FUN CUP ENDURANCE 2026 – ROUNDS 9 & 10 – OULTON PARK – PREVIEW
We’ve had four different winners and now it’s down to the wire to decide this years Champions, with the final double-header at Oulton Park featuring five hours of racing.
Team GRD must start as favourites, going for their fourth successive title, winners of four rounds so far and currently leading the rest by 33 points. But the pressure will certainly be on Chris Dovell, Simon Rudd and Riley Phillips.
Without dropped scores its GCI’s Craig Butterworth and Ian Wood are their nearest challengers. Champions back in 2022, they were second in round two at Snetterton and last time out at Silverstone, plus four other top six finishers.
UVio Hofmanns can never be ignored for various reasons. Again multiple Champions, but the last was back in 2021. Farquini and Fabulous Randaccio love a dust up at Oulton Park, and we can’t see this year being any different.
Vlad Vassiliev and Ted Bradbury are currently fourth in the table for Vapeclub but currently second when dropped scores are taken into account. After winning the Donington sprint race, a late penalty robbed them of the double. But they were on the top step of the podium again in the last round at Silverstone, repeating their maiden victory a year previous.
Greenheath had been in the top three of the Championship for part of the season, after three fourth place finishers in the first five rounds. Once again Garry Bate and Paul Turner’s luck seemed to turn against them, dropping them to fifth, still seeking a maiden victory and first podium of the year. They are still hanging onto second in the Masters Class however.
Rare Vinyl with Rob Boston Racing were the latest of the crews to take a win, when they dominated round seven at Brands Hatch. Rob Croydon and former GT racer and MX-5 star Tom Roche have proved to be formidable pairing, having taken third in the Donington Enduro too.
Although Mike Devlin and Matt Hogg are seventh in the Championship for Seed Data, it’s been overall a disappointing year. Fifth at Snetterton is their best result of the season so far, which started with lots of hope.
While Steve Ruston and John Whitehouse have contested the whole Championship for Signature RV, clashing British GT dates have seen Harry Mailer deputising for Marcus Clutton in a number of rounds. They currently lead the Masters Class from eighth overall, and a best overall of fifth at Anglesey and Donington. Newly crowned British GT Champion Clutton makes his return this weekend.
All three Minshaw’s are together again for Demon Tweeks, with Jason, Guy and Jack sharing. They haven’t made the top six this season, but are fourth in the Masters and will be hoping to squeeze into the top three and ninth overall.
It’s been another up and down season for AxiaMetrics. Chris Weatherill has teenagers Will Smith and Shay Brennan sharing again this weekend, as they strive to improve in their 10th overall and fifth in the Masters.
Clapham North are also top six Masters contenders in their first season of Fun Cup racing. Abbie Eaton has led overall on a few occasions, which combined with the ever-improving George Grant, could see them in the top 10 again.
Tropical Rocket’s Neo Clarke and Josh Phelps have proven to be a quick pairing too. Fourth in the first race at Anglesey and sixth at Silverstone, shows they have the pace for their first podium.
It’s a welcome back to Sherardize UK too. Peter Belshaw hasn’t been out since Anglesey, where he was third and fourth with Matt Hyde. This weekend he’s back with Teddy Wilson, who he shared victory with at Croft last season.
Anders and Axel Hildebrand are returnees too, but this time without Phil Keen in the Sunoco Racing Team car. They had a top six too though, at Donington in round five.
Mazda MX-5 stars Will Blackwell-Chambers, Jason Baker and James Reilly have been right on the pace all season in the second Rob Boston car. However, their results have neither matched their pace or promise, so could it be their time to shine?
Winners at the Oulton finals last year were Team FFS with Lewis and Barry Thompson sharing with Nick Highton. They haven’t been regulars though tis season, but Lewis still came out at Brands Hatch to share third place with PLR UVio’s Neil Plimmer.
This weekend Plimmer is reunited with Tim Wheeldon for PLR UVio, while similarly Team Viking Ursus Capital has Mark Holme and Colin Kingsnorth back together, still acclimatising from two years away in the French Championship.
Former Champions Racelogic have their usual pairing of Julian Thomas and David Denyer and former Demon Tweeks 2 racer Mark Burton is now Team GOG with long time Fun Cup racer Paul Calladine.
Track Focused’s Sean Cooper and Mike McCollum have had some strong runs at times too on their Championship return, they also run AI Racing Tech’s Miguel Faisca and Andrea Seminara.
Gary Summers and Graham Winstone are out as G Force a, while Matt Hyde shares the Racefeed Ai car with Simon Lidzen.
Guido Basile is back too, sharing the Anglo Asian Mining entry with Clubsport and Supersport racer Kyle Cheong.
Having made his seasonal debut at Silverstone, Kristian Rose is out again sharing with Shiv Sapra in the Shiv Happens car, while the father and son Renom Racing duo of Andre and Pierre join them.
Finally we have three pairings looking to raid the first time winner prize fun of £10,000. Firstly Formula 4 racers Joseph Smith and Ethan Carney are Bounty Hunters. Smith is the brother of AxiaMetrics Will and son of former Greenheath driver Simon.
We also have Mazda MX-5 stars James Blake-Baldwin, Simon Baldwin and Brian Chandler, in another Rob Boston car, while Chemical Brothers have former TCR and MX-5’s Andrey Abalueva and fellow MX-5 man Denis Pilimonkin complete the 30 car line-up.
Qualifying is on Saturday morning at 9.20, with the one-hour sprint due off at 11.25 and lights out for the four-hour finale at 14.25.
Published by Peter Scherer for Fun Cup Endurance, September 21st 2026
