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NEWS RELEASE: 7 FEBRUARY 2014

VOLKSWAGEN RACING CUP RACES TOWARDS SELL-OUT GRID

The Milltek Sport Volkswagen Racing Cup is heading for a capacity grid this season as Scirocco and Golf racers flock to register for the championship. With 10 weeks to go before the opening rounds, series promoter Volkswagen Racing UK has already received 30 fully paid-up entries and knows of at least a further six on their way.

“We have never experienced such levels of interest this early in the season,” said championship manager Matt Walker. “It really is a remarkable vote of confidence in the stability of the series and the value for money that it offers competitors.

“We have a genuine 30 paid-up championship registrations with half-a-dozen more on their way. We are a little worried that we may be over capacity at some circuits, notably Snetterton, where we can start only 32 cars.”

Heading the list of entries are reigning champion Aaron Mason, who this week has confirmed that he will return to defend his Racing Cup title at the wheel of the AWM-prepared Scirocco R with which he won five races in 2013, and Joe Fulbrook, the 2008/’09 title winner, who was Mason’s runner-up last season.

Mason will be joined in the AWM/Warranty Direct squad by Josh Caygill and championship returnee Tim Snaylam, both of whom will race freshly built Sciroccos, Simon Tomlinson in a rebuilt Mk V Golf GTI and Aaron’s younger brother, series newcomer Craig Mason, who will drive the Golf which claimed several 2010 race wins with his sibling aboard. Fulbrook, Scirocco racer Robin Riley and Golf man Simon Andrews will also be part of the multi-car team.

Renewed backing from insurance giant Warranty Direct has allowed Fulbrook to return: “It means we can go and compete with the larger budget teams and hopefully improve on our achievements of 2013. That was meant to be a development year for both myself and Aaron with new ideas and fresh cars but it turned into a great one even with all the issues we both faced.

“It bodes well for this year for us all, although now we are a bigger team things will have to be run a little differently.”

Champion Mason says he does not plan to change too much of his winning combination: “We spent six months of last year learning about the new suspension system, so now that we know a little bit more about it we are hoping to be able to hit the ground running. We’ll be out testing early March for the start of an in-depth programme once we have all the workshop stuff out of the way.

“Obviously I’d like to win the championship again but I feel that it’s more important to be winning as a team; I’d like to help to bring the other drivers on. There will be a strong field out there, by the looks of it, which is great for the championship, but it means that no-one will be able to rest on their laurels…”

Bolton racer Snaylam is going back behind the wheel after a two-year busman’s holiday from racing as a raceday assistant mechanic with AWM. “Aaron called me to say there was a car available and that ideally he’d like me to race it, which was nice, so I have decided to go for it and I’m really looking forward to it – they’re a great bunch of lads in the VW Cup and it’s so competitive. I hope to be a regular in the top eight and maybe even to make the podium if I’m lucky.” Snaylam, whose father was a works Triumph rally driver in the 1950s, placed in the championship top 10 in 2009, ’10 and ’11.

Stewart Lines and Phil House, race winners and championship top-five men from 2013, have already declared their participation for the coming season, and race-winning teams SlideSports, JWB Motorsport and KPM Racing are to return with multi-car squads. There will be a number of championship newcomers on the grid, as well as some old hands such as Andrew Smith, the only driver still competing who took part in the inaugural season of the Volkswagen Racing Cup, in 2000. Beetle racer Smith is so far the only non-Golf/Scirocco registrant.

Team Hard is to return to the Racing Cup with a six-Golf squad featuring front-running drivers from previous seasons, including 2012 race winner Howard Fuller, Tom Barley, Graham Perkins and Kieran Gallagher, plus ex-Formula Ford man Simon Rudd.

One of the 30 championship registrations is for the yet-to-be-decided winner of the Milltek Sport talent-search competition; the eight finalists are scheduled soon to be put through their paces at a track day and judged by a panel of experts headed by Milltek brand ambassador and BTCC racer Tom Onslow-Cole.

Oulton Park on Easter Monday (21 Apr) will be the venue for the opening rounds of the Milltek Sport Volkswagen Racing Cup – the first of 14 British GT Championship-supporting races on the schedule for 2014. Highlight of the year will be twin races at the Belgian Grand Prix circuit of Spa-Francorchamps in July.