VW Racing Cup: Coggan Claims Race One Honours

A shortened first Volkswagen Racing Cup race saw Josh Coggan blast to the front, taking his first win of the year and the championship lead. Coggan started from the second row, but benefited from the leaders mistakes to break away, with Rob Allum, from the rest of the pack.

Allum had already out dragged Simon Walton before the first corner, though it would go bad to worse for the Audi TT driver, spinning at Wilson and dropping to the back. Allum had survived the hairpin incident, but sacrificed the lead to the fast starting Josh Coggan after he’d run deep into the corner. The two quickly pulled away as the field bunched up behind.

Sadly this bunching resulted in a crash between Brett Smith and Dan Crossley, with the latter being flipped into barrier at the pit entrance, landing on top of the barrier. As Smith also blocked the pit lane entrance, the race was red flagged.

Smith had slowed slightly on the exit of Murray’s, as Mark Steel and Crossley moved out of the way to get around him. As the track narrowed for the pit lane, the drivers came into contact spinning them to the inside of the track. Both drivers walked away, but were taken to hospital for checks and the cars were extracted from the track, however there was not enough time to restart and so the race was called.

This meant that Josh Coggan was declared the winner, the DW Racing driver taking the lead of the championship as a result. Allum will rue the opening lap, though also records his second podium of the year. Coggan starts from sixth for the reverse grid race, with the full 60kg weight on board.

Rounding out the podium was Tony Prendergast. The local driver was thrilled with the result, in front of his supporters. The JW Bird Motorsport driver was the highest placed Scirocco and had benefited from Walton’s spin at the first corner.

Results were counted back a lap, so Matt Evans took his best result of the year with fourth, recording a Hankook Trophy win and narrowly behind his JWB teammate. One driver who had been impressive was Mark Wakefield. The Cheshire driver had started from the back due to a clutch change last night that had stopped him from qualifying.

Wakefield was already inside the top eight at the end of the first lap, and continued to jump during the second lap, slicing past Russell Joyce to eventually be classified fifth after results were taken back a lap. Joyce thus starts on reverse grid pole.

Young Jack Depper would eventually lead his father Martin for seventh. The former BTCC driver had qualified towards the front, but had been pushed wide in the early stages, recovering to keep his championship chances alive. Former points leader Owen Walton was only ninth, as Lewis Smith completed the top ten for Maximum Motorsport.

Despite his spin, Simon Walton recovered to eleventh ahead of his Slidesports teammate Mark Steel. Rounding out the finishers would be the JWB Cheshire duo of Richard Gilbert and Michael Jones.