FUN CUP ENDURANCE 2026 – ROUND SEVEN – BRANDS HATCH – REPORT
CROYDON AND ROCHE GIVE RBR MAIDEN FUN CUP VICTORY
Rob Croydon and Tom Roche became the fourth Fun Cup winners of the season, when they gave Rare Vinyl/Rob Boston Racing their maiden victory at Brands Hatch.
The four-hour race didn’t get off to the best of starts, as the safety car was straight into action on the opening lap. Gareth Williams’ Red River Sport car led into Paddock Hill Bend. But as they plunged through the exit he was tagged by Stewart Ross, not only sending them both crashing out, but also causing Demon Tweeks’ Jason Minshaw’s to go off in avoidance.
Track Focused’s Sean Cooper led the field through 16 laps behind the safety car, from Vapeclub’s Ted Bradbury, who also had to take to the gravel to avoid the incident, RBR’s Jason Baker, Signature RV’s John Whitehouse, PLR UVio’s Neil Plimmer and Greenheath’s Paul Turner.
“I was alongside the crash, I gave them and was wide on the kerb to give then room,” Cooper explained.
25 minutes gone and the race went live again and within a lap Cooper and Bradbury had broken clear, with the Vapeclub driver then taking the lead, as Baker consolidated third.
Whitehouse lost three places, as Plimmer started to become the cork in the bottle, at the head of a 10 car train for fourth.
Miguel Faisca managed to battle to the head of the train for AI Racing Tech through Surtees after 21 laps, but he was then caught by Leightec’s Shay Brennan, who took the place around the outside at Druids on the 30 minute mark. They then worked together for a couple of laps, before Brennan went clear. “I thought he was going to stay with me, but then I pulled away,” said Brennan.
UVio Hofmann’s Fabulous Randaccio and Demon Tweeks 2’s Michael Lyons were the next to escape from the pack, with Plimmer down to eighth, thwarting every attempt Turner made to pass.
The first pit stop window came after 33 laps with Plimmer and GRD’s Chris Dovell two of the first to stop. Track Focused were the first of the leaders to stop for Cooper to hand to Mike McCollum, but Bradbury waited until the last minute to hand to Neo Clarke.
“We lost the splitter in that first lap incident, as I had to go through the gravel to avoid contact. It damaged the tracking too so was a struggle to drive,” said Bradbury
Clarke rejoined with 5.303 secs advantage over UVio Hofmann’s Farquini, with RBR’s James Reilly third and Rare Vinyl/RBR team mate Roche fourth, closely followed by AxiaMetrics’ Chris Bridle, with Matthew Reeve sixth for Demon Tweeks 2.
We were soon at the completion of the first hour and although the lead trio had held station, only 0.870 secs covered all three, before a four second gap to Roche in fourth, followed by Bridle and PLR/UVio’s Lewis Thompson. “I was just making sure I stayed on the lead lap,” said Thompson.
On lap 55 both Farquini and Reilly were through, with Clarke down to third, before losing out to Roche too a couple of laps later.
But disaster the struck for RBR when Reilly was called to the pits for a stop go penalty. “I had a perfect first stint then got caught speeding in the pitlane, I was gutted,” said Baker.
Roche was now ahead, with the narrowest of margins over Farquini. Clarke was secure in third, from Thompson, Bridle and Signature’s Harry Mailer
Gradually Thompson reeled in Clarke and was third by the end of lap 63 and a lap later GRD’s progress saw them into the top six with Rudd, after taking Greenheath’s Gary Bate. Clarke then started to come under more pressure when Mailer and Bridle closed in too.
“We are having to work very hard for this, anywhere on the podium would be good today,” Rudd admitted.
70 laps gone and Roche had pulled out a seven second lead over Farquini, with Thompson still third, from Mailer and Bridle, who had both taken Clarke who was now becoming Rudd’s next target.
Roche and Thompson were the last to pit at the second window, and they retained first and second on rejoining, with Croydon now over 15 seconds clear of PLR/UVio’s Plimmer, followed by Randaccio, with RBR’s Will Blackwell-Chambers and GRD’s Dovell locked together in fourth.
Randaccio soon reclaimed second from Plimmer but was unable to make inroads into Croydon’s lead and as we reached the halfway mark at two hours, the lead had grown to 20.349 secs.
Plimmer was still in third, but they were the only teams on the lead lap, with GCI’s Ian Wood up to fourth, as Racelogic’s David Denyer and GRD’s Dovell were the rest of the top six.
RBR’s 252 car had more issues when it was towed in with a wheel bearing failure, which left Greenheath’s Turner, Track Focused’s Cooper, AxiaMetrics’ Chris Weatherill and Signature’s Steve Ruston to round off the top 10.
Croydon was first in for their third stop and after Randaccio came in nine laps later, they were split by 4.246 secs in Roche’s favour, with Thompson back in the PLR/UVio car for third, chasing Farquini.
There had been two safety car interventions in the third hour, but they had little effect on the lead pair, but Thompson had closed on Farquini for second and seventh placed Julian Thomas, shed a rear wheel at Paddock, hence the caution.
It was during the latter caution that everyone headed pitwards for the fourth time, but it was still another nine laps before the green flag appeared.
Croydon still led for Rare Vinyl/RBR, but the gap was greatly reduced with four cars now on the lead lap. Randaccio had the lead from Graham Hill Bend just a lap before the penultimate hour was completed, but it was still close. Plimmer was still third, but GRD were back on the lead lap with Rudd back in the seat. “We short fuelled to stay on the lead lap, so we need to fuel again at the last stop,” Dovell explained.
Wood was fifth but a lap down, “we should have done the same as GRD and did think about it,” added team mate Craig Butterworth.
Track Focused rounded off the top six with Cooper, from Signature’s, Mailer, Clapham North’s Abbie Eaton, Greenheath’s Turner and Seed Data’s Matt Hogg.
It was becoming desperately close between the lead pair and Rudd was edging closer too. Croydon had just got ahead when the final pitstop window opened and he was one of the first to stop again, handing the lead to GRD for the first time, until they stopped too.
With the final window firmly closed, Roche was over 10 secs clear, while Phillips had to first shake-off Farquini before chasing down the lead,
There were 20 minutes left on the clock and the lead was down to 7.882 secs, with Thompson threatening Farquini for third. Butterworth had to fight his way passed Ruston for fifth, who then had McCollum, Clapham North’s George Grant and Seed Data’s Mike Devlin completing the top 10.
The gap came down but on this occasion Philips couldn’t get it below six seconds and it was a maiden victory for Rare Vinyl pairing of Croydon and Roche. “It’s nine or 10 years since my last Fun Cup win. But it felt in control today, the car was perfect, we had good pace and I just had to push on a bit at the end when Riley was closing,” said Roche. “It’s 18 years since my last win of any kind, a long time coming,” Croydon added.
“Rob, Tom and the team were fantastic today, it was like the hardest one-makes championships all together for four hours,” team boss Rob Boston replied.
It was still a strong second for GRD though, “happy with that, of course it would have been nice to win, but it’s good points,” Phillips added.
There was a late change for third though when PLR/UVio’s Thompson squeezed ahead of Farquini at Clearways a few laps from home. “I had accepted that the leaders had gone, but I had enough on Farquini and after having a look the lap before, I got him,” Thompson explained.” Lewis drove brilliantly and that was my first overall podium, since Anglesey eight years ago with Tim Wheeldon,” Plimmer replied.
So it was disappointing fourth for UVio Hofmanns. “The front of the car was just gone, but Lewis and Tom were both class acts, “Farquini admitted. “It was a bad day, we lost the splitter, had a touch with Rob Croydon at Paddock, the engine was cooking, I lost the brakes, got stuck in gear and then got a very large insect in my eye,” Randaccio added.
It was a comfortable fourth for GCI, while fifth placed Signature RV were Masters victors with Whitehouse, Ruston and Mailer. “We put an old splitter on in testing as we expected to damage it, but it stayed on all weekend and we had no body damage, “Whitehouse stated.
It was good day for Track Focused too, seventh overall and second in class. “I had to work hard for that though, but a good result and I enjoyed it,” McCollum added.
Clapham North, Greenheath and Seed Data were the rest of the top 10, with 24 of the 25 starters, still classed as finishers.
https://www.tsl-timing.com/file/?f=BRSCC/2026/263331fun.pdf
Published by Peter Scherer for Fun Cup Endurance, August 17th 2026
