Sittingbourne’s Laura Tillett says she is confident of becoming a top 10 challenger in the Milltek Sport Volkswagen Racing Cup in her rookie season, having delivered impressive race-pace throughout the second event of the campaign at Rockingham over the weekend, 2nd/3rd May.

While the 23-year-old wasn’t able to match her season-best result of 13th position during rounds four, five and six at the Northamptonshire track, Laura was buoyed by her speed in race conditions which was consistently good enough to run in the top 12.

In all three contests, the Team HARD driver fell victim to some minor errors and on-track skirmishes and ultimately ended up with a best finish of 18th position from the final race. Laura concluded the event 16th in the championship.

“Pace-wise I’ve really improved and I’m very positive about how competitive I was in the races this weekend”, she said, “Unfortunately, I made a few mistakes which did cost me and there were a few incidents but it’s been a strong weekend for us even with that.

“There are a few tweaks to make but I know I need to adapt a little bit quicker to pushing harder at the start without over-driving. We’re getting there, though, and with more time in the car I know we can be much further up the order.”

After an impressive VW Cup debut a month ago at Oulton Park, Laura was determined to make continued progress this weekend and in qualifying she did just that by lapping with the 17th fastest time – seventh quickest of the Golf GTi drivers and just 0.7 seconds shy of the overall top 10.

Aiming to make the most of her mid-grid starting slot in the first race on Saturday afternoon, Laura’s hopes were spoiled on the opening lap when she ran wide at Deene after carrying too much speed into the turn as she diced for position. Recovering at the tail of the 29 car field, some 12 seconds behind the next car, the Kent starlet mounted a superb recovery and rapidly closed down the pack.

Into 22nd position by lap eight, Laura began to reel off a series of personal best lap times – several seconds faster than her immediate competition – and after moving into 21st position on lap nine she erased the six second gap to the car ahead. At the chequered flag on lap 13, the Team HARD racer was a mere 0.3 seconds away from breaking into the top 20.

Round five on Sunday morning took place on a wet but drying track and from 21st on the grid, Laura moved into the top 20 on the opening lap but a moment on lap two resulted in a loss of 10 seconds and a drop to 24th place.

Climbing back into 21st position on the third tour, Laura was again edged back to 24th the next time around so once again had to mount a fightback. Eventually finishing in 21st position, Laura’s best lap time of 1m50.602 seconds on the final tour confirmed pace which was a match for the top 15.

Lining-up 15th on the grid for round six thanks to her best lap time from the previous two races, Laura wasn’t able to make the starting position count after being elbowed down to 25th on a fraught opening lap. Battling back into 18th position before the Safety Car was deployed a few laps into the race, she remained there through a second Safety Car period and, ultimately, to the flag.

“The speed has definitely been there this weekend, when I’m racing in the pack I feel comfortable and everything is good”, reflected Laura, “For Silverstone, I really need to get a good qualifying sorted and then try and push for the top 10. Our race pace is good enough to do that if I stay out of trouble, but we need to get higher up the grid to make the races easier to begin with.”

Silverstone Grand Prix Circuit in Northamptonshire is next on the Volkswagen Racing Cup schedule with a visit there over the weekend 30th/31st May for rounds seven and eight.

Provisional 2015 Milltek Sport Volkswagen Racing Cup Standings (after Rd6):

16th Laura Tillett, 60pts