Summarize

Volkswagen Motorsport started its 2026 racing season with Astron Energy Polo Cup champion Rory Atkinson ending a fine second overall on his SATC SupaCup debut, while reigning Volkswagen Rookie Cup champion Christopher Tait showed great resolve to come home eighth on his Polo Cup debut. Both drivers earned their 2026 Volkswagen seats by winning the Polo and Rookie Cup titles last year.

“Congratulations to Rory on a spectacular SATC SupaCup debut and Chris on a positive first outing in the 30th birthday Astron Energy Polo Cup,” Volkswagen Head of Motorsport Mike Rowe confirmed. “Volkswagen’s  Motorsport stairway as always, delivers great racing talent. This past weekend is once again proof that the journey from Rookie Cup, through Astron Energy Polo Cup and into SATC SupaCup and beyond, is simply the best racing route to take. We now look forward to watching these two young men developing as the season progresses. Well done lads!”

Reigning Astron Energy Polo Cup champion Atkinson made the perfect start to his SupaCup season when he put his Volkswagen Motorsport SupaPolo on pole position for his debut race. A tricky start however saw him slip to fourth, but Rory made a gritty fightback to overhaul Judd Bertholdt and Nicholas Vostanis for second behind Polo Cup champion predecessor Jason Loosemore. Race 2 was more of the same with a similar fight back to second for second overall.

“Putting it on pole was the highlight of my weekend,” Rory grinned. “But my predecessor Jason had other ideas in the races and I also made myself work for it by having to fight back in both heats. That said, I’m pretty chuffed with my debut performance. With a little luck, it’s onward and upward from here and that only means one thing… Thanks so much to my team for making this transition so seamless. Now for Red Star – see you in Delmas!

2025 Volkswagen Rookie Cup champion Christopher Tait endured a more challenging maiden outing in the 2026 Astron Energy 30th anniversary Polo Cup. Chris qualified eleventh deep in the mid pack before dicing former Rookie Cup rival Berlin Robinson all the way to end up in the same position at the flag. Starting 14th in race 2, Tait was up to eighth after six laps but slipped back to eleventh after a penultimate lap excursion to end up eighth overall.

“That was a huge learning curve,” Christopher admitted. “Astron Energy Polo is quite a step up from the Rookie Cup. It’s a new car for me and Killarney is an away track too. So it was a challenging weekend in that we never had the pace I may have wanted. I kept out of trouble though and worked on learning as much as I could and we were rewarded with eighth for the day. I have a brilliant team behind me, a great car and so much to learn. Next race is more familiar territory at Red Star where we’re aiming for a good step forward. Bring it on!”