CBT Golf driver Steve Wood takes championship title / CBT Classic VW Challenge

The CBT Business Travel VW Golf and its driver Steve Wood are the 2015 Classic VW Champions after another brilliantly successful weekend, this time at the super-fast Thruxton circuit in Hampshire over the weekend of 3/4 October.

It was a weekend which netted Steve and the CBT Golf another two race wins, something of a surprise, because they had planned to contest only one of the Thruxton races…

But things did not go to plan for Steve and Stuart: their CBT Chevrolet Camaro developed a misfire during a final road test prior to being loaded up for the Britannia Cup event in Surrey. Steve and Stuart had previously finished second and third overall on The Tour Britannia, and this year they were going for the overall win. Since Tour Ireland earlier in the year the Camaro had undergone a complete engine and gearbox rebuild as well as a great deal of other work.

Due to the problems with the Camaro it was decided to instead head to Thruxton for the weekend and race the CBT Motorsport VW Golf in the Classic VW Challenge. The original plan was to race just on the Sunday and to try to clinch the championship with a race win. The CBT Golf held a 10-point championship lead over nearest rival Ken Lark and if Ken won the race on Saturday, together with the fastest lap, it would make Sunday’s race very interesting with Steve having to win it and get fastest lap for the championship. With Steve now free to race on the Saturday as well, he would now get two chances of wrapping things up over the weekend and not just the one.

Qualifying Saturday
The Classic VW Challenge drivers would line up again with the VTEC Pre 2003 Production Touring Cars and, new for Thruxton, the Hyundai Coupe Cup. Thirty-five cars would qualify for their grid position and even around Thruxton’s 2.3-mile track it would be very busy and finding space would be very important for a quick time.

Steve and Stuart decided to invest in a pair of front tyres as Thruxton’s high speed corners are notoriously hard on the front left and punctures are very common here. Steve would be very cautious over the first few laps of the 15-minute qualifying and languished 26th before posting a lap time of 1m 25s on his fifth lap, which would be good enough for overall pole position with an average speed of nearly 100mph. His nearest VW Challenge rival, Ken Lark, would start in third place on the grid after posting a time of 1m 28s, which would see him line up behind Jim McLoughlin’s Honda Integra. Behind Ken was the very rapid Honda Civic of Alexander Owen (AJ) who was going for the Pre 2003 Production Touring Car Championship. With 35 cars lining up for race one on Saturday afternoon it had all the ingredients for a fascinating race with two championships still to be decided.

Race 1 Saturday
This would be a 15 minute race, but unlike Snetterton would be from a standing start. Steve and the CBT Motorsport VW Golf made an excellent getaway but they were led into the first corner, Allard, by the even quicker-starting Jim McLoughlin. The VW Golf had suffered from excessive wheelspin at the start.

It took Steve only half a lap before he was in the overall lead of the race. He managed to maintain that position for the duration, coming home six seconds ahead of McLoughlin’s Integra and, more importantly for the 2015 championship win, 26 seconds ahead of Ken Lark’s rapid Corrado. A mighty battle had developed behind the race-winning CBT Golf with AJ’s Civic getting ahead of the Integra after the Integra had spun at the very fast Church Corner on lap three. However, the Integra went on to reverse that position on lap nine.

On his way to race and championship victory, Steve also set the quickest race lap of 1m 26s on his third lap, also a new lap record for the Classic VW Challenge. A delighted Steve Wood accepted the racewinner’s laurels and was duly crowned 2015 VW Challenge Champion – great result for Steve and Stuart and everyone at CBT Motorsport.

Race 2 Sunday
The second race of the weekend for the VW Challenge, Production Touring Cars and Hyundai Coupe Cup would again be over 15 minutes and the 34 cars would line up on the grid in the finishing order from Saturday’s race. The CBT VW Golf would thus start from pole position with Jim McLoughlin, AJ and Ken Lark starting behind the Golf.

As in race one, Steve made an excellent start but again suffered from excessive wheelspin. After the first lap the CBT Golf was second overall behind Jim McLoughlin’s Integra and by lap two had also fallen behind AJ’s charging Civic to drop to third. By lap three, however, the mighty Golf was back up to second and flying. On lap five Steve took the lead after some superb and very close driving and took the chequered flag and another overall race win by 3.4 seconds. The overall top four finishing order was the same as race one, and the CBT Golf claimed another fastest race lap of 1m 27s.

“The championship was already but without doubt Sunday’s race was a real cracker,” said a delighted Steve.

During the 2015 season the CBT (ex-British GT) Golf claimed nine race wins and a second place from 10 race starts, a remarkable record by any standards. Steve and Stuart would like to thank Ian Fowler, the VW co-ordinator, and all the Classic VW Challenge competitors for making 2015 such a memorable season.