THE Engen Volkswagen Cup national championship season for 2015 starts at Zwartkops Raceway on Saturday, 21 February, with a three-round race day. It will be action-packed on the track for this series which sees all the racers competing behind the wheel of a Volkswagen Polo Vivo GT.

Off the track there have been developments which continue to make this series popular with competitors and attractive to racers wanting to achieve on a national level in motorsport.

 “It is important to keep Engen Volkswagen Cup fresh and relevant,” says Mike Rowe, head of Volkswagen Motorsport. “As the series nears 20 years of national competition there are valuable updates taking place for this season that will benefit competitors and teams.”

 Top of the list for 2015 is welcoming Dunlop to the Engen Volkswagen Cup series. All cars in the series will compete on Dunlop rubber in both wet and dry conditions.

 “Not only are the Engen Volkswagen Cup competitors going to race on Dunlop tyres, but competitors will benefit from additional prize money which is part of the package offered by Dunlop,” says Rowe. “The prize money only included class winners last year but in 2015 there will be prizes for most pole positions, most race wins, most podiums, the top three in the Masters and Junior championships will also receive prize money but the big news is that the top three in the overall championship will receive R50 000, R30 000 and R20 000 respectively. The total prize money on offer thanks to Engen and Dunlop is R200 000.”

“Additionally the overall winner at every round this year will receive R1 000,” says Rowe.

 Instead of one top-six draw, the series now also adopts a two-draw box approach. The pole position qualifier will select which of the boxes will be used. One box will contain the usual six grid positions, the other will contain identical numbers and racers will start in their qualifying position.

 “The two draw boxes will be used at four of the rounds this season, adding a little more excitement to proceedings,” says Rowe. “This, added to three championship rounds that will feature three races on the day and a round which will see competitors tackle a 45 minute race, is going to keep the racers pushing all year to produce the best results – and that will translate to even more exciting racing.”

 The Zwartkops Raceway event opens the eight-round season for 2015, in a series that has grabbed – and held – the attention of racers for more than one-and-a-half decades, proving a popular and demanding avenue into national circuit racing for many of South Africa’s top racing talents.

 The competition is fierce and a high level of driving skill is required in order to be successful.