FUN CUP ENDURANCE 2026 – ROUND EIGHT – SILVERSTONE – PREVIEW
CAN WE HAVE ANOTHER WINNER?
With RBR Vinyl’s Rob Croydon and Tom Roche upsetting the form book last time out at Brands Hatch, we look to our annual visit to Silvertone this Saturday, for another unexpected victor.
Casting minds back one year and we saw Vlad Vassiliev take his maiden victory, sharing the Vapeclub car with Ted Bradbury. Having missed out on the Brands round when Ted had Neo Clarke co-driving, Vlad is back at Silvertone, maybe looking to repeat his 2025 success?
Vape are currently fifth in the table after a win at Donington, but once again GRD are the team to beat. Vying for their fourth consecutive title, Chris Dovell, Simon Rudd and Riley Phillips have won four races from seven this season and currently hold a 68 point lead.
Former Champions PLR UVio Hofmanns moved back into second in the table after their fourth place at Brands Hatch. Farquini and Fabulous Randaccio swapped cars after round two and were straight onto the top step of the podium at Anglesey, with two further podiums following.
Former Champions GCI Racing are now third in the table with Craig Butterworth and Ian Wood. They were second in round two at Snetterton and have had five top six finishes.
But Greenheath’s Gary Bate and Paul Turner are just behind, despite still seeking their first podium of the season.
They have been fourth three times and are currently second on the Masters points.
Signature RV once again have Harry Mailer deputising for Marcus Clutton. Steve Ruston and John Whitehouse have shown consistency that has brought them in the top six overall and a nine point lead in the Master, taking fifth in the Donington Sprint race.
Rare Vinyl had already shown pace with fifth at Anglesey and third at Donington, with a varying driver line-up. But their Brands victory was also a maiden Fun Cup win for Rob Boston Racing, in their first season of Fun Cup.
Seed Data’s Mike Devlin and Matt Hogg started the year full of optimism after a promising 2025. Podium finishers were on their agenda, but fifth in round two at Snetterton has been the best so far.
Sean Cooper and Mike McCollum have returned with Track Focused this season and put in some strong performances, while Greg Evans has rejoined Stephen Walton at Morpheus Motorsport, after spending last season with AxiaMetrics.
This weekend Chris Weatherill’s team has a youthful line-up, with William Smith joining him, as Shay Brennan completes the trio from Leightec, after some impressive drives in his Fun Cup debut season.
Julian Thomas manages to fit in most rounds of the Championship too, around his Historic racing commitments, while at Team Viking/Ursus Capital Nick Nunn continues to deputise alongside Mark Holme in Colin Kingsnorth’s absence. Viking’s target since returning from the French Championship has been a top 10 and they nearly made it at Brands.
The vastly experienced Abbie Eaton has brought on Team Clapham North’s George Grant in leaps and bounds in his first full Fun season. Now a regular top 10 finisher, they are also fifth in the Masters Championship.
Rob Boston also has Will Blackwell-Chambers, James Reilly and Jason Baker sharing in the 252 car. They have led races and are more than capable of winning.
The Demon Tweeks car is back to a full Minshaw squad, with Jack replacing Stephen Roberts, as he rejoins Jason and Guy. Lewis Thompson is back in the family Team FFS car with Father Barry and Nick Highton. Lewis shared with Neil Plimmer in 225 PLR UVio car at Brands Hatch and came home third. Plimmer has former LMP2 race Matt Rao sharing at Silverstone.
Northern Velocity’s trio of MX-5 racers raided the prize funded on their debut, with third at Snetterton for Jack Harding, Alan Henderson and Dan Irving.
With Johnny Mowlem and Bonamy Grimes unavailable, Kristian Rose steps into share with Gareth Williams at Red River Sport.
Neo Clarke rejoins Josh Phelps in the Tropical Rocket car and it’s welcome back to Paul Calldine, sharing the 248 JPR Hire car with Rahil Taneja.
Father and son Andre and Renom are out again too, while Matt Larbey and Rrutuj Patki share for Lickit Racing and Jack Noller’s joins Gary Summers and Graham Winstone at G Force.
Finally the 98 Rob Boston Racing car has an interesting partnership with brothers Sean and Ryan Walknishaw. Sons of Rover, Mazda, Jaguar and Holden legend Tom, Sean has raced worldwide for 11 years, from single seaters to Sports and GT endurance and spent the last few years racing in Japan.
Ryan has been more on the management side and took over the Walkinshaw Automotive Group based in Australia following his father’s death. Now running cars in the Australian Super Car Championship, this weekend will be Ryan’s racing debut.
Saturday’s qualifying starts at 9.50 for 45 minutes, with the four hour race off at 13.00
As usual all the action can be followed on our Livestream.
Published by Peter Scherer for Fun Cup Endurance, 2026
