The final race of the 2013 APR Volkswagen Racing Cup at Donington was one of the season’s tightest contests of the campaign, Aaron Mason hanging on in a race-long fight with Martin Depper for the victory.
The race was fittingly claimed by the eventual champion, who made his way into the lead after two first lap overtakes on the KPM Sciroccos of Stewart Lines and Depper at McLeans and Coppice after both held each other up at Old Hairpin.
The race became a five-car duel for the spoils with Ross Wylie and Joe Fulbrook joining the party, Lines dropping to the back of the battle while Fulbrook attacked Depper for second spot.
Mason was briefly gifted a small lead but that was trimmed to nothing very quickly, Depper claiming the top spot on lap four with a lunge at Melbourne hairpin. The AWM/Warranty Direct driver fought back at the following bend, but had to slot into second place behind his Scirocco rival.
Lines forced his way up to third past Wylie before watching his KPM team-mate surrender the lead at McLeans once again to Mason on lap six, the pair getting physical with each other at the Melbourne hairpin.
Depper challenged one final time at the last corner, but it was not enough as Mason took a fifth win of 2013 to round off his title-winning year.
Fulbrook dropped back briefly after an off on lap five at the Fogarty Esses but recovered to a close fourth place, AWM newbie David Sutton finishing a distant fifth after catching and passing race one winner Wylie.
Seventh was set to go the way of Tony Gilham but the Team HARD boss was forced to retire late in the race, gifting a well-earned seventh place to Sam Morgan who fought his way through the field from a lowly 27th place on the grid.
The top 10 was also rounded out by another strong fightback from the back, 28th-placed Josh Caygill charging through to 10th spot.
While Gilham’s race ended unfortunately early, his team-mates Graham Perkins and Darelle Wilson both suffered spins during the race that dropped them out of contention.
