Pictured: Championship leader Aaron Mason. Click to open hi-resolution version

NEWS RELEASE: 28 APRIL 2014

ROCKINGHAM READY TO ROCK WITH A PACKED GRID OF VOLKSWAGENS

After an eventful start at Oulton Park, the Milltek Sport Volkswagen Racing Cup returns to action on Monday (5 May) at Rockingham with another grid packed with cars and expectations. Thirty-two Volkswagens are expected at the Northamptonshire Speedway for what looks set to be another record-breaking day for the championship.

Last year’s champion Aaron Mason and his runner-up Joe Fulbrook lead the points standings after the AWM/Warranty Direct team-mates finished 1-2 in Oulton’s truncated race. But all the signs are present that they are unlikely to have things all their own way this year.

One man planning to take the fight to them is 2012 champion and Milltek Sport Golf GTI driver James Walker, who battled back from gearbox issues in qualifying at Oulton to climb from 18th on the grid to eighth after four laps, the point at which the results were declared. “It was disappointing that they wound back the results to lap four,” said James, “because the reality was that when the red flags came out on lap six I was fifth and challenging for fourth…

“We had had trouble with the gearbox in testing and so put another one in – unfortunately that only gave me third gear in qualifying. So we put the original ’box back in for the race and it was OK, we recovered well. For Rockingham we will have a completely new gearbox, so hopefully all the problems will be solved. We certainly need to do something about Aaron and Joe – they have got off to the start that we all expected and they are the ones to beat.” Walker won his first VW Cup race at Rockingham, in 2008, and was a winner there again in 2011.

The victory spoils in last year’s Rockingham rounds were shared by Mason in his Scirocco and Fulbrook in his Golf. Another previous Rockingham winner is Howard Fuller, who was slightly injured in one of the race-interrupting Oulton Park accidents. Fuller’s Golf GTI is under repair, along with that of Kieran Gallagher, in the workshops of Team HARD, and Howard, who reported nothing worse than soreness, stiffness and some bruises after his startline shunt, is hopeful of being on the grid next week, as is Gallagher.

After his strong showing in qualifying at Oulton and his opening lap heroics to lead the race, James Greenway will be out at Rockingham to show the old order that his White Rose Volkswagen-backed Scirocco has the pace to bag an early win. Another 23-year-old, Lucas Orrock, will be hoping for more luck in qualifying in the KPM Scirocco – his charge from the back of the field to 13th was an Oulton highlight. Meanwhile Sam Morgan will be having his final race as a 16-year-old and will be looking to repeat his top-seven Oulton form.

Others to watch out for at Rockingham include championship top-10 Scirocco pilots David Sutton (SlideSports), Stewart Lines (Maximum Motorsport) and Jack Waller-Tully (Cooke & Mason Racing). Matt Hamilton (THM Racing) enjoyed an encouraging championship debut in his Golf GTI and will be looking to take the fight to the frontrunners. It will be a busy weekend for Josh Caygill, who is racing at Hockenheim in Germany also in the opening rounds of the Scirocco R-Cup.

Double champion Philip House returns to the fray hopeful that he has cured the mechanical gremlins which afflicted his PH Motorsport Scirocco at Oulton, and three drivers who debuted new Sciroccos in Cheshire: David Fairbrother (SlideSports), Chris Panayiotou (Maximum) and Paul Dehadray will be hoping to build on their top-20 form, as will Dehadray’s JWB Motorsport team-mate Stefan Di Resta.