NEWS RELEASE: 22 AUGUST 2011

NEW TEAM READY FOR ROCKINGHAM DEBUT

A new team with pupil power is set to join the Volkswagen Racing Cup with FUCHS Lubricants for the rest of the championship season. Lunar Racing will make its debut in the series at Rockingham next month (3/4 Sep) with a Mk IV Golf GTI prepared for the track with the help of schoolkids.

The Corby-based squad uses motorsport as a platform to help 14-18-year-olds from schools in Northamptonshire, Rutland and Cambridgeshire achieve GCSE-level qualifications in motor vehicle repairs and engineering.

Cars built by Lunar’s juniors have previously contested single-seater series, MG Car Club saloon events and, last year, the Fiat Abarth series. “Since the demise of the Fiat championship we’ve been looking for a suitable series,” said team boss Paul Kneeshaw, “and the Volkswagen Racing Cup ticks all the right boxes in terms of the level of professionalism of the teams and the engineering of the cars. We are really looking forward to it.”

The team’s Golf has been converted from a donated road car into a championship compliant racer by students over the last five months, and is on schedule for its Rockingham debut. Who will give the car its track baptism has yet to be finalised: “We work with a number of different drivers,” says Kneeshaw, “and a final decision has yet to be made.”

Lunar hopes to expand to run a two-car team in the Volkswagen Racing Cup in 2012.

Championship manager Melissa Wright welcomed the new team: “We are over the moon to see Lunar Racing joining the championship. It is a great initiative for grass-roots motorsport and I know that the other competitors will be pleased to see the team and to offer them all the help they can.

“It is great also that Lunar has chosen an older-model Golf for the project, which adds further to the diversity of the grid, something for which the championship is justly famous.”

In addition to title backer FUCHS Lubricants, the Volkswagen Racing Cup is supported by Hankook Tyres, Paragon, Milltek Sport, Superchips, Ceva Logistics and ECM Vehicle Delivery.