OLYMPIAN GRD TRIO STRAIGHT TO THE TOP!!
Chris Dovell, Simon Rudd and Riley Phillips showed their title winning form, as the defending Champions Olympian GRD once again proved unbeatable in the 2025 Fun Cup Endurance opener.
As the 23 car grid came under starters orders it was AxiaMetrics John Perrott leading into Paddock Hill Bend with the rest fighting for second. Initially it was Team Pacific’s Sam Gibson, from poleman Fast Track’s Elisha Day, Vapeclub EDF’s Vlad Vassiliev and GCI’s Ian Wood.
Vassiliev was soon into third, with Wood following, while Demon Tweeks 2’s Will Abraham moved into the top six.
Gibson went ahead on lap three, but remained nose to tail with Perrott, as they started to break away a couple of laps later, as Wood worked his way into third through Clearways, before swapping and changing with Abraham.
Vassiliev and Clapham North’s Neil Burroughs followed, before Demon Weeks’ Michael Lyons’ and Team Sherardize UK’s Peter Belshaw duelled for seventh.
UVio/Hofmann’s Farquini Deott was making progress and took Belshaw, but a lap later they caught a backmarker on the Cooper Straight, Belshaw took two places back with Farquini forced onto to grass and Lyons losing out too.
But on lap 17 the safety car was out after Richard Bliss suffered suspected pad knock off in the 16th placed Race Ventura car, crashing heavily at Clearways on the teams Fun Cup debut.
Nine laps under caution followed, but John Whitehouse was in the pits too, with a gearbox problem and was soon followed by Burroughs. “it was overheating, I could tell something was wrong, it blew the cap off and there was coolant on the rear tyres,” he explained.
As the top four started to get away again, Belshaw made an aggressive move on Vassiliev for fifth through Clearways, with a queue starting to form behind and was through into Paddock, with Lyons and Farquini following into Druids, before challenging Belshaw again
The three way fight for fourth then caught the dual for third with Belshaw and Lyons demoting Abraham and a few laps later they took third from Wood too.
The first pitstop window was approaching but Farquini’s progress had temporarily halted, “I struggled with the downshift for a bit at the end of the stint, but was working with Lyons and it got a bit messy when I was on the grass,” he said. “That was my first Fun Cup experience and really enjoyable. Pretty clean racing, got a bit close, but mega fun,” Lyons added.
After the first hour Chris Weatherill had pulled out a 4.567 secs lead for AxiaMetrics, from UVio/Hofmann’s Fabulous Randaccio, with PLR’s Neil Plimmer third, from GCI’s Craig Butterworth, Greenheath’s Paul Turner and RaceLogic’s Julian Thomas.
Ted Bradbury had taken over from Vassiliev and demoted Thomas on lap 62, but they both had Simon Rudd closing for Olympian GRD.
Randaccio started to close in on the lead and by lap 68 they were nose tail, before swapping at Clearways. Plimmer was solo in third though, with Butterworth, Bradbury and Turner the rest of the top six, with Rudd still closing.
It really heated up for third though, just before the second pitstop window, with Plimmer, Rudd and Bradbury in line astern, with Butterworth close too.
They swapped as the crossed the line to complete lap 85, with Bradbury then attacking Rudd into Paddock, but the stops soon followed with Randaccio and Weatherill in early, which gave Bradbury the lead for one lap, until he stopped too.
“Typical Brands and first race of the year too, just keeping it clean as everyone is going for it,” said Plimmer.
“We had to prove ourselves with the pitstop and I think we did that. That was like a 40 minute sprint race, flat out and pushing hard,” said Weatherill, as they emerged with Greg Evans restoring their lead, with Vapeclub’s Vassiliev 8.823 secs back in second, followed by UVio/Hofmann’s Farquini, Olympian GRD’s Dovell, FFS’s Barry Thompson and PLR’s Ben Pitch. “Great to be running in the top six, the car is good and so far so good,” said FFS’s Lewis Thompson.
Vassiliev had to make an extra stop with rubbing bodywork handing second place back to Farquini, while Belshaw pitted too with a damaged rim, after he had hit the Vapeclub car.
The lead duo had gone clear again, but as we passed the 100 lap mark it was still any one from four for third, with Bate, Pitch, Thompson and Wood all in contention.
As half distance was reached AxiaMetrics Evans still had a 9.593 secs lead over UVio’s Farquini and both were well clear of PLR’s Pitch, who had retaken Greenheath’s Bate for third into Druids.
GCI’s Wood was just behind Bate in fifth, followed by FFS’s Thompson, while completing the top10 and a lap down were Olympian GRD’s Dovell, Seed Data’s Mike Devlin, Red River’s Gareth Williams and Vapeclub’s Vassiliev.
Only a few laps into the second half it was pitstop time again, but there were problems for PLR, “about halfway round my in lap the throttle stuck, interesting to say the least,” said Pitch.
With the stops complete Randaccio led by 2.132 secs from Perrott, with Phillips up to third for Olympian GRD, Lewis Thompson, Turner and Seed Data’s Matt Hogg were the only other runners on the lead lap.
But Hogg’s hopes of a top six finish were dashed after contact with Red River’s Johnny Mowlem at Druids, he had to be recovered too with a broken rear upright, and out came the safety car for six laps.
Perrott pitted during the caution to have his rear bodywork pulled away from the tyre in the Mowlem and Hogg incident too, but managed to rejoin still in second place, before the green flag was waved at lap 150.
“I think we could consolidated sixth, but I saw Mowlem go for the inside as we came through Paddock. I left it open but thought he was too late to challenge, but he locked up and hit AxiaMetrics and then me,” Hogg explained.
Randaccio read the green perfectly to make a clear break, but once clear of traffic he soon reeled in Perrott, taking second place into Druids.
UVio/Hoffmans surrendered their lead to Olympian GRD at the next stop and refuelled before Farquini rejoined. Two laps later Phillips handed the lead car back to Rudd.
AxiaMetrics rejoined with Weatherill back in second from Farquini, but as the penultimate hour was completed, Rudd had a 14.145 second lead over Weatherill, with Farquini a further 2.773 secs back in third. The Thompson’s FFS car was still clear in fourth, from Bate, while Williams was a lap down in seventh for Red River, followed by Pacific’s Chris Thelwell, Vassiliev, Balfe Motorsport’s Tom Balfe and Fast Track’s Day.
Rudd made the leaders final stop after 200 for Phillips to take it to the finish, so both Farquini and Weatherill had spells back in front until they pitted too.
Phillips was now 25 seconds clear of Randaccio but it wouldn’t be Fun Cup without a late drama. Greenheath’ challenge had gone a lap down in fourth place, but on lap 214 Turner was crawling on the Cooper Straight with a broken throttle cable and out came the safety car for three laps.
“I felt it go coming out of Druids and hoped to have enough momentum make it to the paddock<” said Turner.
Phillips still had a four second lead when it went live again, but Randaccio pushed hard and at the flag they were split by 2.842 secs, with only third place Evans remaining on the lead lap for AxiaMetrics.
“I thought there would be more carnage in the first few laps, so kept my distance and stayed clear at the start,” said Dovell.”My job was to get forward as soon as possible, but I caught a few near the pit stop windows. Clean racing and real fun though,” Rudd added.
“It was a good race but we’re desperate to return to winning ways and get the Championship back. We lost a lot in the pits and had to re-adjust our driving style with the downshift problem, which was a pain through paddock as it was costing me,” Randaccio explained.
“We got caught with the bodywork incident and I think that knocked the rear wheel out, as the car wasn’t as quick. But with 15 minutes left we got clattered by the Fast Track car, so that was more of a scare. But the main thing was we won third place, not just inherited it,” said Weatherill.
The Thompson’s retained a solid fourth for FFS, with Team Pacific and Red River Sport completing the top six, after Mowlem and Gibson’s late duel to the flag.
Despite their problems Vapeclub EDF were still seventh, while debutants Balfe Motorsport, Fast Track and the recovering PLR Racing rounded off the top 10.
“Not great, we did everything we could, but after I was hit in my second stint, the rear right of the car was damaged so no grip on left handers. But Ted did a fantastic job and just drove through it,” Vassiliev explained.
Published by Peter Scherer for Fun Cup Endurance, April 13th 2025
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.
