COASTAL RACING TO JOIN VW RACING CUP GRID

Yet another new team is to join the APR Volkswagen Racing Cup for 2013. Coastal Racing, which has enjoyed success in Mini and Clio championships, will field two new Sciroccos in Britain’s best-supported saloon-racing series.

Coastal plans to bring in two drivers new to the championship, and team boss Carl Bradley says work is progressing well at the team’s Morecambe, Lancashire, workshops.

“Both Sciroccos are well underway and should be ready for shakedown tests by mid-February,” says Bradley, “and we are at an advanced stage of negotiations with two young drivers who are keen to further their careers in the Volkswagen Racing Cup.

“Coastal Racing has claimed race wins in the Mini Challenge and the Clio Cup, and there are not many teams who can claim that – we believe that the reliability of the Volkswagens allied to our preparation skills should make us competitive from the outset.

“The Volkswagen Racing Cup is an ideal step for us, a competitive and growing championship which dovetails well with our plans to continue running cars in the Mini Challenge. We see it as an ideal stepping stone.”

Coastal Racing was founded by Carl’s father, Ian, in the 1990s and was reborn under the guidance of Bradley Junior in 2005. After a successful kart career competing against the likes of Paul Di Resta and Lewis Hamilton, Carl turned to saloons and achieved top-10 championship results in the Clio Cup in 2008 and ’09.

Coastal is the fourth new team to announce plans for the forthcoming season of the APR Volkswagen Racing Cup. Zest Racecar Engineering hopes to field as many as four cars, PH Motorsport will campaign a Scirocco for ex-champion Philip House, while JWB Motorsport, formed by Chris Levett and Nick Beaumont, is also planning a multi-car campaign.

The opening rounds of the APR Volkswagen Racing Cup are scheduled for Easter Monday (1 Apr) at Oulton Park. The series enjoys additional support from Ceva, ECM, Eibach, Hankook, Milltek Sport and Paragon.