FUN CUP ENDURANCE 2025 – ROUND ONE– BRANDS HATCH – PREVIEW
The 2025 Fun Cup Endurance Championship kicks off it’s season this Saturday, with four hours of wheel to wheel racing on the Brands Hatch Indy Circuit.
Leading the 23 car entry are defending Champion Team Olympian GRD, with Chris Dovell, Riley Phillips and Simon Rudd. They clinched the title with five wins from the 10 round Championship, finishing 30 points clear of UVio Hofmann’s Farquini Deott and Fabulous Randaccio. The former Champions being regular podium finishers, but endured a rare winless season.
Vlad Vassiliev finished fourth in last years Championship with the Vapeclub with EDF Motorsports car and is likely to challenge for overall honours with Olympian and UVio. Vlad has Ted Bradbury sharing his car, a race winner himself last year and third in the final standings with The Ninky Nonk.
Last years Masters Champions PLR Racing are back with Neil Plimmer and Ben Pitch, looking to improve on their sixth overall too.
Matt Hogg and Mike Devlin came on leaps and bounds last season too in the Seed Data car, they were ninth in the points, but unlucky not to be higher, but fortunes sometimes deserted them.
Signature RV are at full strength this weekend too with GT ace Marcus Clutton joining Steve Ruston and John Whitehouse. Third in the Masters and sixth overall proved to be a good 2024 for the trio.
There are two other former Championship winning teams, as GCI Racing return with Craig Butterworth and Ian Wood and Racelogic with Julian Thomas and David Denyer.
Greenheath will be looking to continue their progress too, with Gary Bate and Paul Turner’s formidable partnership having netted second in the Masters and seventh overall in 2024. They have been close, but they’re still seeking their first win.
If there had been a prize for bad luck in 2024 it would surely have gone to AxiaMetrics. Chris Weatherill and John Perrott are back with the team, along with Greg Evans who guested at Anglesey last year.
Caterham racers Barry and Lewis Thompson debuted in Fun Cup last year and took an instant liking, prompting the return of their Team FFS squad.
Red River Sport were fourth in last years Masters. But it’s just Gareth Williams and his mentor Johhny Mowlem at Brands, with Bonamy Grimes absent.
Gary Summers is back for more fun again this term and has Darren Brown sharing. Darren made his debut last season with a one-off at Donington.
Historic racers Mark Burton and Graham Pattle came back to Fun Cup last year too. They have now become Demon Tweeks 2 where they are joined by Will Abraham, who tasted success last season with race wins at MJ Tec.
Jason Minshaw shared with Burton and Pattle on a few occasions last season, when his historic exploits allowed and so enjoyed his first Fun Cup experience, he bought a car. He runs under his family Demon Tweeks banner with brother and ex Fiesta racer Guy, joined by Historic Grand Prix ace Michael Lyons.
A British GT frontunner for the last couple of seasons, Shaun Balfe has his own car too. Run by Marcus Clutton with Track Focused, Balfe is joined by son Tom, himself a winner last year in Ginetta Academy.
It’s welcome back to former Champions Sherardize and Peter Belshaw. He made his first appearance for years in last seasons Oulton Park finale and has Teddy Wilson sharing, who has previously deputised with Track Focused and Team Viking. Phil Keen is due to share this car too in some races, renewing his partnership with Belshaw.
Race Ventura are new team this season, made up of four graduates from the City Car Cup. Brothers Richard Stuart Bliss were previously tarmac rally experts too, and are joined at Brands by Bob Bannister and Dominic Fletcher.
Better know for Mazda MX-5 racing George Grant and Matthew Hyde join the grid too, along with fellow MX-5 racer Chris Thelwell with Sam Gibson travelling in from Australia in another car.
Former Endurance bike racer Jonathan Railton was with Axiametrics last season, but now has his own team BERT, with Locost Sports racer and fellow biker Angus Gough.
Elisha Day and Simon Lidzen are back too after a couple of previous outings with FAST TRACK and finally Renom Racing take their bow with Andre and Pierre Renom. Pierre raced in Formula Renault 19 years ago.
Qualifying is on Saturday morning at 10.25 for 45 minutes, with lights out for the fur hour race at 13.50.
Published by Peter Scherer for Fun Cup Endurance, April 8th 2025
To find out more about the Fun Cup Endurance Championship visit www.funcup.co.uk for more information and how to get involved.
To view the championship calendar, visit https://funcup.co.uk/events/ for more information.
