Joe Fulbrook put in a faultless performance to take victory in race two of the APR Volkswagen Racing Cup’s visit to Rockingham, winning in only his second race behind the wheel of his new Golf GTI.
In just his second race since trading his trusty Volkswagen Bora for a Golf GTI, former double champion Fulbrook held onto his second place on the grid after the fast-starting Martin Depper ran wide at Deene Hairpin after being squeezed out wide by the tightly-bunched pack and down to 17th.
With the top six finishers from the first race reversed for the second race grid, Henry Gilbert held onto his pole position for half a lap, but was quickly shuffled back when Fulbrook made a move inside his Golf rival into Tarzan for the lead, Aaron Mason and Didge Dziurzynski also following suit.
Having passed Phil House, Andy Wilmot was the next man to dispatch Gilbert, while up front, Dziurzynski made his way past Mason for second place with a late move into Deene.
While Depper retired from the race, the lead briefly changed on lap four as Dziurzynski dived inside Fulbrook into Tarzan, Fulbrook taking it right back with a better exit from the hairpin to hang onto the lead.
After a move around the outside into Deene didn’t pay off, Dziurzynski found himself under pressure from race one winner Mason who made his move inside the Golf at Tarzan, the West End Precision Ltd driver holding on to fight his position into the chicane, but Mason held strong and took the place away.
The fight continued on the next lap as Dziurzynski retook the place into Deene, but Mason attacked back coming out of Tarzan. The pair went side-by-side into the chicane, but made contact, Mason spinning his rival onto the grass and down to 11th place, Stewart Lines taking advantage and second place having kept a watching brief for most of the race.
The battle gifted Fulbrook an easy ride to the flag despite closing to within a second, the former champion taking his first win of the year ahead of Lines, who held onto second under pressure from Mason over the last two laps.
Fourth went to Wilmot ahead of PH Motorsport’s House, Gilbert next up ahead of Ross Wylie. The top 10 was completed by the two hard chargers of the race, Chris Levett the first of them after the JWB Motorsport driver came through the field from 24th on the grid to ninth after his first race was ruined by the loss of second gear in race one.
The second of the big movers as the number one Golf of James Walker, who surged up to 10th place having started back in 25th after brake problems lead to his off in the first encounter.