Chris Adams secured another gold place finish in the Castle Combe leg of the much-loved championship
EBC Brakes is proud to continue its support of the Classic VW Cup race series for 2021. This UK-based championship is the go-to place for all club-level VAG-Group motor racing, with two distinct classes meaning you can expect packed grids including everything from Mk1 Golfs all the way through to engine-swapped SEAT Leon Cupras.
During the penultimate Castle Combe leg of the championship, the winner of the first race, Chris Adams was proudly sporting EBC Brakes Racing’s RP-X track/race pad. Adams continues to lead the championship overall as the series approaches its final round in the coming weeks. The full story on how the weekend unfolded can be read below.
Castle Combe, 18 September
On Saturday morning, everyone woke to a very thick fog all around the circuit. We were due on track at 8:30am for qualifying, but due to little or no visibility, the start was delayed until about 9:30am. The ever-helpful staff at Combe put another marshal post in use to get the required post-to-post visibility rules in order!
Qualifying was a mixed bag, with most drivers having not raced here for years and having to relearn the circuit in the reduced qualifying time of 10 minutes to try and regain the time through the day due to the fog.
Local boy Alex Kite took pole. Behind him was Chris Adams, followed by Tim Moll and Donald Dewar, who incidentally hadn’t been to the track for over 20 years!
Andrew Dean followed up the field; his first time out in the car for a few years and still nursing it after all the mechanical issues previously.
As it turned out, Dave Pinkney was sharing the car and was going to do the invitation race at the end of the day, but it sadly wasn’t meant to be as there was another issue arose with the car again forcing retirement – such a shame considering all the hard work those guys put into it.
With the lights going out for race 1, the pack flew up over Avon Rise. Unfortunately, Tim had someone brake hard in front of him, catching him unaware and causing him to tap the back of one of the Peugeots. This allowed Donald Dewar through. Lap two saw Alex Kite out-brake himself over the Avon Rise and take the grassy route through the corner, losing several places, one of them being to Chris Adams who benefitted from his mistake and took the lead in the EBC Brakes Racing RP-X-equipped car. A few laps later, Donald was getting to grips with the track, only to get tapped into a spin and lose several places – fortunately none of these were to any of his CVWC compadres!
Gareth Haycock, in his first time out with CVWC, decided enough was enough after 7 laps as his car cried ‘enough’ and stopped!
The last few laps were behind a safety car because of a stranded car at Tower, so no more real racing was to be had.
Race 1 Results
1st – Chris Adams
2nd – Alex Kite
3rd – Donald Dewar
After a few spots of rain during the race before, some started pumping up their wet tyres in readiness for a deluge in race 2, but thankfully this never happened.
With Donald bolting on a brand-new pair of the fantastic Nankang AR-1s on the front of his Golf, he was ready to take the fight to the rest of the grid, having got continuously faster throughout the day.
Tim Moll managed to straighten out the front of his Berg Cup Golf and resecured a broken engine mount, so he was also ready to rock, too.
Again, the pack soared off into the distance. A few laps on saw Alex Kite just about slip past Chris Adams and into the lead in the R32-powered Vento.
Just behind was Donald Dewar, closing in on the front-runners and punching in some really good lap times. Unfortunately, after five laps, Tim’s car developed a random engine/clutch vibration which meant retirement and an early bath.
Race 2 Results
1st – Alex Kite
2nd – Chris Adams
3rd – Donald Dewar
Thanks again to all who turned up and supported CVWC at Castle Combe, especially our racing partners at EBC Brakes Racing. The Classic VW Cup is out for its last round at Donington Park on October 30 for the title decider, see you there!
RP-1 Track/Race Pads
Pairing high-performance with unprecedented control, resulting in a track pad that feels uniquely different to the competition and allows drivers to extract every last tenth from each and every braking zone.
RP-X Track/Race Pads
Following the hugely successful launch of RP-1™, EBC Brakes Racing increases its motorsport brake pad range with the introduction of our latest ultra-high-performance track & race material, RP-X™.
