Brands Hatch VW Cup Drama Fest!

Two action-packed Volkswagen Racing Cup events provided the Brands Hatch Bank Holiday weekend crowds with thrills aplenty on Sunday (27 Aug), Lloyd Allard stealing into the championship lead with his first-race victory at the wheel of the ATMR turbodiesel Golf and Beetle driver Tony Gilham claiming his maiden win in the second of the day's events.

Erstwhile points leader Paul Taylor finished both races in second spot and now trails Allard by just four points with four rounds remaining, ensuring a grandstand finish to the Hankook-backed championship over the coming five weeks.

In race one, Taylor's chances of a fourth victory at the wheel of his Big Boys Toys and REVO Technik -backed Golf R32 were dashed by an untimely safety car intervention, the vehicle scrambled to control race pace after a fourth-lap clash between the Golf GTI of Steve Wood and Darelle Wilson's Beetle.

Hertfordshire-based Taylor had done everything right, blasting past pole sitter Allard (Cheltenham) on the run to corner one and stretching his legs to build a two-second lead over the second placed car of local hero Gilham.

But the safety car came into play for two laps while the stricken cars of Wood and Wilson were removed to safety, and this had the effect of bunching up the pack and cancelling Taylor's advantage at a stroke.

At the restart on lap seven, Allard, who held third after a tardy grid getaway, was not slow to pounce. Lloyd dived through on the inside of Graham Hill Bend to seize second from Gilham and then swooped alongside Taylor into Clearways. The two Golfs raced doorhandle-to-doorhandle for the length of Brabham Straight, Taylor forced to concede the lead as they reached Paddock Hill Bend.

It was physical stuff: 'I'm not very happy,' said Taylor later. 'I had two wheels on the grass and I've asked Lloyd to give me a bit more room next time.'

Allard was quick to open out a breathing space and raced to his second win of the season by a margin of just seven-tenths. 'I had a bad start,' he said, 'because I could find no grip, and then I found myself stuck behind Tony. Getting past him and then Paul was a bit of a hassle, but it was a good fun race and I enjoyed it greatly.'

Swanley-based Gilham's hopes of depriving Taylor of second were thwarted by red flags, which flew to halt the race on the 10th lap when Barrie Culley's Vento slid off into the Paddock Hill Bend gravel trap and tipped on to its roof. Culley - like Wood and Wilson - was unhurt but his car was deemed to have come to rest in a dangerous place.

Joe Fulbrook and Martyn Culley duelled for fourth place throughout, with Bora driver Fulbrook eight-tenths ahead when it counted. Adrian Dziurzynski's Mk 2 Golf GTI claimed sixth, with Barrie Culley credited with seventh despite his race-ending excursion.

Reigning Stock Hatch Champion Darren Blumson was an encouraging eighth on his championship debut at the wheel of a Vento, with the Beetles of Paul Lloyd-Roach, Martin Rutherford and Steve Dorrell ninth, 10th and 11th respectively. The battle of the Caddy vans was won by Giles Lock in 12th, with Peter Wyhinny's example 14th, just behind Steve Chaplin's Beetle.

Motorsport News editor Jim Holder brought the Polo GTI home 16th on his race debut, relieved to return it to the paddock without a scratch. 'I put it all down to the car,' he said. 'It certainly wasn't the driver!'

Despite another safety car interlude and, again, a premature race stoppage, the second race of the day was a real corker with several changes of lead, plenty of drama and another new face in the winner's circle.

By dint of his first-race sixth, Adrian Dziurzynski started from the pole - his first - and led the early laps after a superb start. Taylor, starting from fifth, made an even better getaway from the grid but found his progress blocked by Dziurzynski, Gilham and Martyn Culley, three abreast as they dashed for Paddock Hill Bend.

Dziurzynski's redoubtable Golf held the Regal Autosport/GIAC Beetle of Gilham at bay until lap five, despite intense pressure, but Adrian lost out when Tony lunged up his inside into the Druids hairpin following the conclusion of a brief safety car period, necessary to retrieve Jamie Turner's beached Golf VR6 from the Clearways gravel trap.

Frantic lap five saw Culley demoted from third to sixth after he got crossed up through Surtees, with Fulbrook, Taylor and Allard each taking the opportunity to slice past the Vento.

Dziurzynski wasn't beaten yet, however: on the seventh lap he repassed Gilham for the lead and even managed to pull a slight advantage, only for his wretched luck to return a couple of laps later with the loss of fourth gear. Gilham, Taylor and Allard all took advantage.

With four minutes still on the clock and three cars vying for victory, there was every prospect of a grandstand finish. Alas it was not to be for, just as in race one, the red flags flew after a Culley accident. This time it was Martyn in the wars, a rear wheel shearing from his Vento and sending it into a roll at the ultra-fast Westfield Bend. Martyn was shaken but otherwise unhurt.

So the results were declared after nine laps, Gilham the popular victor by the season's narrowest margin, just 0.29s, from Taylor, and with Allard only six-tenths further behind for third. Gilham was generous with his praise for his team: 'The boys have worked solidly for this for three days and I can't thank them enough. It was a very hard race but I'm well happy.'
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Dziurzynski, disappointed at losing out on his maiden win, was consoled by fourth place, his best-ever result, and the fact that it was the first time this year he had finished both races in a weekend. Adrian's brother, Alex, by contrast posted a double retirement at Brands.

Less happy in fifth was Fulbrook, who was bounced out of third two laps from the end by Taylor, the R32 driver forcing his way past through Surtees. Wilson, the youngest driver in the race at 17, battled his way through from 21st on the grid to sixth by the chequered flag.

Rutherford claimed seventh ahead of Blumson, Wood, Lloyd-Roach and Ken Lark's Corrado, with Wyhinny - his Caddy renumbered 50 for the weekend in celebration of his milestone birthday - delighted with 12th. Michael McInerney, his pace revitalised by a between-race engine change for the Europcar Golf GTI, was 16th and Holder 19th in the Polo after a pit visit for running repairs lost him two laps.