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Right guys, it's that time again!

Bug Jam is coming up, it's going to be an excellent weekend, we're all so hyped for it it's untrue!

This is just a reminder to let you all know that normal price Bug Jam entries finish this Friday the 26th June! Get your entry forms at The SPRC site.

Get them all posted ASAP!

Some fantastic weather and some fantastic racing on the first day of the Spring Speed Nationals at Shakespeare County Raceway. VW Sportsman has completed 4 qualifying rounds, and it’s as close as ever with 0.03 seconds separating the top 5 cars.

Martin Ayton posted a time of 14.761 on a 14.74 dial in to end the day number 1 qualifier, followed closely by Holly Baldwin and Polly Naylor. Luke Stevenson and Chris Bray make up the top 5.

The day also yielded some personal best ET’s for a handful of cars and one or two more of Jacob ‘Smokey Joe’ Bailey’s now trademark burnouts!

Following some trouble at Big Bang with the Panic Attack Buggy, Dennis Cox’s was determined not to miss the weekends racing and decided to enter his daily… a Sharan Auto… Good on you Dennis. MPVTastic

Fingers Crossed for more of the same……

Wow! Big Bang, what a weekend!

There were a few unfortunate breakages but I think it's fair to say we all had a blast, we hope you did too!

Well done to Lucy and Russ in VW Sportsman and Colin and James in VW Pro, huge congratulations to Rich Merriman for winning the RNJ Motorsport Car of the Meeting award

VW Pro

Winner - Colin Jardine

Runner up - James Hodson

VW Sportsman

Winner - Lucy Matthews

Runner up - Russ Weir

RNJ Motorsport Car of the Meeting - Rich Merriman

Just a quick note to say a massive congratulations to Richard Merriman and Russ Weir for their victories at the 2009 Autotrader Easter Thunderball!

A special congratulations must also go to Lucy Matthews who won the Eurodragster.com/Gold RV Perfect ET Award in the first round of eliminations at her first event!

I think it's fair to say we all had a fantastic weekend, despite some pretty shocking weather, and after a bit of a rest we'll bring you a better review!

The Volksworld Show, which took place last weekend at Sandown Racecourse, is renowned for its displays of outstanding ‘Air-Cooled’ Volkswagens, attracting vehicles and visitors from all across Europe. It is considered THE show to debut your Beetle, Bus, Ghia etc..

Phil Norman VW PRO 32 from Brickfield Autos is no exception. In just a few short months since the car was last seen on the drag strip, Phil has managed to give the car a 2" roof chop, some lightening work, install a new cage, cover the pick-up area and give the whole car a new custom paint job - purple with candy flames.

Not just a pretty face, the car will be back out on track in less than two weeks at the Easter Thunderball event at Santa Pod, where Phil, who was the runner up in the Pro Championship last year will be trying to go one better this year, and prize the title from James Hodson’s grasp.

This Sunday (29th March) sees the VWDRC at Santa pod for the GTi Spring Festival. NAS Events have kindly invited the club to put on a display of racecars in the show. The weekend will also present the opportunity to get out on track and put in a few test passes which will be invaluable preparation with Easter Thunderball, the first round of the championship just a few short weeks away!

GTi Spring Festival will also give a chance for some of this year’s rookie racers to get together with some of the more established VWDRCers to make sure they are ready for the season ahead. Among the rookies will be Michael Outhwaite in his Mk1 Jetta GL and Alex Hill and Stuart Hodgson in their respective Beetles to name but a few.

For More information on GTi Spring festival check out the website http://www.vwaction.com
Look forward to seeing you there

Well, it's the start of another fantastic season of enthusiast events!

The 9th March saw “Ultimate Dubs 2009” at the Telford International Centre. It was a fantastic event, with some of the finest watercooled VW’s from the UK and Europe on show.
The VWDRC had a 5 car stand in one of the show halls. On display were Luke Stevenson’s space framed 20vT Mk2 Golf, Dan Smith’s Mk 1 Golf 16v, James Hodson’s 10 Second VW PRO Championship winning Mk 2 Golf 20vT, Abi Tether with her Mk3 Golf VR6 Highline and Jacob Bailey debuting his new car, an R32 powered Mk2 Jetta Coupe (a rare sight in this country).

The club were received well by the visiting public, and the magazines took an interest too, with three members being offered features on their cars, and the club also being offered a feature. We will keep you updated with any news!

Associate member Darren Walsh was on hand with his camera and managed to get a good selection of the cars on show, which are available here: Retro-Motoring Photo Stream

As the 2009 season fast approaches we've had a very interesting find from one of our members, Dave Dorson has managed to find a copy of the July 1988 VW Motoring magazine featuring a review of our first ever meeting on May 15th 1988!

Thanks very much to Dave for scanning them for us!

This weekend saw the 2008 AGM, where we officially crowned our champions and commended our runners-up, well done to James, Scott and Spencer for their victories and Phil, Chris and Matt for their excellent runner-up performances.

It was a winning weekend for James Hodson who also netted Rookie Of The Year, Wagenmeister Driver Of The Year and RNJ Motorsport Car Of The Year! Good work James, quite a collection!

Abi Tether looked very surprised as outgoing chairman Brian Burrows announced she had won the Becky Sutton memorial award for services to the club, a huge well done and thank you to Abi.

We also elected our 2009 committee, which will consist of Danny Allen, Chris Bray, Richie Grant, Ian Huggan, Paul Jackson, Polly Naylor, Luke Stevenson, Shane Rae and Abi Tether. Committee roles will be discussed and decided at a committee meeting early in the New Year.

The meeting itself was relatively short with only a few points to make people aware of.

Firstly, the VW Alternate Engine class will be merged with VW Sportsman and VW Pro. The affect of this is twofold, firstly to reduce the overall number of classes at the request of the organisers of the events who are trying to reduce the class count for the 2009 season, and also to boost the numbers of entries in the VW Pro and AE classes since this will see many of the AE racers now entering Pro.

Also we want to alert people to some rule changes for the 2009 season. As some have already found out single layer suits are no longer legal, our Frequently Asked Questions section has been updated to reflect this. There are also helmet regulation changes for 2009, Snell certifications are now valid for 12 years, rather than the previous 10, so Snell SA2000 helmets will be valid until 2012. There are also changes to the validity of BS Type A (NOT Type A/FR) in 2009, but more on that once we have confirmed dates.

The 2009 calendar will be published shortly, but the first event is still Easter Thunderball, starting April 9th 2009. Don't mean to scare anyone, but that's only 17 weeks away!

Stay tuned here for more news from the club as and when we have it.

--2009 Committee

The VWDRC would like to offer its biggest congratulations to every single person who has been a part of the 2008 Championship.

Now, to the matter in hand, the final points have been calculated and verified and I can now announce the runners up and winners of the 2008 Championship for Volkswagen Pro, Sportsman and Alt Engine.

VW Pro

Runner up : Phil Norman

Winner : James Hodson

VW Alternate Engine

Runner up : Matt Attwood

Winner : Scott Evison

VW Sportsman

Runner up : Chris Bray

Winner : Spencer Tramm