Volkswagen Scirocco R Cup racer Josh Caygill endured a frustrating maiden visit to the Nurburgring in Germany over the weekend, 16th/17th August, after a dramatic and highly unfortunate last lap excursion in the event’s opening encounter prevented him from taking part in race two on Sunday.Having challenged close to the fringe of the top 10 for the bulk of Saturday evening’s eighth round, and delivering impressive pace with the third fastest lap of all, the Briton’s hopes of another solid points scoring weekend were spoiled after running wide on the 14th and final lap while pushing hard.As he tried to recover to the circuit, his natural gas-powered Scirocco speared across the track and hit the barriers on the opposite side of the circuit with great force – causing significant damage to the front-end which proved unrepairable for round nine early on Sunday morning.“I was devastated not to be able to start race two”, said a very disappointed Caygill, “The car was totally written-off, but the Volkswagen Motorsport Scirocco did a great job from a safety aspect as I didn’t even get a scratch! I’m just sorry to the team and my sponsors, it was an unfortunate mistake that cost us dear. We’ll be back at Hockenheim though pushing for a good end to my first season.”From the outset, the Netherton-based driver was positive and made good gains despite conditions proving tricky in pre-event practice. Starting out fully wet, during the closing minutes the track had dried but there wasn’t time to change to slick Dunlop tyres. Caygill, though, was happy with the 13th fastest time during his first track session at the famous German venue.Experiencing his first dry laps of the Nurburgring in all-important qualifying, he lapped within just 0.6 seconds of the top 10 to secure an eighth row start for Saturday’s race. Conditions at the start of round eight were tricky at best with rain falling as the slick-shod cars set off on the formation lap.With the weather worsening, the track surface was very greasy when the race got underway but Caygill judged the grip levels well as he made a good launch from the line. Gaining three positions on lap one, the first year R Cup racer shadowed compatriot Chris Smiley during the early going.Moving up into the top 12 on lap six, Caygill became embroiled in a series of close battles but was unfortunately shuffled back to 14th position before the start of the final lap. Even so, he got faster and faster as the race neared its conclusion and posted a personal best time of 1m42.704 seconds three laps from the finish – a time which ultimately proved to be the third best of the race.After making a mistake on the penultimate tour, Caygill gave his all to recover the lost ground but the 24-year-old’s day then took a dramatic turn on the final lap with his hefty excursion into the unforgiving barriers.“It’s frustrating how race one ended as I’d made more good steps”, explained the Briton, “I made good progress from the start, trying to capitalise on the mixed conditions, and I pushed from the start – we made some big steps from qualifying. Unfortunately, I dropped back a position two laps from the end when I made a mistake so I gave it everything, and a little more, to get it back.“I ran wide, though, coming onto the back straight – the fastest section of the track – and although I held the car on the gravel, when it went back onto the wet grass it just sent me sideways across the track and into the inside tyre wall. It’s disappointing for the weekend to have ended early that way, huge thanks as always to my sponsors though and to everyone for their fantastic support.”The Volkswagen Scirocco R Cup now heads into a lengthy two month break before the final race of the campaign, at Hockenheim in Germany, over the weekend 18th/19th October. In the meantime, Josh will be back in action in the UK-based Milltek Sport Volkswagen Racing Cup on 30th/31st August at Brands Hatch Grand Prix Circuit and then on 13th/14th September at Donington Park GP Circuit.