Pictured: Joe Fulbrook. Click to open hi-resolution version

NEWS RELEASE: 1 JUNE 2014

FIRST WIN OF THE SEASON FOR FULBROOK

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After a succession of disappointments at Oulton Park and Rockingham, it all came good for Joe Fulbrook at Silverstone this morning, the double champion scoring his first race victory for 12 months. Joe’s win, the 15th of his Volkswagen Racing Cup career, came ironically at the expense of his AWM/Warranty Direct team-mate Aaron Mason, who fell from the lead with a suspension problem.

Fulbrook’s Golf GTI was again the class of the field in qualifying, the Berkshire man claiming his second successive pole position. Fulbrook qualified 0.165s ahead of the youngest driver of the race, Sam Morgan, to set up an all-Golf front row.

And it was Morgan, who has just celebrated his 17th birthday, who made the better start, his KPM Golf getting ahead of Fulbrook on the charge down to Copse corner. Mason slotted into third off the line ahead of the KPM Scirocco of Lucas Orrock, who had started third and who, like his team-mate Morgan, had enjoyed his best qualifying result so far.

Sam clung to the lead for half a lap until a flying Fulbrook stuck his nose down the inside into Village corner and muscled past him and into top spot. Mason sensed his chance to pounce and followed Joe’s example by diving for the inside into Luffield and demoting Morgan to third. Orrock crossed the line for fourth at the end of the opening lap, and that’s how their positions remained for two laps as the race was neutralised to remove the stricken Golf of Matt Hamilton, which was damaged in an opening lap disagreement with David Fairbrother’s Scirocco.

Fulbrook held a useful 1.5s advantage over Mason at the restart but it wasn’t enough – by the end of lap four Aaron had closed the gap on the leader. The pair ran side by side through Priory and Luffield before Mason was able to edge in front. Orrock had meanwhile snatched third from Morgan, and Stewart Lines, whose Maximum Motorsport Scirocco had been running fifth, was sidelined with a gearbox problem, promoting his team-mate Chris Panayiotou to the top five.

Mason’s tenure of the lead lasted for two laps and, while he could not shake off Fulbrook, the champion appeared to have the measure of things. But Aaron’s race fell to pieces on the penultimate lap when a suspension mount broke, possibly as a result of some early-race kerb bashing. He ran wide at Farm and Fulbrook gratefully regained the lead, with Mason slipping to fifth by lap’s end.

Joe crossed the line 1.6s ahead of rookie Orrock, with Morgan third and delighted to score his maiden podium finish. Panayiotou came home fourth, his best finish of the year. Said victor Fulbrook: “Aaron had the pace to win, so things have worked out pretty well for me. This is really good news for me and for the team after all the hassles we have had with the car this season. We’ve been trying hard and it’s a result which is deserved.”

Orrock said: “I didn’t really have the pace to catch the guys in front so I was just biding my time and hoping someone had a problem, which is what happened. It’s a great result for us – we have had a bit of a troubled start to the year, so all the better for that.”

“It’s a great birthday present,” said Morgan, “especially after all the damage my car suffered at Rockingham. KPM have done a brilliant job repairing it. I made a great start but the others came at me a bit too quick to stay in front.”

Championship leader James Greenway suffered a dire qualifying session, low turbo boost leaving him 14th on the grid, but he battled through to eighth on the opening lap in his rejuvenated White Rose Scirocco and was soon up to sixth. His tyres spent, he was unable to prevent Josh Caygill from passing him on the final lap but James netted sixth – and pole for race two – nonetheless because of Mason’s dramas.

Stefan Di Resta was another leapfrogged on the final lap by Caygill but was able to hang on to seventh ahead of Jack Walker-Tully, who smashed the lap record by three seconds en route to eighth. Howard Fuller’s Golf was the leading Team Hard car to finish, in ninth, with Phil House 10th in his PH Motorsport Scirocco. Mason survived his late-race ordeal to take 11th ahead of a subdued David Sutton in the SlideSports Scirocco, with Hard men Tom Barley and Kieran Gallagher next up ahead of championship debutant Joe McMillan in the Cobra Motorsport Scirocco.