Pictured: Depper pips Line to the line. Click to open hi-resolution version

NEWS RELEASE: 13 JULY 2013

DOUBLE 1-2 FOR KPM MEN DEPPER & LINES AT SPA

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KPM team-mates Martin Depper and Stewart Lines took a stranglehold on the APR Volkswagen Racing Cup at Spa-Francorchamps today, the Scirocco racers finishing 1-2 in both Belgian races. Depper won the first by a whisker – his first victory of the season – and Lines triumphed in the second to score his maiden win in the series.

Championship leader Aaron Mason led the opener but had to settle for third at the flag, while in race two, 17-year-old Henry Gilbert mixed it with the KPM boys to secure his first VW Cup podium finish.

Mason took full advantage of Snetterton winner Ross Wylie’s absence – he was racing in Germany in the Scirocco R Cup – to increase his championship lead to 40 points with four races remaining.

Round 9
A nail-biting battle for victory between the Sciroccos of Stewart Lines, Martin Depper and Aaron Mason had the Spa crowds on tenterhooks right to the fall of the chequered flag. Each took a turn in the lead – Lines heading the trio for the majority of the tussle – but it was Depper who took the flag by a whisker to record his and the KPM team’s first victory of the season.

Pole man Lines was beaten way from the grid and into the La Source hairpin by the fast-starting Team HARD Golf of Joker player Tom Barley, but Lines slipstreamed him through Eau Rouge to secure the lead up the Kemmel straight. Barley made hay while he could, holding on to second despite strong pressure from Depper and Mason – up from sixth on the grid – until lap two, when the faster Sciroccos swept past.

Lines was by now 2.2s ahead of his pursuers, but that gap was dramatically narrowed as Depper and Mason swapped places and used each other’s slipstreams to reel the leader in. They caught him on the seventh of the nine laps, Lines and Depper crossing the start/finish line as one and with Mason hot on their heels.

The race fell into Mason’s lap – and out of it again – on the penultimate lap. At the Double Gauche, Depper’s front end made slight contact with Lines’s rear and both the KPM men ran wide, allowing Mason to sneak through and into the lead. Then, at the Bus Stop chicane, Aaron missed his braking point and locked up, gifting top spot to Lines once again.

“I led for a long time,” said Lines, “but then perhaps I got complacent. Martin and Aaron towed each other up to me and then we started battling; then Martin hit me and we both went off the track. Aaron came through but then made a mistake, so I’m back in the lead going into the final lap. But then Martin got me up the hill after Eau Rouge.”

Lines staged a last-gasp effort at the final corner to draw alongside his team-mate but was beaten to the line by a tenth of a second.

Said Depper: “My first win of the year has been a bit of a long time coming. It was a great race with Stewart and Aaron: we were nose to tail and racing fairly all the way through; it was fantastic.” Of his penultimate-lap incident with Lines, he added: “I went through the double left-hander with Stewart right in front of me; I lifted there in practice and spun, so I thought this time I wouldn’t lift – but Stewart did lift, and I gave him a friendly tap up the rear.”

Mason reckoned that a win would have eluded him even had he not erred at the chicane: “I just missed my braking point and locked up, so Martin and Stewart got by. But to be fair, I think they would have caught me anyway because they were so much faster down the straights. I’m just glad to have finished the race and third is a bonus.”

Barley was delighted with fourth, his best result of the season: “I was just so pleased to lead the race, even if only briefly,” he said. His Team HARD team-mate David Sutton battled a broken clutch for the duration of the race, and held fifth all the way through until a few feet from the line, where he was pipped by the JWB Scirocco of Nick Beaumont. “I decided that sixth place – and pole position for the next race – was better than finishing fifth, so I slowed down a bit,” said David.

Beaumont’s charge from 18th on the grid to fifth – despite a time-consuming spin – was a highlight of the race. Peter Wyhinny had looked set for sixth place and the reverse-grid race two pole until the final lap, when he was caught and passed by Beaumont.

Didge Dziurzynski revelled in his first outing at Spa, hauling his venerable Mk II Golf up from 22nd on the grid to eighth at the flag, just behind Wyhinny. Josh Caygill led home his AWM/Warranty Direct team-mate Joe Fulbrook for ninth, the latter’s Golf suffering gearbox and clutch issues.

A opening-lap spin at the top of Eau Rouge dropped Henry Gilbert to 20th place, and he drove brilliantly to claw his way back to eighth for the penultimate lap; alas a deflating rear tyre cost him three places by the time he reached the line. Kieran Griffin completed the top 12 for JWB Motorsport.

Alex Dziurzynski’s Corrado came home 13th, ahead of Philip Morris and his KPM Golf, with Simon Andrews collecting 15th place on his return to racing in the AWM/Warranty Direct Golf, just ahead of championship newcomer Kieran Gallagher’s Team HARD Golf. Philip House had to settle for 17th after losing time in the pits following a recurrence of his qualifying gear linkage issues. Simon Tomlinson, Robin Riley and Paul Dehadray completed the top 20.

Round 10
David Sutton made a good start from the pole but, with turbo boost problems having manifested themselves as early as the warm-up lap, he did well to cling on in front of a charging Mason as far as the top of Eau Rouge. Mason carried the baton for only half a lap, however, due to a lurid spin: “There was no grip and I just lost the back end,” said Aaron. “I went right around twice, fortunately without hitting anything. Henry Gilbert did well to avoid hitting me; I was very lucky.” Mason completed the opening lap 17th.

This drama opened the way for Lines and Depper to take command, but the team-mates did not have everything their own way as Gilbert soon joined the battle and forced his way between them on the fourth lap. This allowed Depper to make a small break but, when Lines regained second from Gilbert three laps later, Martin’s advantage was quickly whittled away once more.

Stewart went ahead three laps from the end but Martin clung to his tail, launching a do-or-die effort into the Bus Stop chicane on the final lap. “I was ahead of Martin coming into the final bend,” said Lines, “and he was right up my exhaust pipe. I moved over in case he wasn’t going to be able to stop in time, he pulled alongside and then outbraked himself.” Lines reached the flag 1.1s ahead of Depper to claim his maiden APR Volkswagen Racing Cup victory. “We had a great race and Henry drove really well – he really put us under pressure,” added Lines.

Gilbert was delighted with his storming run from 11th on the grid to third place and his maiden podium: “I’ve been trying for this for ages. The main thing now that I want to do is to thank my mum and dad, because we are running the Golf as a family team now and it’s all the more of an achievement because of that. I really enjoyed the race, although it was harder and a lot hotter out there.”

Sutton cured his turbo issue by switching his engine off and then on again, and did well to battle against a subsequent intermittent misfire to battle back from sixth to fourth, passing both Caygill and Wyhinny by lap three. Sutton was followed home by House, whose Scirocco was transformed after his gear selection problems were cured. Phil made up nine places on the opening lap: “It always seems easier coming from the back!” he said.

Caygill stayed ahead of his recovering team-mate Mason to secure sixth – his best finish to date – with Fulbrook powering to eighth ahead of Griffin and Alex Dziurzynski’s Corrado. Gallagher capped an impressive debut with 11th and Wyhinny limped in 12th after a last-lap misunderstanding with the slowing Golf of Didge Dziurzynski.

Simon Tomlinson took 13th in his Golf, ahead of Robin Riley’s Scirocco, Simon Andrews, the Beetle of Tony Harberman and Paul Dehadray’s Golf. Philip Morris and Sam Morgan came together on the opening lap, Morgan halted by the contact while Morris continued to 18th. Mark Clynes completed the finishers in 19th.

In a month’s time the championship will be back in action on home ground once more, with the penultimate meeting of the season at Brands Hatch. Further backing for the championship comes from ECM, CEVA, Hankook, Milltek, Paragon and Prestige Performance Centre.