VW Cup rounds 5 & 6, Snetterton

I spent a very enjoyable day basking in the sunshine at Snetterton (a bit unusual!) catching up with some of the top ex Stock Hatch drivers as they prepared for the next round of the VW Cup, Paul Taylor in a Golf R32, Richard Kingsnorth in a diesel Golf, and Darren Blumson in a Beetle.

Qualifying was brought to a very abrupt halt early on as one of the Beetles rolled, but after the restart, Darren put in some consistent laps, improving on his testing times from the previous day. The car still makes a knocking noise on right hand bends, but overall Darren was pleased with his times. Richard continues to try to resolve a few minor issues with his car, but has closed the gap to the rest of the field noticably. Paul again was confident and fast throughout, but left his best until the very last lap.

Paul Taylor had taken the lead on lap 1 from his his 4th place grid slot with a terrific start, but had to fight long and hard to maintain the position against both Wood and Fullbrook, the lead swapping hands several times but with Taylor still at the helm as the flag dropped. A good start saw Darren up to 7th on the first lap, and amongst a large pack of cars fighting for 6th spot. A crowd pleasing scrap saw very close action, particularly at the Russell chicane, as several of the cars diced for position. In the car however, things were not going as smoothly as they appeared from outside the car. Gear selection was becoming difficult, which Darren described as stirring porridge - and the porridge was getting thicker, perhaps contributing to the huge sideways slide through Coram. Eventually, with gear selection getting worse, Darren was forced to conceed 7th place, then 8th, and 9th before eventually retiring when the engine appeared to also drop power. Richard fought long and hard further down the field and begins to reap the rewards of the potential that both he and the car have.

Overnight Darren's team attempted some repairs on the gear linkage, and also replaced a rear wheel bearing in the hope of curing the knocking. With a D.N.F recorded in Saturdays race, Darren would have to start from 18th on the grid. A blistering start saw him immediately pass the 2 cars in front off of the line, only to slip back to last again with yet more gear selection problems. Meanwhile Taylor too had made his usual flying start to take the lead, before later experiencing gear selection problems of his own, and dropping back to 8th.