Alex Cursley Hyundai Coupe Cup with Lancaster Insurance Season review 2021

We did it! Together with Lancaster Insurance we’ve won the 2021 Hyundai Coupe Cup! This makes us the most successful Coupe with two series wins and the most number of races won ever.

With some Covid restrictions still in place at the beginning of the year we were still able to complete a full season of racing, consisting of 12 races over seven weekends. Our season started at the beautiful but unforgiving Cadwell Park. Having spent the last couple of seasons being second best, a big push in qualifying saw me take the second spot on the grid, however there was only 5/100ths of a second between lap times behind the Gen3 Coupe of Alistair Dendy. Happy with this pace, I took the lead on the start of race one and managed to keep it and take the first win of the season despite a huge amount of pressure from Alistair. Starting from pole for race two, the pressure was still there, and I finally succumbed to it on the final lap and finished in second place. It was close with Alistair and I, and we crossed the line within a second of each other in both races.

Full of confidence, I headed to my local favourite round at Snetterton for a 30-minute race, it did not go well in qualifying. Starting off on a damp track as the rain came down, along with some stoppages, meant I couldn't set a time worthy of a grid spot at the sharp end of the grid. I had to start in 17^th position. It looked promising as I picked off places until a separate incident involving two other cars brought the safety car out for nearly 15 minutes! This was half of our race gone. By the final lap I had worked my way up to 5^th place with the lead pack in sight, however I pushed a little too much on the very last corner of the race and lost places leaving me in 7^th at the end.

The Fast Thruxton rounds were televised thankfully as this is where I showed some dominance. Qualifying on pole by 0.7 of a second and taking the race one win unchallenged by over 13 seconds. We took the win in race two but with the added threat of a hard charging Matt Mitter looking for his first win.

The next two rounds were held at Mallory Park and once again I had the Lancaster Insurance Coupe on pole position. This time though, I had my old friend/nemesis Wayne Rockett next to me on the front row. Race one, with a more favourable set up, I pulled a seven second lead to take another win. Race two, however, was a little more difficult, ultimately taking the win but not without Rockett chasing me down all the way to the chequered flag.

For the Silverstone round, the Coupe Cup spiced up the usual format by giving us one 45 minute pit stop race, this gave us the option of having two drivers but I opted to do the whole race myself. I qualified fastest out of 25 cars and sat in pole position. Right next to me on the second spot was Silverstone instructor Sam Mayer-Loughnan. Sam put up a good fight early on in the race until I made my mandatory pitstop, which involved getting out and back in the car and spending no less than 90 seconds in the pit lane. I got this wrong and spent 10 seconds longer than I should have done. It doesn't sound much, but it put me way down the order. After picking up what places I could, I ended up finishing 4^th.

The penultimate rounds were held at Pembrey circuit in south Wales. Here we managed another clean sweep with pole position and two race wins, followed by Wayne Rockett all weekend long.

The series finale and firework spectacular was held at Brands Hatch, supporting British Truck Racing in front of a 30,000 sell-out crowd. With both Alistair Dendy and Wayne Rockett both hungry for wins, they put themselves on the front row in qualifying with myself in 3^rd place.

At the start I had a huge slide which I managed to collect and just about kept 3^rd place before one of many safety cars halted proceedings. On the restart I then went on to pass Rockett for 2^nd place but ran out of time to challenge for the win. Race two and the final race of the season was just as frantic. Going for the win from the start again, another incident caused a red flag and saw us come into the pit lane whilst it was dealt with. We were then left with a five minute sprint to the end. I gave it my all but ended up finishing 1/10 of second behind Dendy.

We got the series wrapped up at Silverstone and I couldn't have hoped for a better season, but one thing is for sure, I could not have done this without the help of Lancaster Insurance.

Thank you for the loyal support. Next year we will be continuing our racing journey together - keep a lookout for that news.