CMR and Basingstoke driver Chris Mohan visited Brands Hatch for the 4th round of the Bilstein Classic VW Cup. The format being qualifying on the Saturday with two races on the Sunday in support of the Britcar Championship

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Qualifying day at Brand Hatch was forecast to be an unsettled experience, weather wise and so it proved with the day split in two with a sunny morning and wet afternoon. Fortunately the Golf had qualification completed before the weather turned although it was a mixed outcome.

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Experiencing vibration on the nearside front wheel the Basingstoke driver had to retire after 4 laps. This coincided with a red flag for another incident and although he didn’t get much race time he did manage to acquire 10th out of 33 cars on the grid.

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The Sunday was a more consistent day, weather wise, and although there was a threat of rain this failed to materialise.

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Race 1 was a rather short lived affair with the Golf exhibiting similar vibration as the day before. A poor start and a slow drive around the circuit was a bad sign that the previous issues had not been fully resolved. After one lap Chris found himself back in the pit lane and after discussion decided on a premature retirement with a broken nearside front driveshaft.

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A busy time was had between races, replacing the driveshaft and was a rather more complicated task than first thought. Fortunately the FinSport Racing team and friends joined forces to create a good (albeit untested) driveshaft from two partial units.

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Race 2 was met with a certain amount of trepidation on the reliability of the driveshaft but this proved to be unfounded. Having had a frustrating day and starting from 30th on the grid a very determined Chris had a superb drive, overtaking numerous cars, some more than once to attain 9th overall, and 4th in class. A pity there wasn’t an award for the amount of overtaking done in a single race.

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It was a good end to the day for the ISN sponsored driver, who quite rightly had a wide grin as he parked the car back in the paddock. Having a small army of friends to watch and giving them something to cheer about lifted their spirits and gave them plenty to talk about.

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From despair to euphoria in one day, that is what Club racing is all about. A big thank you to all who assisted the CMR team in turning a difficult day into a very happy one.

Chris Mohan and the CMR team arrived at the Silverstone GP circuit with a cloudy but dry weekend weather forecast ahead of them

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Qualifying was a busy and confusing affair with as many cars as possible from the numerous support races being fitted onto the grid. This was due to the Britcar Dunlop Endurance Championship taking up a large majority of the track time by completing its entire schedule on the Saturday.

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Due to this, the qualifying grids for the support races had 50 plus cars which although large, the long GP circuit absorbed fairly easily. Unfortunately for this group the lap time was limited and only four laps were completed due to an incident with a Holden Monaro which brought out a red flag. Nonetheless the Golf managed a credible 28th out of 51 cars in that session.

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With the cars qualifying in mixed groups Race 1 had an amended grid and rather than starting in row 14 the ISN sponsored driver started 15th on the grid. The start of the race was a bit of a trip into the unknown for the drivers as 44 cars headed for the fast first corner of Copse and the ensuing fast corners of Becketts. Once the cars reached Hanger Straight the cars settled into their power groups and the drivers had their own little battles with cars in their category. Throughout the race the Golf Mk4 had a fine battle with a Honda and a Golf Mk3 alternating between 15th / 16th and eventually coming home in 15th overall and second in class.

Race 2 was a more interesting affair with the Golf Mk4 battling with another two members of the VW Classic Cup. Again positions were swapped during the various laps with the Basingstoke driver coming out on top as the other two drivers had a slight collision as all three entered The Loop. This resulted in the MK3 retiring but a tight battle was continued with the ISN sponsored driver coming over the line just over half a second in front of the Vento VR6 to claim 14th overall and 2nd in class.