Laura Tillett is looking forward to the start of her maiden season in the VW Cup after testing for Team HARD on Monday.

The Kent racer is looking forward to the “tin top” competition more than ever following a successful first appearance at the wheel of her Team HARD VW Golf GTi during timed testing at Silverstone.

Less than a week since confirming her switch from single-seater racing to saloon cars in the Milltek Sport Volkswagen Racing Cup, with the goal of becoming the first female driver for the best part of a decade to race in the British Touring Car Championship, the 23-year-old thoroughly enjoyed the first laps in her Team HARD Golf.

Having to contend with mixed conditions throughout the officially timed test, Sittingbourne-based Laura posted a best lap of 1m 13.247 seconds in the final session after making significant progress during the day. Ultimately, she ended the rain-hit outing 13th overall on the combined timesheets.

Although the Kent starlet has previously tested a Renault Clio, this year marks her first racing a front-wheel drive car and so Laura has plenty to learn as the year progresses.

Nonetheless, her consistent start to 2015 at Silverstone yesterday has given the VW Cup rookie a major injection of confidence.

“Silverstone went well, I was quite impressed with how good the day was”, said Laura, “It wasn’t ideal being a wet day but on average I think we were around 0.6 seconds off across the sessions, so that was really encouraging. It’s definitely a bit different to the single-seaters I’ve been racing!

“The Golf is really nice to drive, it’s good fun and I really enjoyed it. Everyone at the team is great, the guys at Team HARD know their stuff – I’m really looking forward to my next test. We’ll be testing the Wednesday before the first race weekend at Oulton, but we want to try and get another day in somewhere else as well before then.”

This year will mark Laura’s first season of racing in the UK since 2012 when she competed in the Protyre Formula Renault Championship. Over the last couple of years, the former World Karting Championship racer contested the MRF Challenge single-seater series in India but her focus is now solely on a future career in saloon cars or sportscars.

“Before I was so fixated on racing single-seaters, everything was about that for me”, added the VW newcomer, “It’s become clear, though, if I want to try and make a career out of motorsport then saloons are the way to go. It’s really good to be back racing, especially for a full season, and nice to get my name back out there.”

Notably this year, much of Laura’s racing will be screened live in the UK with action from the VW Cup set to be featured on Motors TV.

Rounds one and two of the 2015 Milltek Sport Volkswagen Racing Cup, which will receive highlights coverage, will take place over Easter weekend, 4th/5th/6th April.

Pictures supplied by Jakob Ebrey Photography.