VW Cup, Round 1 at Oulton Park

Oulton Park, Round 1

If it wasn’t the driving of the young Laura Tillett that caught the attention of the GT crowd throughout the weekend at Oulton park, it was most certainly her sporty black and green Golf GTI car with a the massive decal of her eyes covering the rear wing.

Laura improved each time she hit the track, knocking seconds off her time until she was putting in competitive times within the pack.
Laura was nervous before qualifying, unknown to where she would come up against her competitors. Unfortunately Laura had missed a gear causing the gear shifter between 3rd and 4th gear to brake at the crucial point of the qualifying session leaving her unable to finish the session and having to settle with 20th position on the grid of 27 drivers.

Race one started off well with Laura having a really good start off the line and making a good number of places up. This wasn’t for long though as a red flag was issued on the first lap which mean’t that the race would be stopped and all the cars would be put back to their original positions. The second start wasn’t as lucky for Laura but throughout the race she made a huge improvement in her times and confidence in the car and ended up finishing one place ahead of where she started.

Race two was another jump forward for Laura as she was now competing for a top 15 position. One mistake where Laura went to overtake the 14th placed car she locked up the rear of the car and slid to a stop, this pushed her back two places and as much as she was catching the pack up again, it wasn’t enough to retain her position, leaving her to finish 17th.

Race three and Laura was starting back in 20th position due to the problem in qualifying. A good start but with the racing being very close Laura struggled to overtake but was gradually coming through the grid making up a couple of places at a time. A really good drive and it was looking like she would be in the top ten as she caught up the front pack. Unable to find that final bit of pace before the end of the race, Laura finished a fantastic 13th place.

Laura really enjoyed her first race in the VW Cup and looks forward to her next round at Rockingham on the 2nd-3rd of May. Laura would also like to thank Team Hard for all their efforts and all of her team mates for all their help and advice.