Connor Kay
Photo by: Steve Jones
Connor Kay has kept his two-wins advantage at the top of the Autosport National Rankings table, but new faces are moving in to challenge him.
Kay continued his 2026 winning spree last weekend at the BRDC Classic event at Silverstone, where a class victory in the Pre 66 GT race at the wheel of his Lotus Elan 26R moved his Rankings total up to 13.
Thanks to his efforts in the Lotus, as well as an MG Midget and TVR Tuscan, historics ace Kay has spent much of the season on top of the table, but it could get close over the remainder of the year.
Legends racers often populate the upper echelons of the table, but until last weekend no one had really put together a dominant run, with the victories fairly evenly shared.
Then came Snetterton’s festival of Americana, where Chris Needham took an extraordinary run of five victories from the six races to move on to 11 for the season – and up 37 positions in the Rankings to second.
Chris Needham
Photo by: Richard Styles
The Autosport National Rankings is based on the simple format of totalling each driver’s victories in car races in the UK and Ireland across the season, with each race counting equally.
And it’s another busy week on this occasion. Apart from Kay, there was a further historics ace in high-climbing Rankings action at the Silverstone event. Callum Grant was already 10th thanks to his efforts in old Formula Ford 1600 and Formula Atlantic machinery, and last weekend added double Formula Junior glory to his tally with a Merlyn Mk5/7, thereby hoisting himself from 10th to third in the table.
Grant is now on 10 wins – the same as Junior Saloons racer Ollie Smith, who wasn’t in action last weekend and drops from second to fourth.
The Modi-5 Cup for Mazda MX-5s was in action at Kirkistown and, for a change, Craig Ewing won only one of the two races, inching him up one spot in the Rankings to fifth.
At Snetterton, George Line was victorious in two of the three Monoposto races, and he has risen seven places to sixth.
Oulton Park hosted the 750MC, with Lewis Barker and his Honda Civic taking both Hot Hatch races to scoot up 22 places to 15th, while Gilbert Yates took his usual brace of Ferrari Challenge UK wins at Brands Hatch to rise 28 positions to 16th.
All car races in UK and Ireland are included except qualification/repechage, consolation and handicap races. No races in other countries. Class wins are only counted when there are at least six starters in the class, except: when the race is part of a multi-stage event where six or more have taken part in earlier heats that feed into a semi-final or final; when multiple championships are merged in the same race, the ‘overall’ winner from the slower championship can count a class win as long as that championship has at least 10 starters across all classes. Only classes divided by car characteristics are included, not those divided by driver characteristics such as ability, professional status, age, experience (for example rookie or pro-am classes). Each race counts only once, so an overall winner’s class win is not added. Where there is a tie, overall wins take precedence. Where there is still a tie, average grid size for a driver’s wins determines the order.
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- The Autosport.com Team
Source: Autosport