A giant-killing Volkswagen Golf TDI has yet again rewritten the form book in the UK's only 24-hour sports and saloon car race, finishing 13th overall, ahead of some much more powerful opposition, and winning its class for the second year in succession.

Piloted by track veterans Ken Lark, Nick Starkey, Stacey Vickers and Tim Saunders - combined age 206 - the TH Motorsport Golf beat its nearest diesel class rival to the chequered flag at Silverstone yesterday (Sunday) by a 10-lap margin.

Former Volkswagen Racing Cup frontrunner Lark was delighted with his team's performance: 'The car ran like a dream. We made no unscheduled pit stops and there were no mechanical problems. In fact, we only stopped eight times during the whole 24 hours and each stop was for an average of two-and-a-half minutes.

'It was a great race, great fun and the Golf went like a typical Volkswagen - and that's why I race Volkswagen products.'

Though the near-standard Golf with its 1.9-litre engine rescued from a written-off road car was no match in terms of outright pace for its more powerful rivals, its frugal nature and ability to stay on track for three-hour stints more than made up for it.

The only drama the team suffered was a pre-qualifying turbo failure which entailed an all-night rebuild completed at 4.30 on the morning the event started.

There were 46 classified finishers and among the Golf's scalps were several Porsches, an Aston Martin, a Jaguar GT3 and a host of BMW M3s. Lark was especially pleased to have trounced the Top Gear team - Jeremy Clarkson, James May, Richard Hammond and 'the Stig' - whose BMW turbodiesel finished 123 laps behind them.

The race winner, for the second year in succession, was the Duller Motorsport BMW MZ4 of Dieter Quester, Dirk Werner, Johannes Stuck and Jamie Campbell-Walter.