HARRY VAULKHARD RACING HITS THE BRITISH TOURING CAR CHAMPIONSHIP!

How Harry and his Lucky Duds have been progressing!

For 2009 Harry goes in to his second season behind the wheel of an ex World Touring Car Championship Chevrolet Lacetti run by Tempus Sport. Over the last 4 years Harry has tasted success in various championships.

In 2005 he became one of the youngest drivers to join the SEAT Cupra Championship run by JS Motorsport and showed that despite his lack of front wheel drive experience he was able to mix it with some well established drivers and scored a season best finish of 6th at Thruxton and went on to finish 9th in the Championship.

2006 saw Harry stay in the SEAT Cupra Championship this time being run by Triple R alongside ex btcc driver Alan Blencowe and newcomer Richard Dawson. Again Harry showed that he had the speed to finish consistently in the top 10 against drivers who had been in the series for a number of years. Again seasons best of 6th at Thruxton and on to a top ten finishes in the championship would rewards the Newcastle-Upon –Tyne driver.

For the 3rd consecutive year Harry elected to remain in the SEAT’S but this year would proved to be his toughest yet. With the new Leon Supercopa being introduced the championship was spilt in to 2 classes with their own championship. The prize for the Cupra R class that Harry was racing in would be a brand new SEAT Leon FR TDI road car. The 2007 season was filled with drama and a season long battle with the Churchill Brothers and Freddy Nordstrom put Harry’s driving ability to the test. This did not worry the Geordie as he went on to finish 19 of the 20 races, after a fantastic season he finished on the top of the charts with 16 podiums from 20 starts, 4 wins, only 1 D.N.F. and more than twice as many fastest laps than anyone else and at Thruxton on his 22nd Birthday he was presented with the keys to his prize car.

Also in 2007 Harry tried something a little different over the winter break and that was in the Elf Renault Clio Winter Cup. Again this was a car new to him and running him was fellow North Eastern Robertshaw Racing. The first round at Donington saw Harry destroy the opposition by setting the fastest ever lap for a Clio and he went on to do the same at croft where he also scored a podium finish.

2008 saw Harry made the break in to the Hi-Q MSA British Touring Car Championship with Robertshaw Racing and in a car new to the series, the Chevrolet Lacetti. The season was a tough one but Harry showed that despite having not having a team mate in the same car (Robertshaw also ran Alan Taylor in a Honda Integra) he wasn’t there to make the numbers up and scored a points finish at his home event in atrocious weather at Croft. And went on to score several top 15 finishes along the way.

2009 sees Harry move to new team Tempus Sport this time in a 2008 Spec Chevrolet and instantly showed the cars potential qualifying within 1/10th of btcc veteran Jason Plato and scored 2 top ten finishes at the opening round at Brands Hatch, High most successful BTCC to date. This weekend sees the series move to one of Harry’s favourite track, Thruxton and after a test day there where Harry lapped faster than he did last year by over half a second the weekend has lots of high hopes.

(article written by Jamie Petersennis)

For more info on Harry – HarryVaulkhardRacing.com