Two weeks after winning their first race of the season in the opening round of the European VdeV Championship at Jarama, Drivers Club ‘pupil’ Simon Dolan and his coach and club founder Sam Hancock were victorious again at Silverstone, and scored a first pole position of the year, as the UK-based SPEED Series got its 2010 season underway.

While both drivers admitted that their win in the weekend’s second race was slightly fortuitous, it made amends for some misfortune in the opening event when a broken oil line robbed them of the chance to fight for a podium.Hancock put The Drivers Club Ligier JS49 on pole position by 2.7 seconds in a tricky damp qualifying session and Dolan led the field away at the start of the one hour 20 minute race. He held off former Le Mans 24 Hours class winner Warren Hughes in the early stages, before settling into a comfortable second place, consistently pulling away from the cars behind. Unfortunately, a small mistake soon after saw him run wide and break an oil line underneath the car, causing an engine shutdown which ended the team’s hopes of victory.In race 2, Dolan was determined to make amends and made rapid progress through the field after starting from the back of the grid. He was up to fourth place by the end of the second lap and drove a fault-free stint before handing over to Hancock.Sam then posted a succession of quick lap times and was running in third position when the leading Team WFR Ligier that Hughes was sharing with Jody Firth had to pit with a rear wing failure and the RLR Motorsport car of Barry Gates and Rob Garofall spun off, handing The Drivers Club victory.Sam Hancock: “We definitely had some good luck to get that win but it makes amends for the misfortune we suffered in the previous day’s race. I was pleased with pole position, as the conditions were very tricky, but we must continue to up our game throughout the season as we’d like to challenge for one or both of the VdeV and SPEED championships.”Simon Dolan: “I have learned a lot this weekend and to end up with a victory is a great way to finish. Before my mistake, I was pleased with the way I drove in Friday’s race as I was a lot quicker than everybody other than Warren Hughes. Two wins from two race meetings is an excellent way for us to start the season.”