FUN CUP ENDURANCE 2025 – SEASONAL REVIEW
OLYMPIAN GRD DO IT AGAIN…………BUT WHAT A SEASON!!
The Olympian GRD trio of Chris Dovell, Simon Rudd and Riley Phillips once again proved to be worthy champions, but with five different winners it was far from plain sailing.
The defending Champions started the year as they finished the last, with four consecutive victories. They were chased all the way to the flag by UVio Hofmann’s Farquini and Fabulous Randaccio in the opening round at Brands Hatch and similarly in round two at Oulton by Sherardize’s Teddy Wilson.
UVio overcame a downshift problem at Brands and managed third at Oulton too, they led for quite a while, despite running most of the race without a splitter. But Olympian GRD’s dominance was under pressure, after their double win at Anglesey. “We became the pursued not the pursuers,” said Phillips.
UVio had a paddleshift problem in the Anglesey sprint race, just losing out on a podium place to Vapeclub EDF’s Ted Bradbury, but in the second race a broken driveshaft lost them the lead.
But at Croft the season turned back in UVio’s favour, with a win in the sprint after a great dual with Wilson and second in the enduro race. “We just drove it,” said Randaccio.
Bradbury and Vlad Vassliev became our third winners when they took the spoils at Silverstone, but Olympian GRD had tried a different tactic, with Rudd starting instead of Dovell, bringing them home second with UVio fourth.
At Donington it was UVio topping the podium again, before FFS’s Lewis and Barry Thompson, with Nick Highton took their maiden victory in the Oulton sprint.
So it all came down to the last race again and a tremendous conclusion to the season. Olympian GRD had to fight back from a first lap spin by Dovell, but Philips double stinted at the end and retained the title in the best possible way, with a victory over rivals UVio just as it had started at Brands back in April.
Vapeclub EDF showed both pace and consistency with the new for this season Vassiliev and Bradbury partnership. An extra stop for bodywork damage at Brands cost them a possible podium and at Oulton the car cut out in sight of the finish, leaving Bradbury to coast home seventh.
After taking third after a dual in the Anglesey sprint, they retired from the second race with gear selection issues. They were unlucky at Croft too after taking second in the sprint. Vassiliev led in the enduro, but was hit hard in the rear, pitting for repairs it dropped them to sixth. It all came good from thereon with an outside chance of the title, after their victory at Silverstone was followed by a second and third in the Oulton finale.
AxiaMetrics had a much improved season than of late, with rallyman John Perrott joining Chris Weatherill and Greg Evans. “They led at Brands at the opener, “we were flat out and won third place,” said Weatherill. They were fourth too at Oulton in round two and returned to the podium with third in the Anglesey enduro, after Evans won a great dual with Greenheath ‘s Gary Bate.
Their third and final podium of the year came at Silverstone, before the team showed their mettle in the Oulton sprint finale, after Perrott limped the car to the pits on three wheels, it was fixed and they took 11th from a pitlane start and fifth in the enduro to seal fourth in the Championship.
Greenheath were fifth in the Championship but once again Gary Bate and Paul Turner were denied a podium finish, despite having led in some races. At Brands they broke the throttle cable and at Anglesey they had two early punctures in the sprint and just missed out on third in the enduro.
They had a gear selection problem at Croft, but still managed fifth in the enduro, and finished the season with sixth in both races at Oulton.
The season didn’t start well for PLR Racing, where Neil Plimmer shared with both Ben Pitch and a returning Tim Wheeldon. A broken throttle cable at Brands and a driveshaft breakage at Oulton, preceded one of their best finishes of the season with fifth in round three at Anglesey.
At Croft they were back on the pace when after taking 10th in the sprint, they finished a strong fourth in the enduro and ended with seven top 10 finishers.
FFS made their Fun Cup debut at Donington last year and started this year strongly with fourth in the Brands opener, “it was great to be near the front,” said Lewis Thompson. After taking seventh at Anglesey in round three, Highton was running third in the enduro when the rear suspension broke. They were seventh in round six at Croft, but finished the season on a high, with Lewis taking a sensational victory in the Oulton sprint to give them seventh in the final standings.
Red River Sport’s Johnny Mowlem, Bonamy Grimes and Gareth Williams were Masters Champion by nine points over Olympian GRD and eighth in the overall standings. Their best finishers were sixth at both Brands Hatch and Anglesey.
Signature RV had a mixed season as they got used to their brand new car. Steve Ruston, John Whitehouse and Marcus Clutton finished the year strongly though, with fifth at both Silverstone and Donington and fourth in both Oulton races.
Matt Larbey and Joe Wiggin joined Rob Croydon in the Rare Vinyl TLR car, they had four top 10 finishers with a best of eighth at Anglesey and in the final round at Oulton.
Sherardize were the only other winners, with Peter Belshaw and Teddy Wilson taking the spoils at Croft in round five. After crashing out in the Brands opener, they were second at both Oulton and Anglesey and third in the Croft sprint, and began to look like title contenders. But an accident at Silverstone and a fire at Donington ended their aspirations.
Morpheus also had two podiums, one for Steve Walton and Harry Mailer with second in round four at Anglesey and one for Chris and Charlie Hart at Donington, after they looked to be heading for a certain win until running out of fuel. Hopes of a win in the Oulton finale ended at the first corner when Charlie was caught up in an eight-car incident.
GCI were the only other podium finishers with Craig Butterworth and Ian Wood. They didn’t do every round, but after taking fourth in round two at Oulton, they repeated the result in the Croft sprint, before a seasons best of third in the enduro.
Former race winner the Ninky Nonk reappeared too at the end of the year, with Matt Hyde and debutant Neo Clarke starring at Donington. Hyde led for a while before finishing sixth. They came out at Oulton too where Tom Balfe joined them, but Clarke was caught up in the first race shunt, before coming home 10th in race two.
It was a disappointing year for Seed Data’s Mike Devlin and Matt Hogg. With top 10
aspirations, a number of issues throughout the year saw them record a seasons best at Silverstone, but that was their only top 10 result.
Demon Tweeks ran two cars, for Jason, Guy and Jack Minshaw, while Graham Pattle shared with Mark Burton. The Minshaw’s ran consistently in the top six at times, but a best of 10th at Anglesey didn’t really reflect their pace, while Burton and Pattle also struggled, with Pattle announcing his retirement from racing too.
Racelogic’s Julian Thomas and Ian Denyer changed cars from Anglesey onwards. They were fifth at the Welsh circuit and had two other top 10’s, while their old car became Team Pesky and saw Andrew Dyer and Alex Foden finish seventh at Silverstone and 10th at Oulton.
We had visitors from Australia too with Chris Thelwell/Sam Gibson fifth at Brands, before Gibson returned for round eight at Donington with Liam O’Donnell, finishing seventh.
If there was a reward for perseverance it would have to go to season debutants B.E.R.T. Jonathan Railton and Angus Gough who never gave up, despite every possible drama and can be proud of their ninth place at Anglesey.
There have been numerous other drivers, some regulars and some one-offs who we hope to welcome back, when it all starts again at Oulton Park on April 11th.
Published by Peter Scherer for Fun Cup Endurance, December 12th 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.
