NEWS RELEASE: 19 MAY 2012

WALKER FIGHTS BACK TO WIN AT BRANDS HATCH

James Walker staged a brilliant recovery drive at Brands Hatch this afternoon to secure his second race victory of the APR Volkswagen Racing Cup season. The Scirocco driver fluffed his start and threw away pole position advantage, slipped back to fifth and had to battle back the hard way to take the win in front of an appreciative and large crowd at the DTM meeting.

Walker’s win in the KPM-prepared Cooke and Mason Scirocco nets him a bumper haul of points thanks to judicious playing of his points-doubling Joker card. After three rounds James is 66 points clear of his closest rival, Aaron Mason, who salvaged ninth today after starting from the back.

Walker’s dominance began in qualifying yesterday; the Nottinghamshire man was 0.4s quicker than Howard Fuller in the Tony Gilham Racing Golf, with KPM’s Mike Neuhoff an encouraging third in the Mk VI Golf GTI and James’s father, Richard, fourth on his return to the series.

But it all went wrong on the startline: “I completely fell asleep,” said James. “I felt myself creeping, stopped, looked down and when I looked up the lights had gone and everyone was going past me.” Walker’s error handed a prime opportunity to Neuhoff to strike, and the Northamptonshire man did not waste the opportunity, charging to the front through Paddock Hill Bend.

It was an eventful opening lap, with Richard Walker surviving a moment through Paddock and contact with Fuller’s car to emerge second, ahead of championship returnee Shaun Hollamby, who enjoyed a superb start from eighth on the grid. Fuller and Dominic Pettit were first-lap casualties of the track’s tight confines after colliding following Howard’s brush with Richard Walker.

James Walker was fifth after his startline tardiness and bottled up behind the SlideSports Scirocco of Kieran Griffin. It took James three-and-a-half laps to find his way past Griffin for fourth, and then in successive laps he displaced Hollamby from third and dad Richard from second, the latter via a brave manoeuvre through Clearways.

Neuhoff’s lead on lap six was of the order of half a second, but James soon whittled that down to nothing and, next time around, swept past for top spot. With Neuhoff’s mirrors soon full of Griffin’s Scirocco, James was handed an untroubled run to the chequered flag. “After my nerves at the start I was able to fight back,” said the victor. “I had to do it sharpish while the tyres were still good, then make a gap and cruise around. We have great pace here; KPM have given me a brilliant car.”

Neuhoff endured pressure from Griffin to the end, and was delighted with second. “I got my confidence back a bit with that race,” said Mike. “But the Scirocco just seems to have that bit of extra pace, and I have to figure out where he’s gaining it.”

Third-placed Griffin was pleased also: “The second half of the race was really enjoyable because I was under no pressure. I got caught up behind James at the start – he did an incredible job to come back from that start – and in the end I settled for third rather than push my luck because I haven’t had the best start to my season.”

Griffin had inherited third on the ninth lap when Richard Walker tried an optimistic overtake on Neuhoff into the Druids hairpin and fired himself off into the gravel trap.

Engine problems in qualifying left double champion Joe Fulbrook a disappointed 11th on the grid. An overnight swap back to an older-spec power unit got him into the race, and the Bora man battled against a lack of power to make fifth by lap nine. Fifth became fourth when he usurped Hollamby three laps later.

Series newcomer Jim Cartwright enjoyed a great debut in his KPM Golf, qualifying 10th and charging through to fifth by the end. He was shaping up to pass Fulbrook two laps from the end but missed a gear and lost his chance. “I’m quite chuffed with my first race,” said the classic Ferrari driver, “but I still have a lot to learn about the car.”

Hollamby, the 2005 championship runner-up, thoroughly enjoyed his comeback drive but rued his lack of seat time in the AWM Golf. Shaun came under intense pressure in the late stages from one of the men of the race, disabled driver Simon Andrews, whose seventh place was a personal best. “I had the pace to get Shaun into Druids, but unfortunately there was a yellow flag there after Richard went off,” said Andrews, who had survived a lap-one scare after a tap from another car sent his Golf reeling sideways.

Golf man Thomas Wilson was eighth for the Complete Racing team, ahead of round one victor Aaron Mason, who had had to start from the back of the grid after his qualifying times were disallowed due to a technical infringement. Peter Wyhinny battled against handling problems to bring his SEAT Leon home 10th, ahead of SlideSports Golf drivers Richard Morgan and the promising rookie Paul Dehadray.

There’s a further APR Volkswagen Racing Cup race at Brands Hatch tomorrow evening, after the DTM track action; by dint of his sixth-place finish, Hollamby will go from the pole.