Photo by: Richard Styles
There’s been another change at the top of the Autosport National Rankings table, with Junior Saloons young gun Ollie Smith moving to the pinnacle.
Smith spearheads a whole host of upwards climbers in what has to go down as the busiest weekend of the season in the Rankings. No fewer than six of those in the top nine won races across last Saturday and Sunday.
It more than makes up for last week, when a paucity of action on British Grand Prix weekend meant very little change to the table, and we did not issue an update.
Smith has been on form all season in the Citroen Saxo-based Junior Saloons series, and his pair of victories at Snetterton from the three races means he is the first driver into double figures for overall wins in 2026.
Connor Kay was already on 10, but some of his successes have come in his class in historic events, and he has been leapfrogged by Smith, who is up from fifth last week.
The Autosport National Rankings is based on the simple formula of tallying each driver’s wins in car races in the UK and Ireland across the season. Each counts equally, so Charles Leclerc’s British Grand Prix victory counts the same as last weekend’s mini-enduro Citroen 2CV race at Knockhill.
Behind Smith, the next big climber is Aaron Thompson. The Pickups series normally features wins being shared out fairly evenly, meaning it’s unusual for anyone from within its ranks to feature at the top of the Rankings. But Thompson took a fine hat-trick at Snetterton and he is up 23 places to fourth in the table.
Aaron Thompson
Photo by: Richard Styles
The other successful driver from last weekend’s Snetterton event is Jacob Heap, whose class triple in the Mini Challenge Clubsport hoists him 29th positions to seventh.
Between Thompson and Heap in the Rankings is William Antrobus. The youngster has been campaigning on two fronts this year, in Ginettas and Mazda MX-5s, and it was his prowess in the Japanese sportscars at Croft that has progressed him up the table. Antrobus took one overall win in the SuperCup for Mk3/4 models, and another class success, so he is up four places to fifth.
Also on form in MX-5s at Croft was Jordan Pimley. He’s been racing in the Clubman Mk1 series, and was unbeaten across the two races to leap up seven places to eighth.
Down at Brands Hatch, Historic FF1600 man Callum Grant took two wins in his Merlyn Mk20A and Ben Glasswell a double with his Reynard SF77 in Historic FF2000. They are up from 26th to ninth and 20th to 11th respectively.
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