Pictured: Round 1 victor Aaron Mason. Click to open hi-resolution version

NEWS RELEASE: 1 APRIL 2013

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SCIROCCO MEN MASON & WYLIE SHARE THE OULTON SPOILS

The track temperatures may have been Arctic but the racing was red hot at Oulton Park today as the APR Volkswagen Racing Cup lifted off for a fresh season of entertaining action with a field of 27 cars and some exciting new driving talent.

The two Oulton races were both crackers, with a three-way battle for victory in the first of them settled only at the final corner in favour of Aaron Mason and his new Warranty Direct/AWM Scirocco, and an impressive display in the second sprint from the SlideSports Scirocco of championship newcomer Ross Wylie, whose prodigious talent more than compensated for his relative lack of experience.

Wylie and Martin Depper, a podium finisher today, jointly hold the championship lead after the day’s action, which will be screened later this week on Motors TV.

Round 1
Mason’s path to victory never looked easy. The Doncaster driver was pressured all the way to the chequered flag, first by Golf GTI man Jim Cartwright (Matlock) and then by Birmingham-based Depper in his KPM-run Scirocco.

Mason seized the lead at the outset of the 11-lap race, overhauling pole man James Walker’s Golf on the run down to Old Hall. By lap’s end Aaron’s advantage was 1.1s over Depper, with Peter Wyhinny’s SEAT Leon third and Cartwright fourth.

Two places gained on lap two saw Cartwright charge through to second, and within a further lap the 25-year-old had set two consecutive fastest laps to close right on to Mason’s tail. “My car for the first five laps was just awesome, absolutely mega,” said Jim.

Mason, Cartwright and Depper flew in tight formation until the end of the sixth lap, when Jim made a slightly better exit out of Lodge to nose ahead of Aaron across the start/finish line. He stayed a fraction ahead until Cascades, where light contact between them saw Cartwright slide wide and briefly off the track, slipping to third in the process.

“I managed to get past Aaron but then I locked my brakes and unfortunately gave him a bit of a bang,” said Cartwright, who prepared his Coverworld-backed Golf at the track virtually single-handed. “Then, running up to Knickerbook, I gave him room but he pushed me on to grass. It was fair enough, and I’m delighted with third, it’s a great boost.”

Mason’s worries were far from over, however. Depper broke the lap record in pursuit of the leader over the closing four laps and tried every wily manoeuvre in the book to try to find a way past. But Aaron had an answer to every move of Martin’s and crossed the line a quarter-second ahead. Cartwright was five seconds behind them.

“Given that I’ve had only around six hours in the new car, I’m very pleased,” said Mason, who also won the final two rounds of 2012. He’s the first hat-trick winner since 2007. “Martin did a great job, to be fair – he kept it clean. Jim raced well also; I think both of them had faster cars than mine towards the end of the race, but mine was a bit wider.”

Added Depper: “I tried just about everything, but I couldn’t get past. It was a great battle out there, a great race and really enjoyable.”

An impressive fourth on his debut in the VW Cup and in his first race on slick tyres was Dumfries driver Wylie. Ross, who will also contest the European Scirocco R-Cup this season, lifted fourth from the clutches of SEAT Leon driver Peter Wyhinny five laps from the end.

The 2008 and ’09 champion, Joe Fulbrook, took fifth on what he hopes will be his final appearance in his venerable Bora – plans to debut a new Golf GTI at Oulton Park were thwarted by a testing crash. Fulbrook took the spot from Wyhinny on lap nine; Peter was nonetheless delighted with his strong qualifying pace and race sixth.

Phil House, the returning champion from 2004 and ’05, was pleased by the pace of his PH Motorsport Scirocco following a troubled qualifying; he placed seventh, ahead of the oldest car on the grid, Alex Dziurynski’s de-mothballed Corrado. Team HARD Scholarship winner David Sutton was a notable ninth on his debut in the championship, with Superbike-racing star Josh Caygill 10th in his first-ever car race at the wheel of his AWM/Warranty Direct Golf GTI.

Local hero Phil Morris survived a half-spin at Island Bend to take 11th, well clear of KPM’s Stewart Lines, who stalled on the line and did well to make the top 12 by the end, especially given a last-lap loss of power from his Scirocco. Andy Wilmot led home his Team HARD comrade and series debutant Tom Barley for 13th, with David Fairbrother taking 15th in his new car, the Pall-Ex-liveried SlideSports Scirocco.

Of the remaining championship debutants, Emma Selway placed 16th, Jorge Calado 23rd after a pit visit to cure an electrical gremlin and David Garnsworthy 24th in his Vanworx Caddy. James Walker had to settle for 19th after power delivery problems sapped his pace; he had held sixth early on. Chris Levett retired his JWB Motorsport Scirocco with fuel pressure problems, while Cameron Thompson and Paul Dehadray retired after coming together in the closing laps, the crash blamed on a disintegrating wheel on Dehadray’s Golf, which led to a spin.

Round 2
There were only six racing laps in round two, but Wylie made superb use of them and his SlideSports Scirocco to score an impressive victory on his debut weekend in the championship. Ross snatched the lead on the opening lap after starting third thanks to the reverse-grid draw, behind Wyhinny and Fulbrook. Fulbrook made the better getaway of the three to lead initially, but by lap’s end Wylie was in charge and leading his pursuers by a second.

Bottled up behind Wyhinny were Mason and Cartwright, and the three-way battle for third shaped the course of the race when, on lap three, Mason and Cartwright made contact at Island Bend and Cartwright’s car came to rest in a dangerous position, necessitating a safety car period while it was retrieved. The results of the race will remain provisional until stewards have viewed video footage of the crash.

Wylie kept his head for the three controlled laps and nailed the restart to pull even further clear of Fulbrook in the final three-lap dash for the chequered flag. Ross was 1.8s ahead of the Bora man at the line, with Wyhinny third – his first podium finish since 2008 – a whisker ahead of Depper.

“It’s the perfect way to start the new season,” said Wylie, who is tied on points for the championship lead with Depper. “This was my first weekend on proper racing slicks, so it was a whole new ball game for me. I got my head down and worked hard at it – it was a difficult race because of the safety car but I just had to keep my cool.”

SlideSports boss Mark Jenkins was impressed by his new charge: “Ross is an asset to the team and has done a great job today. He has natural talent, is very capable and very intelligent and he will be even better when he has learned about working with the slick tyres.”

“I thoroughly enjoyed both races today,” added Wyhinny, “especially this last one. I had to be quite defensive over the last couple of laps – sorry guys if I got in the way. I hope this isn’t just a one-off and that I can make the podium regularly this season.”

There were battles and excitement all the way down the finishing order. Team HARD’s David Sutton capped his earlier performance with a fine fifth ahead of Alex Dziurzynski, while Walker made up for his first-race disappointment – and an early-race clash with the Scirocco of Stewart Lines – to take seventh.

After his collision with Cartwright, Mason lost some ground and dropped further back still with a lurid slide across the grass at Old Hall after the restart. He recovered to eighth by the end, ahead of Wilmot and Morris. Mason was later excluded from the results following an investigation of his accident with Cartwright.

Caygill placed 10th, ahead of Fairbrother, Barley and Selway, with Dehadray putting his earlier problem behind him to take 14th. House joined Cartwright and Lines in retirement through accident damage – Phil went off on the final lap while trying to join the Wyhinny/Depper fight for third. “I smelt the chance of a podium finish and then locked up the rears and went off,” he said.

The APR Volkswagen Racing Cup returns to battle in a month’s time at Rockingham. Further backing for the championship comes from ECM, CEVA, Hankook, Milltek, Paragon and Prestige Performance Centre.