2016 CHAMPION: PHIL HOUSE

Rounds 8 and 9 of the 2016 Milltek Sport Volkswagen Racing Cup took place at one of the most famous race tracks in the world – Spa-Francorchamps.

Qualifying was held under the Belgium sun and without a cloud in the sky it didn’t take long for the Scirocco’s prove their power on the 4.35mile track.

Jack Walker-Tulley topped the times early on before Dennis Strandberg, Phil house and Bobby Thompson played and a game of swaps as the 4 topped each others times lap after lap before Strandberg took the honours from Walker-Tulley and B. Thompson.

Strandberg: “I’m pretty pleased with that, I mean, I didn’t expect that at all. I was hoping for top 5, but P1 is beyond my expectation. This will be my 4th time racing at Spa but I’ve never driven a front wheel drive car here but it's all about the balls going up Eau Rouge!.”

As the lights went out on race 1, it was less than half a lap before the yellow flags were deployed after Amy Dziurzynski’s golf made contact with the wall at the top of Eau Rouge.

It didn’t take too long for the Power Maxed Polo R piloted by Bobby Thompson to claim the lead from Strandberg, but the Swede fought back within 1 lap to claim the lead once again. Walker-Tulley then made the move on Thompson demoting him to 3rd place.

Witts, Dole, Rudd and Gordon were forming an immense pack battle for 5th place. With less than 1 second separating the pack, Witts was defeated under the pressure from Dole, who managed to make the move. Witts was now forced to defend from Rudd and Gordon.

With 3 different leaders over the duration of the race, it took until lap 8 for Strandburg, Walker-Tulley and Thompson to pull a slight lead from the chasing pack behind.

Strandberg: That was far from an easy win – I had most of them just behind me, I was trying to pull away, but it just didn’t happen. I was quick in the 1st sector, but then they just caught me up.

Walker-Tulley: I made a mistake on the 1st lap, and it put me down to 4th so I had to fight back, It probably didn’t make too much difference because the car came on and the pace was there. I was a lot faster through the middle to the last sector, but I got the laps mixed up, and that was that.

Thompson: I think we started quite strong because the Polo R is always good on its tyres, but the 60ks success ballast killed us a little bit. I’m confident Strandberg (Dennis) and Jack (Walker-Tulley) now have success ballast so it’s a level playing field for race 2.

With the track temperatures soaring Tom Witts would be starting on Pole following the reverse grid formation with Team-Hard’ Dole joining him on the front row.

Witts made a fantastic start from the line and lead the pack around La Source and up Eau Rouge for the first time, however, further back Strandberg was making his charge and was up from 7th to 5th after just 2 turns.

House was also making a charge for the lead passing David and Dole within 2 laps he now had his eyes set firmly on Witts.

House made a dive for the lead from Witts and made it stick. House now leading the way was faced with Yellow flag’s in Sector 2 after Rudd’ Golf stopped out on track.

Strandberg was still charging through the pack and by the end of the 3rd lap was up to 3rd place but was heavily defending from Dole.

Davis, who started on the front row, had dropped back to 7th as he wasn’t able to defend off the experienced racers and the strong performing Siroccos’.

Walker-Tulley had closed the gap on Strandberg and Dole, making the pass on Dole before suffering contact with Strandberg elevating Walker-Tulleys car backwards into the tyre wall.

With Strandberg heading to the pits The Safety Car was deployed on lap 7. As the pack bunched up, House still held the lead over Witts and Thompson.

As racing resumed House lead the pack back to La Source for the final time – it was going to be a one lap dash for the lead!

Thompson made a last minute lunge up the inside of Witts but couldn’t make it stick and continued in 3rd.

With Cameron Thompson stopping at the bottom of Eau Rouge it was only a matter of nursing the lead for House, and as he emerged from the Bus Stop, the chequered flag was deployed.

House: "I honestly can’t remember the first few laps! Once I got into the lead I knew where I had my strength through the second sector. I seemed to be able to pull ¾ car lengths through the turn I just had to concentrate. Dennis (Strandberg) through Eau Rouge, I don’t know how he did it but I just couldn’t keep up with him!."

"When the safety car came out I went as slow as possible to try to waste time, but it just didn’t work, and when I saw the last lap board I thought it was going to be carnage but when you have people like Tom (Witts) and Bobby (Thompson) behind you, you can trust them."

Witts: “That was a, though, tough race – I really had to work for that! The car felt good, but the slipstream is massive, the Scirocco just seem to that edge here, I could get up to them, but I just couldn’t get past them. It's just fantastic to be on the podium at Spa.”

Thompson: “The Team-Hard boys keep me keen out there that’s for sure, there was a lot of different strategy’s out there, but I’m going home from Spa with 2 podiums and a half bottle of champagne.”

“At Spa, your carrying a lot more speed than most UK circuits when you have an off it’s a big off. It's a lot scarier at Spa so when you are braking you need to be so much more precise, everything matters here.”

The championship now head into a 4 weeks break before heading to Snetterton, Norfolk for rounds 10 & 11.