The 2015 Milltek Sport Volkswagen Racing Cup is set to be the most competitive in the series 15 year history, with a field of 30 cars set to line-up this Easter weekend at Oulton Park.
The grid in Cheshire will see three previous champions gear up ahead of a 16 race season, with five extra-length races adding to the default array of sprint races across all seven rounds, five of which will be screened live on Motors TV.
Also new for 2015 is the RacingLine Sportsman’s Trophy competition, designed to encourage the gentleman driver, and the reintroduction of the famous Volkswagen Beetle, as built over the winter by Brooklands Garage.
“We saw seven different race winners in 2014 and I think there is every chance that there will be even closer competition this season,” said championship manager Matt Walker. “The first two meetings of the year will feature three races each and will be tough for the competitors, and the longer races later on are going to require a lot of strategy and planning. I’m not brave enough to make any predictions other than there will be some great action.”
The pre-season favourites for the season lie behind the garage doors of AWM, with three-time champion Joe Fulbrook aiming to retain the title he won in dramatic style in 2014. On the other side of the garage is Aaron Mason, with the 2013 champion eager to add to his 16 VW Cup race wins and put behind him a disappointing 2014 season.
The third returning champion is Phil House, who won the title in 2004 and ’05 in a Beetle, and who is back for another crack at it with his self-prepared Scirocco. House endured a miserable 2014 season but says he hopes he has cracked the issue which thwarted his pace: “A new turbo seems to have worked wonders – hopefully I will be a lot more competitive.”
One of the sensations in 2014 was car-racing rookie Lucas Orrock, with the Sawston-racer finishing just six points adrift of the title following the Donington Park finale. This season see’s him return in his KPM Racing-prepared Scirocco, in an attempt to go one better in the standings.
Elsewhere on the grid and names such as Robert Barrable and Andy Sutton will be ones to watch, with both the 2014-race winners being joined once again by previous British Touring Car drivers Howard Fuller at the head of a seven-car Team HARD effort, and Mark Smith, who returns to the series after nine years away.
