NEWS RELEASE: 16 SEPTEMBER 2011

BUMPER GRID FOR DONINGTON’S VOLKSWAGEN SHOWDOWN

The biggest grid of the Volkswagen Racing Cup season is expected at the Donington Park Grand Prix circuit next weekend (24/25 September), with 26 cars scheduled to appear for what promises to be a crucial pair of races for those with aspirations towards the championship title.

Four drivers new to the FUCHS Lubricants-backed series are expected at Donington, and two old hands are slated to return with their race-winning cars to add even further diversity to the field, which will see four different models of Golf GTI in action.

The championship returnees are Westcountry brothers Alex and Didge Dziurzynski, who have been out of action so far this season. The lure of Donington, where Alex raced his Corrado to victory in 2008 and where Didge was a double winner in ’09, proved too great for them, however. Dziurzynski minor will race his trusty Mk II Golf GTI, the oldest car in the field.

“We are both looking forward to getting down to some action,” said Didge. “Neither of us has raced all year and nor have the cars, so it will be a bit of a challenge and we’ll have to see what we can come up with.”

The four newcomers expected at Donington are Midlands-based drivers Stewart Lines and Chris Levett, car-racing novice Chris Jones, who is a former British motocross team rider, and former SaxMax and T-Cars racer Cassey Watson.

Lines will race the newest Golf on the grid, the Mk VI GTI prepared by Volkswagen Racing UK and driven previously by Nick Beaumont. “I’m looking towards deciding what to race in 2012,” said the Sutton Coldfield-based telecomms company MD, “and the Volkswagen Racing Cup looks very tempting. I finished second at Donington in a Mini race last month, so I’m hoping that knowing my way around will prove an advantage.”

Chris Jones has no car-racing experience but plenty of Volkswagen Racing Cup knowledge – he’s one of the technicians behind the race-winning successes of the Beetle RSI of championship leader Steve Chaplin; he will race the Jetta Sport prepared by Volkswagen Racing UK. Truck racer Levett will step into a DSG gearbox-equipped SlideSports Mk V Golf.

Watson will meanwhile give the new Lunar Racing Mk IV Golf its slightly delayed competitive debut; Dominic Pettit had been due to drive the car for its maiden run earlier this month at Rockingham until technical gremlins intervened to prevent it. Twenty-year-old Watson will be the second female on the Volkswagen Racing Cup grid this season, joining podium finisher Zoe Wenham, 17.

Reigning champion Chaplin is very much the man in the driving seat of the Volkswagen Racing Cup with FUCHS Lubricants, having won four times already this season with his ‘Herbie’ Beetle, including three of the last four races, at Zandvoort and Rockingham.

But a Beetle hasn’t won at Donington since 2002, and last year – albeit on the National circuit – the Golf GTI of Aaron Mason was in unstoppable form, so Chaplin may have to be content with a points-gathering exercise. He has a mathematical chance of clinching the championship at Donington, but the title fight looks more likely to go down to the wire at Silverstone in October.

Double champion Joe Fulbrook raced to victory at Donington in his Bora Turbo in 2007 while Nottinghamshire’s James Walker, the other man still in with a shout of the title, will be revved up for a good result for KPM Racing at his home circuit. James’s truck-racing champ dad, Richard, will be in action also in a sister Mk V Golf.

Nottinghamshire’s other representative at Donington will be former Renault 5GT Turbo Champion Mark Howard. Others from the top 10 due in action are (Golf drivers all) Steve Wood, Peter Lettinga, Thomas Wilson, Tim Snaylam and Simon Andrews. The Caddy Van Racer of Simon Elliott will bring to 10 the number of different Volkswagen models represented.