RugRacers 2026/2027 Round 1

RugRacers returned for its 20th Anniversary series welcoming drivers with a fast and flowing track in the morning.  The competition was looking intense through the field with World, European, & National Champions alongside last seasons winners & other race series winners from all over the UK.

We started out with Stock Touring car, defending champion Zak Finlay leading out the gate from Ollie Payne, Ollie taking Round 1 ahead of Ollie & Ethan Southall, Zak hitting back to take Round 2 ahead of Adam Southgate & Finley Whitelock. Round 3 went to Zak ahead of Finley & Ethan leaving R4 with all to play for, Ollie taking Round 4 but crucially Zak had the faster time by 2/10ths to lock in the TQ.

Leg 1 Zak lead a lights to flag victory largely untroubled after the 1st few mins seemingly having a lap advantage around 4/100ths which was enough to build a gap over Ollie Payne, the battle for 3rd between Finley, Adam & Ethan went the full distance with some excellent & respectful racing as they crossed the line in that order seperated by less than half a second.

Leg 2 was shaping up nicely with Zak leading the way & Ollie staying within striking distance, misfortune would befall Ollie after getting close dropping him down the field, with Finley, Adam & Ethan again battling together but now for 2nd spot, Adam taking advantage of some lapping traffic to get a move on Finley to finish 2nd ahead of him Ethan in 4th, Ollie Payne recovered to 5th after a brilliant drive back from nearly a lap down ahead of Marty Ross.

Pos	Car	Name	Tie Break	Points	R1	R2
1	1	Zak Finlay		2	1	1
2	4	Adam Southgate		6	4	2
3	3	Finley Whitelock		6	3	3
4	2	Ollie Payne		7	2	5
5	5	Ethan Southall		9	5	4
6	6	Martyn Ross	28 / 305.29	13	7	6
7	7	Ricky Copsey	28 / 306.88	13	6	7
8	10	Mark Young		17	8	9
9	9	Ashley Wiffen		18	10	8
10	11	Alex Watts		19	9	10
11	8	Edmund Peyton Marchi		22	11	11

Front Wheel Drive Also had the top 3 returning from last year along with BRCA Champion Aiden Ripley, Jake Hill - BTCC Champion alongside Billy Fletcher making his FWD Debut and many others.  The competition was tough, Defending Champion Ethan Southall led them away and took R1 ahead of Adam & Matthieu Dambrine, R2 went to Ethan ahead of Adam with Aiden taking 3rd, R3 went in the favour of Aiden from Matthieu & Ethan leaving a shot at TQ still on for Round 4, Ethan took the round ahead of Aiden & Ben Moorey finding his form after a break from racing.

Leg 1 was a lights to flag victory for TQ man Ethan ahead of Aiden who pushed all the way with the gap of 3ths as they crossed the line, Matthieu making up a spot to take 3rd 1 second behind.  

Leg 2 On paper looked similar with Ethan, Aiden, Adam, Matthieu & Ben breaking away with the gaps staying very static for a lot of the race as everyone seemed to be maxed out on potential pace, Matthieu dropping a place to 5 from Ben, Ethan crossing the line ahead of Aiden & Adam to take the win and all showing how close FWD racing is.

Pos	Car	Name	Tie Break	Points	R1	R2
1	1	Ethan Southall		2	1	1
2	2	Aidan Ripley		4	2	2
3	3	Adam Southgate	25 / 304.89	8	5	3
4	4	Matthieu Dambrine	25 / 305.37	8	3	5
5	5	Ben Moorey		8	4	4
6	9	Sam Jones		12	6	6
7	10	Byron Russell		15	8	7
8	8	Jake Hill		17	7	10
9	11	Thomas Looney		17	9	8
10	6	Billy Fletcher		20	11	9
11	7	Shane Chipolina		21	10	11

Modified champion Elliot Harper lead away from Alex Thurston & Harley Eldridge for Round 1 of qualifying, super close with the lead sapping nearly every lap saw all 3 over the line after 5 mins seperated by 2/10ths in favour of Alex from Harley & Elliott. Round 2, Went to Elliott from Alex & Andy Murray. Round 3 again to Elliott from Alex & Harley with the TQ still open going into Round 4 it was Elliott who would seal it ahead of Harley & Alex.

Leg 1 Elliott took control from the off chased by Alex & Harley, Harley hitting trouble after 2 mins dropped her out of the battle, seasoned veteran Chris Grainger pushing up from 6th to take 3rd in the Leg.

Leg 2 Elliott lead a lights to flag victory ahead of Alex who pushed all the way but had to defend from Harley & Andy for most of the final, Andy finding a way past to take 3rd for the Leg ahead of Harley & Peter Eagles, making the overall for the day Elliot, Alex & Andy

Pos	Car	Name	Tie Break	Points	R1	R2
1	1	Elliott Harper		2	1	1
2	2	Alex Thurston		4	2	2
3	4	Andy Murray		7	4	3
4	5	Peter Eagles		10	5	5
5	6	Chris Grainger		12	3	9
6	7	Liam Tyrrell		12	6	6
7	3	Harley Eldridge		14	10	4
8	8	Richard King		14	7	7
9	9	Jon Seals		16	8	8
10	10	Damian Giddins		19	9	10

Finally a huge thankyou to the team all the racers and all of our Sponsors for supporting the series again this winter, one lucky winner Andy Dobson in the raffle collecting a highly sought after Team Cayote coin.

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