Strong Debut for VW Polo GTI at Oulton Park

18 April 2006

The world's newest racing Volkswagen - the Polo GTI - enjoyed a superb track debut today (Monday) at Oulton Park in Cheshire, venue for the opening rounds of the Volkswagen Racing Cup.

The Polo, which is powered by a tuned version of the road-going car's 1.8-litre turbocharged engine, giving 210 PS, was in the hands of Keith Wood, editor of Track and Race Car magazine. It finished both of the day's events.

Wood, whose previous track experience was in single-seaters, was impressed by the Polo: 'We had a few teething problems in testing with the power steering, and in qualifying with a gear linkage, but those were behind us for the race and the GTI went superbly well.'

Keith evaded any damage in the startline shunt which blighted the first race at Oulton, successfully picking his way through the spinning cars and debris. 'My first race was a bit of an eye-opener,' he added, 'but I had been warned to stay well to the right at the start, and this I did and managed to avoid any problems. The restart went well and I made up a few places, although most of the cars I passed found their way back later in the race. It was great fun.' Wood and the Polo GTI finished race one a creditable 13th.

In race two, Wood went one better to claim 12th position at the chequered flag after another trouble-free run.

Volkswagen Racing director Sam Roach was pleased by the Polo GTI's performance on its world motorsport debut, which came a full month before the car reaches the UK retailer showrooms. 'We're very happy,' said Roach. 'Teething problems are always the worry with a new performance car, but the Polo has been remarkably trouble-free. We've barely begun to work on finding the optimum race set-up, so there's plenty more to come.'

The Volkswagen Racing Cup in association with Hankook enjoys the additional support of Augustus Martin, Castrol, ECM Vehicle Delivery, Europcar, Experian, Milltek Sport, Mondial Assistance, Proximity London, KW Automotive, Superchips, TNT Logistics, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles and Volkswagen Financial Services UK.

See 2006 series calendar for VW Racing Cup

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