally star Robert Barrable and David Sutton to take the win; a collision between the three led to a lengthy inquiry by race officials, with Barrable eventually credited with victory. Had the stewards’ decision gone in Orrock’s favour and had Fulbrook finished just one place further back, the crown would have gone Lucas’s way… “I don’t think you’re ever going to get a closer end to a championship,” said triple titlist Fulbrook. “Fair play to Lucas, he’s a great driver, and thanks to all my boys for looking after the car for me. This is our third championship win together and we’ve tried really hard, and battled back from some bad luck on occasions. Big thanks to them… Happy days.” There was drama from first to last in round 14, with the race having to be halted before the leaders had completed their second lap by a multi-car accident at the Goddards hairpin which left the Sciroccos of David Fairbrother and Andy Wilmot badly damaged and stranded partly on the track; neither driver was injured in the crash. Earlier, Aaron Mason and Sutton had come together at the same corner as they disputed the lead, an incident which would have post-race ramifications. One man was at least pleased to see the red flags – pole-sitter Stefan Di Resta, who stalled on the line and got away dead last. He was able to retake the pole for the restart but, incredibly, he bogged down again and was swamped by the field. “The first time I thought it was me, but then it happened again – we think it was a clutch problem,” said Stefan. Sutton blasted through from fourth on the grid to take the lead on the opening lap for the SlideSports team, pursued by Orrock, Fulbrook, James Greenway and Barrable. Mason, the front of his Scirocco badly damaged by the incident with Sutton, completed the opening lap eighth, with Di Resta down in 18th. Greenway pushed Fulbrook back to fourth on the second lap and then, a lap later, Barrable demoted Joe to fifth. Then the rally man set about the task of finding a way past Greenway for a top-three slot, achieving the feat on lap four to set up an exciting battle to the flag to decide the podium placings. Sutton soon saw his one-second lead evaporate and then, slowed by the need to pass some back markers, found his pursuers right on him on the final lap… The Melbourne Hairpin was to decide the order in which they crossed the line: as Orrock attacked Sutton for the lead, Barrable attacked Orrock – all three cars were in contact and out of the hairpin to cross the finish line came Barrable, Orrock and Sutton in that order. “The two lads in front went defensive on the inside into the hairpin and I went to the outside to get the cut back,” said Barrable, “they stopped and I clipped the back of Orrock’s car, and that opened up a bit of a gap for me to make a clean break in the front.” Lucas had a different viewpoint: “David was compromised by a slower-moving car on the last lap so I got a bit of a run on him into the hairpin. It was going to be a risky move but my plan was to line it up on the brakes and to try to get a cut-back; sure enough David started to go a little deep into the corner but as that was happening I received an almighty whack from behind, which sent me into the side of David’s car. We were all tangled up and it’s not really the way I wanted to end the race.” After the podium celebrations Barrable was handed a three-second penalty for driving in a manner incompatible with general safety, promoting Orrock to the top step of the podium. Barrable’s THM Racing team appealed the decision, however, and race stewards later struck the penalty and returned the win to Robert. Notwithstanding the outcome of the inquiries, Orrock’s strong finish underlined what has been a great rookie season of car-racing for the 23-year-old from Cambridge, who takes a close championship second to Fulbrook. “Given that it’s my first year, I’m very pleased,” said Lucas. There was a further penalty issued by the officials – a 13-second one given to Sutton for his early-race clash with Mason. This had the effect of dropping David to 10th, one place behind Aaron, whose race was hindered by the damage suffered in the collision. Sutton’s penalty meant that Fulbrook, who crossed the line a lonely fourth after he repassed Greenway, was promoted to third, rounding his stellar season off with a further podium finish; Joe’s tally for the year was two wins, two seconds and two thirds. Almost unnoticed in the excitement was Jack Walker-Tully’s brilliant progress from the back of the grid in the Cooke and Mason Scirocco. Jack made it up to 14th on the opening lap and gained places with every lap which followed to make it up to fourth, breaking his own day-old lap record as he progressed. Howard Fuller equalled his best finish of the year for Team HARD with fifth, ahead of Greenway and James Walker in the KPM/Milltek Sport Scirocco. After his startline woes, Di Resta did well to claw his way back to eighth by the end, one place ahead of Mason’s hobbled AWM car. Sutton was classified 10th, with Darelle Wilson claiming 11th in the Team HARD TDI Golf. Both Josh Caygill and Sam Morgan had looked to be heading towards top-10 finishes before they tangled in avoidance of a wayward backmarker on the penultimate lap and their races ended in the Coppice corner gravel trap. Tim Snaylam rounded off his comeback season with his best result of the year for the AWM squad, 12th, ahead of Stewart Lines and Joe McMillan, both of whose Sciroccos were sporting damage from the first-lap shenanigans of the aborted race. Kieran Gallagher took 15th spot for Team HARD and Paul Dehadray equalled his season’s best with 16th for JWB. Simon Deaton, Tom Barley, Simon Rudd and Robin Riley rounded out the top 20, with Cameron Thompson and Paul Inglis the final finishers. |
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