Ross Wylie won the penultimate APR Volkswagen Racing Cup at Donington which was severely shortened by a red flag and extended safety car period, while Aaron Mason wrapped up the title.
Wylie led from lights-to-flag in a contest that only saw three racing laps completed, converting his pole position into an early advantage with a great start to lead Joe Fulbrook and Mason into Redgate.
Mason quickly demoted his championship rival to third position with a well-judged lunge under braking into the Melbourne hairpin for the first time, before the race was brought under a lengthy safety car delay for numerous Golf GTIs littering the track following a messy opening lap.
Jack Walker-Tully and Craig Milner were both involved in a first corner accident that left them beached in the gravel, while eighth place starter Josh Caygill was the most notable retirement after his race also ended in the barriers at Old Hairpin.
Superbike star Tommy Hill was also a retirement from the opening lap fracas, being forced to park his JWB Motorsport Golf GTI on his Volkswagen Cup debut.
When the restart finally dawned, Wylie was untouchable up front on the way to a third victory of the season for the Slidepsorts Scirocco driver, his 1.1s lead enough to keep him away from threat.
Behind him, second place was all Mason needed to do to clinch the 2013 championship title, the AWM/Warranty Direct Scirocco man evading trouble on what would be the final lap of the race to seal the deal ahead of Golf GTI rival Fulbrook.
“It wasn’t much of a race really”, Mason spoke of his triumph afterwards. “It’s nice to finally wrap it up”.
“It’s tiring doing all of that weaving!”, joked Fulbrook to thecheckeredflag.co.uk afterwards, surviving brief pressure from Chris Levett‘s JWB Scirocco, Martin Depper attacking Levett before a mistake dropped him behind KPM team-mate Stewart Lines.
The race was however brought to an end shortly after the restart with only two racing laps completed, an accident between David Fairbrother and Phillip Morris at the Old hairpin being the culprit.
Levett, Depper and Lines made up the top six, Phil House, Tom Barley, David Sutton and Kieran Griffin completing the top 10 while Tony Gilham finished just outside in 11th place. Sam Morgan was forced to pit with further problems after an engine change, the KPM driver another non-finisher.