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British Touring Car Championship driver Steve Wood made a triumphant return to the Volkswagen Racing Cup at Brands Hatch, scoring a double victory at the Kent circuit to give the Mk IV Golf its maiden UK race wins.

He was chased home in both races by Ian Carvell in his Class B Golf GTI, Ian recording his eighth consecutive class race victory and moving into the overall championship lead in the process.

Wood, who was deputising for the injured Alan Sawyer in the Frazero Motorsport-prepared Golf 1.8T, established his pace in Saturday's qualifying session with a pole time more than eight-tenths of a second quicker than the best Carvell could manage. Ray MacDowall's ECM Beetle lined up third on the grid, ahead of Mike Neuhoff's potent Golf TDI, which was feeling the benefit of a new limited-slip differential.

Wood made no mistake at the green light and sprinted into the lead through Paddock Hill Bend, pursued by Carvell, MacDowall and Neuhoff, while Ken Lark's Corrado beat Nick Adcock's Beetle away from the line to snatch fifth. Thereafter it was simply a question of how big a gap Wood could pull out over his pursuers. By mid-distance he was five seconds to the good and by flag fall his advantage over Carvell was nearly eight seconds. Along the way, Steve lowered the lap record by more than half a second.

The eighth round of the championship was another Steve Wood benefit, the Golf man sprinting once more into the lead from pole as the lights flashed to green. His closest challenger this time was Lark, who made a mercurial getaway from fifth on the grid to slice his way into second through Paddock, with Neuhoff and Carvell in line astern. Carvell soon recovered from his relatively tardy start to grab third place from Neuhoff the second time around and then nab second from under Lark's nose on lap five. Thereafter it was Carvell chasing Wood for victory, but with little realistic hope.

Wood was delighted with his Volkswagen Racing Cup return: "It's great to be back, and great to be back winning. The second race was a lot harder because the other cars came back at me a bit more strongly, but both were really enjoyable wins."

"Steve's Golf is a fantastic car," said Ian, "and really the best I could hope for was to finish second to it. I won my class again, and that's the main thing, and the overall championship lead is a bonus."

Wood and his Golf were also in action at Brands in the "Brit Car" two-hour endurance saloon race, held on Saturday, with Stuart Scott sharing the driving duties. They won their class by a four-lap margin and finished 11th overall.

The Volkswagen Racing Cup is supported by Volkswagen Racing UK, Dunlop, Superchips, Cambridge Business Travel, Sony, Mintex, Dread, Frazero, Electromotion, Recaro, OZ and Brian James Trailers.

15/07/02