VW Racing Cup: Oulton Park – Weekend Round-up

Easter Weekend welcomed Maximum Motorsport’s Volkswagen Racing Cup for their maiden round of the year at Oulton Park.

The intense single-make championship attracted a raft of talent, with a manic Monday seeing Owen Walton end the proceeding’s as the points leader and winner of the Tom Walker Memorial Trophy, after taking the flag in race two.

Touring Car racer Brett Smith dominated qualifying and the opening race, pulling away from Josh Coggan and Slidesports Simon Walton, setting the stage for the year ahead. Martin Depper and Rob Allum would pick up silverware in a dramatic second race that was briefly interrupted by a red flag after a bonnet was wedged into the barrier on the opening lap.

Qualifying

Brett Smith took a maiden pole position in the first Volkswagen Racing Cup round. The former-BTCC driver set a 1min 49.995 around Oulton Park, 0.747 seconds ahead of the opposition in the Scirocco R run by Maximum Motorsport.

Local driver Mark Wakefield first out on track and set the initial time before VW rookie Brett Smith brought down the benchmark. With the track and cars heating up, Wakefield and the two Smith’s continued to dice it out.

Just like 2017, the Walton’s were immediately on the pace, with both of them powering into the top five by the middle of qualifying. After a brief pitstop, Wakefield and Simon Walton returned to the tack for a final push. Though during this time, Brett Smith had continued to lap quicker, becoming the only driver to drop below the 1min 50sec mark, pitting before the flag.

A slew of fast times ensured Simon Walton brought the gap back to under a second, with a 1min 50.742, but no-one could best the time from B. Smith. The Audi TT joins the former-Eurotech driver on the front row as Josh Coggan took third with an inspired last lap making it three car models in the top three.

Lewis Smith will be fourth as the second fastest Maximum Motorsport driver ahead of Mark Wakefield who was unable to continue his early momentum, with the Nantwich driver settling for fifth.

Russell Joyce will be sixth for PMR Racing as Owen Walton dropped to seventh having run as high as fourth during the session. 2018 race winner Martin Depper would be eighth immediately in front of his son Jack for the start. Splitting the two on the grid would be Darrelle Wilson, whose session was hindered after an extended stint in the pits.

Race 1

The first Volkswagen Racing Cup event of the weekend saw Brett Smith continue his sensational run, winning by 7.1 seconds at Oulton Park.

Racing for Maximum Motorsport, the Scirocco driver was untouchable in qualifying and continued his dominance in the first race, pulling away from Josh Coggan over the 20 minute event.

“It’s good to be back to winning ways. It was a hard race, Josh pushed me all the way,”

“To come to a championship in which you don’t know the car well, that bodes quite well for me. We should be able to keep pushing it forward and build a couple of tenths over the season.” – Brett Smith

The talk of the start was Josh Coggan, leaping up into the lead. Polesitter Smith in turn had struggled off the line, suffering from brake fade into Old Hall, tapping Coggan from behind and damaging his front bumper, with Smith claiming it hampered him through Cascades. Smith was not prepared to let the opportunity slip, keeping up with the DW Racing Golf, lunging into Druids. Smith had the lead, but with a damaged car, struggled to initially pull away, with Coggan continuing to hound.

Ignoring the pressure, the ex-BTCC driver soon found his groove, pulling a six second gap by the end of the race, setting the fastest lap. A win on debut is an incredible result for the 26-year-old, who puts himself in the strongest position earn the Tom Walker Memorial Trophy this weekend; given to the driver who scores the most points throughout the two races.

Simon Walton, who had started second, initially went with the leaders, holding third throughout the race for another strong result at Oulton from the Audi TT driver.

Fourth would be Martin Depper after an incredible drive through the field from eighth. The Maximum Motorsports driver made up for his earlier qualifying result, overtaking Owen Walton in the closing laps after an intense battle on track.

Local driver Dan Crossley won the Hankook Trophy for drivers over 60. The Bramhall driver, who lives just 30 miles from the circuit secured sixth on the road on his return to the VW Cup. The JW Bird Motorsports driver remained out of trouble and started on pole for the reverse grid race later that day.

Unfortunately for Darelle Wilson and Jeff Alden, last lap retirements cost them both top ten finishes. Similar bad luck had affected Lewis Smith, who pulled off on the green flag lap, losing a fourth place start. They had it all to do for race two.

Race 2

Owen Walton took victory in a shortened second Volkswagen Racing Cup race. As a result, the Slidesports driver secures not just the points lead, but also the Tom Walker Memorial Trophy.

Walton remained out of trouble, to take victory during the short sprint to the line after a red flag and an extended safety car interrupted proceedings. The Slidesport’s driver had been struggling with a mapping issue all weekend and was pleased to have taken victory at Oulton Park, a circuit in which he’s had previous success, winning his debut Volkswagen Cup race here in 2017.

“We always go well here. Finishing race one in fifth and race two in first, we were just building momentum throughout the day. Oulton Park has always been strong, but it’s not my favourite circuit.”

Speaking about winning the Tom Walker Memorial Trophy, he said; “Tom and I picked up first and second here last year. At other circuits as well, we always had good battles, I was a good friend of Tom, it really meant a lot. To have Tom’s mum and dad come and present it and to have my name on that trophy moving forward it’s a great, great privilege.” – Owen Walton

Second place would go to Martin Depper, who’d been chasing O.Walton since the start of the race. The ex-BTCC driver, who was making a guest appearance at Oulton Park, narrowly missed out on the Memorial Trophy. Rounding out the podium would be series veteran Rob Allum, making a return with Allumy Motorsports, who Tom Walker raced for. As a local driver, the result had double significance for the Golf driver.

One of the drives of the race would go to Mark Wakefield. Despite starting on the penultimate row, the Mark Wakefield Racing with HSG Sport driver threaded his way through the pack during the two starts, jumping up to fourth on the final lap and almost catching Allum for the podium.

Matt Evans finished fifth on the road to claim the Hankook Trophy for JW Bird Motorsports, ensuring four teams would be represented on the podium.

“It was very interesting that race. I just managed to stay out of trouble, on both starts I managed to miss them through Cascades, but it’s always disappointing when you’re racing behind the safety car for most of it,” said Evans.

Sadly for race one winner Brett Smith, a repeat of the earlier success was not on the cards, as contact with Rob Allum saw the Maximum Motorsport driver squeezed and spun into the inside barrier, taking him out of action on the first start.

Brett walked out if the car uninjured, though a red flag would be called as his bonnet was wedged into the barrier at Lakeside, needing marshal attention to remove.

After a brief delay, the competitors, minus Smith, lined back up for the race restart, though a safety car was quickly called after polesitter Dan Crossley was spun, being collected by Owen Walton and Josh Coggan.

Russell Joyce proved to be another fast mover on the final lap, jumping up to sixth and finishing ahead of Darrelle Wilson. Jeff Alden recorded an eighth on his maiden VW weekend as Lewis Smith and Josh Coggan rounded out the top ten.