Pictured: Round 5 start at Silverstone. Click to open hi-resolution version

NEWS RELEASE: 26 MAY 2013

DOUBLE TOP FOR AARON MASON AT SILVERSTONE

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Aaron Mason raced into the record books and the lead of the APR Volkswagen Racing Cup today, winning both rounds of the championship on the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit. The Doncaster driver claimed a narrow victory over Phil House in race one and in the second encounter, screened live on Motors TV, led home KPM Scirocco men Stewart Lines and Martin Depper.

Mason’s victory haul for the AWM/Warranty Direct team brings his tally of wins in the six-race-old season to four, and his career total to 15, making him now the most successful Volkswagen Racing Cup competitor in the championship’s 14-season history. His points advantage over erstwhile series leader Joe Fulbrook is however a slender two points, with Ross Wylie maintaining a solid third overall.

Round 5
Pole position proved something of a double-edged sword for Philip House, whose Ripley Caravan Park-backed PH Motorsport Scirocco had set a blistering qualifying pace to claim grid top spot by very nearly a quarter-second margin. What Philip hadn’t bargained for was that his windscreen visor would obstruct his view of the start lights gantry. “My visor strip was just too low, and I was crouching down to try to get a view,” said Phil. “Then, when the lights went out I pulled a load of wheelspin and that was my chance gone.”

Mason took full advantage from second on the grid to outdrag House into Copse Corner. “There was no point in trying to hold on to lead into first corner because I would just have gone on to the ‘marbles’,” added House, “so I decided to slot into second and see what happened.”

Wylie’s SlideSports car and Depper’s KPM machine followed Mason and House to make it a Scirocco 1-2-3-4, and the first half of the race provided a great tactical battle between them, Mason continuing to lead the train but unable to shake his pursuers. Wylie got the better of a challenge from Depper at the end of the second lap, Martin leading for the length of the pits straight before his Scottish rival reasserted himself.

Depper then ran wide at Luffield and lost ground to the leading trio and fell within range of his team-mate Stewart Lines and the Golfs of 17-year-old Henry Gilbert and Fulbrook.

Up front, Mason had pulled a narrow lead over House. Phil made a do-or-die effort on the seventh lap to narrow the gap further, smashing the circuit lap record in the process, but Aaaron replied with two super-quick laps himself to maintain the gap at the finish line by a second.

“To be fair, Phil was quicker than me on certain sections of the track,” said Mason, “and he came close at the end but I was able to build the gap again. My new Scirocco is good and getting better but we still haven’t made the most if it. There’s more to come…”

Mason had been reported to have exceeded the limits of the track during the race but stewards studied his on-board video evidence and ruled him innocent of the charge.

“I’m quite disappointed with second,” said House after collecting his second podium of the season, “because I had great race pace. I was catching Aaron and tried to take him by surprise a couple of times, but it didn’t come off.”

Wylie was pleased with third, having faded with mechanical problems towards the end. “I’m quite happy with that,” said Ross. “I was struggling a little bit half way through the race – I think it was a fuel pump issue or something – but SlideSports did a great job to get me on to the podium.”

The battle for fourth place turned out to be the highlight of the race between Depper, Lines, Gilbert and Fulbrook – at one stage they were three abreast. “Three into one doesn’t go,” said Martin, “and I was in the middle, so I backed out of that argument…”

Gilbert’s Mk VI Golf held fourth into the penultimate lap but Fulbrook got the drop on his less experienced rival to snatch the position. “I saw an opportunity and made the move,” said Joe, “even though I was struggling for pace a bit. It was a great battle.” Depper demoted Gilbert to sixth on the final lap, Martin struggling with a tyre pressure imbalance which was costing him cornering speed. Lines collected a five-second penalty for a track limits transgression and was classified seventh.

Chris Levett equalled his Rockingham result with eighth place in the JWB Motorsport Scirocco, despite a loose steering wheel and dashboard, leading home Josh Caygill’s AWM Golf and Peter Wyhinny’s SEAT in 10th.

Andy Wilmot was the leading Team HARD Golf driver in 11th, two places ahead of his team-mate Tom Barley, with Jack Walker-Tulley a creditable 12th in his first race of the year, having taken over the Golf raced thus far this season by the reigning champion, his cousin James Walker.

Didge Dziurzynski was a disappointed 14th, his Mk IV Golf seeming to have lost most of its Rockingham pace, and David Fairbrother completed the top 15 in his Pall-Ex Scirocco; Fairbrother started ninth and held a top-eight position early on before spinning. Low fuel cost Robin Riley a couple of positions on the final lap, the Scirocco man coming home 19th behind the cars of Alex Dziurzynski, Kieran Griffin and Simon Tomlinson. The top 20 was completed by KPM’s Philip Morris.

Tony Gilham’s Team HARD men Dominic Pettit and David Sutton suffered mechanical problems – Pettit driving the car that Gilham had been due to race. They were joined in retirement by Tony Harberman, who beached his Beetle in a gravel trap on lap seven. Ash Shuttlewood made a successful championship debut in his Team HARD Golf, completing the finishing order in 25th.

Round 6
Henry Gilbert started race two from the pole by dint of his sixth-place finish in race one, and there were no mistakes off the line from the Leicestershire lad, Henry beating off a determined challenge from Depper to wrest the lead into Copse. But Gilbert found his Golf’s handling nowhere near as good as it had been in race one, and when Depper dived for the inside line into Stowe, he had to give best to the Scirocco man.

There was plenty of opening lap drama behind as Mason started his charge from sixth on the grid. Aaron’s Scirocco made contact with House’s car, sending Phil well off track in the process, and Wylie, after a strong start, started to drop back with a mystery loss of bottom-end power.

Depper crossed the line after one lap of frantic action with a second in hand over Lines, who had pushed Gilbert back to third, with Mason fourth ahead of Wylie and a remarkably fast-starting Walker-Tulley, with Levett next up from a struggling-for-power Fulbrook.

Lap three was the clincher for Mason: having passed Gilbert for third through the complex he drove around the outside of Lines at Stowe and then ran side by side with Depper from Abbey through to Village Corner before Martin was forced to concede the lead to him. Lines took advantage also, passing his team-mate for second before the lap’s end.

Lines, enjoying his best-ever run in the championship, pushed Mason hard all the way to the chequered flag but was unable to get close enough to attempt a pass; they were separated by a bare second at the end. “It hasn’t been the best weekend for me up to now, so second is a great result,” said Stewart. “I should have won, really, because I had the legs on Aaron but he just outmanoeuvred me and I didn’t have enough to finish him off.”

Said Mason: “The boys did another great job for me; once again the Scirocco has got faster as the weekend has gone on. I was a bit worried about half-way through that race – it cut out a couple of times, not sure if it was because of a dodgy throttle pedal or fuel surge, but I was just grateful to be able to hang on to the end.”

Depper had to content himself with third place, six-tenths adrift of his team-mate. “The guys just got the better of me there… I was in the lead and thought I could hold them but they had some great pace.”

House tried to come back at Mason on the second lap after their earlier brush and bumped the rear of Aaron’s car; Phil’s Scirocco did not handle as well thereafter and fourth place was the best he could manage. Fulbrook came back from his dire opening lap to pass Walker-Tulley, Levett and Gilbert to salvage fifth.

Sixth place was Levett’s best result of the season, with Gilbert a disappointed seventh and Walker-Tulley a delighted eighth; “I was really hooked up in that race, and I’m really pleased,” said the Nottinghamshire youngster.

Wylie’s power problems saw him slip to ninth by the end, with Wilmot securing 10th to bolster his championship top-seven placing. Sutton and Pettit started from the back of the grid after their first-race retirements and did well to make it into the top 12. “My car was great for two laps,” said Sutton, “but then I lost most of the power and couldn’t make up much more ground.”

Caygill, Wyhinny and Griffin completed the top 15, ahead of the Dziurzynski brothers Didge and Alex, Fairbrother, Riley and Thompson. Power steering failure put paid to Harberman’s race while Barley was forced to pull off after suffering tyre damage in an opening lap fracas.

In three weeks the APR Volkswagen Racing Cup returns to battle at the Snetterton circuit in Norfolk, where the championship season will reach its mid-point. Further backing for the championship comes from ECM, CEVA, Hankook, Milltek, Paragon and Prestige Performance Centre.