How Ali Bray became the undefeated king of club racing

Think of dominant motorsport champions in recent times and plenty of examples come to mind. It could be Max Verstappen blasting to the 2023 Formula 1 crown having won 19 of the 22 races. Or Ash Sutton matching the record number of British Touring Car Championship wins in a season also en route to success that year.

However, those achievements are dwarfed by Ali Bray’s unbeaten campaign in the British Racing & Sports Car Club’s Mazda MX-5 Championship during 2025 when he won all 23 contests.

That is a remarkable result in itself, but especially when considering how close the category for Mk1 models of the sportscar usually is. And that consistency is even more impressive if you take into account it was Bray’s first full season for nearly a decade.

This run of success also meant Bray breezed to top spot in the Ryan Motorsport Insurance Autosport National Rankings. Autosport’s winners’ table treats every car racing victory in the UK or Ireland equally, so Lando Norris’s British Grand Prix triumph carries no extra weight to Giles Kirk’s Saloon Car glory at Mallory Park on Boxing Day in a SEAT Leon.

Bray ended up five wins clear of the opposition in the final table – which he describes as an added “bonus”.

Bray pinpoints two people as playing a key role in enabling such a dominant campaign to be possible. The first is his wife Niki and the second is Paul Austin, boss of the NHA Motorsport MX-5 squad.

“I’ve always done the odd race here and there and I’ve been in the cars a lot,” explains 32-year-old Bray. “I won the championship over the years running other people and then Niki said, ‘You’re getting on a bit, are you going to race a Mazda or not?’

“I’ve done it backwards to how Brian Chandler, Ben Short and Tom Roche have – they used to race themselves and then got customers by winning the championship. This year a few people knew a bit of my racing background, but a lot thought I was just a mechanic!”

Despite his dominance in the points, Bray (r) didn’t have things all his own way

Photo by: James Roberts

The racing background Bray refers to includes a spell in club-level karting, having grown up around motorsport. His father, Neil, used to compete on short ovals and even enjoyed Classic Touring Car Racing Club success at the wheel of a Ford Capri and Fiesta, despite losing his right arm in a crash at Ipswich in the 1980s.

With his dad also running a garage, Bray Jr had been tinkering around cars from a very young age and it was no surprise that he turned his hand to being a mechanic, working for several MX-5 squads.

“I joined a few teams and was just getting frustrated with how some people ran their outfits,” Bray recalls. “I had a phone call the week after I left a certain team and it was a couple of customers and they were like, ‘You’ve left? We’re running in the team because of you.’

“That was very flattering, and they basically said, ‘Could you still run our cars?’ I ended up running a couple of MX-5s out of the back of the house and built a car for myself because that was always the end goal. But it got round to January, and I couldn’t afford to go racing so I turned it into a hire car.

“At the end of that year, the phone rang and a lot of guys wanted me to run their cars. We needed to get a proper workshop and that’s how AB Motorsport started” Ali Bray

“I was very good friends with Ben Tuck [World Endurance Championship LMGT3 racer] from karting and I rang him up and he was just about making the step from karting to cars. We came up with an agreement. I knew he was very quick, and the following year, when Ben started to win races, that’s what kicked it all off.

“At the end of that year, the phone rang and a lot of guys wanted me to run their cars. We needed to get a proper workshop and that’s how AB Motorsport started.”

Multiple MX-5 titles followed, and Bray did finally get to scratch the competition itch himself with a campaign in the 750 Motor Club’s MX-5 Cup in 2017. Even though he finished runner-up, he was left wanting more.

“It was very much on a wing and a prayer,” Bray remembers. “I got loaned one of my customer’s cars. It was nice to be out, but it was never the season I had in mind.”

Bray’s previous full season came in the MX-5 Cup in 2017

Photo by: Steve Jones

After that experience, he was determined to leave no stone unturned for his 2025 attempt. “This is my first season of racing where I’ve had my own car and given it a real, proper stab,” states Bray.

“When the wife said I could do the season, we had a good shell out the back. The main reason for building a car was to try and up the standards of the championship and come up with my ideas of building things tidier.

“We went to work and it was so over the top! It was a full restoration and a lot of it wasn’t necessary. The car was incredible but still had the normal AB Motorsport running gear on it.”

Even with his new steed, Bray certainly was not expecting to end the year unbeaten. “We knew we would win races with the knowledge we’ve got of the cars and the support I’ve got around me,” he says.

“I had an inkling we would have a good shot at the championship. But to maintain that sort of momentum, not get lax and do the clean sweep was beyond my expectations. Especially considering the car at the beginning of December didn’t have a single nut or bolt on it. “To build it up and not have any mechanical failures all year is testament to the team and the car.”

Bray admits to finding it difficult to pick out specific favourite wins from the 23, but says “crossing the line at Donington Park six hundredths of a second in the lead is far more enjoyable than winning at Cadwell Park by 12 seconds”.

“I dropped down to sixth or seventh with two laps to go in Donington race two and to blast back through in those last few laps was incredible,” he continues. “We really had to fight for it and that’s what I live for.

“We took it very seriously as a team but, at the same time, it was the most enjoyable experience of my life. My wife was always there, and the kids came to a lot. It’s hard to put into words, it was like a bit of a dream.”

MX-5 star Bray grew up around cars, with his dad being a CTCRC champion

Photo by: Steve Jones

Bray feels his in-depth understanding of the MX-5 was key to realising that dream. His mechanical knowledge meant that, when he went out in Friday testing, he instantly knew the tweaks that were needed to the car, while it took rivals far longer to get up to speed.

“I also don’t like finishing second!” he adds. “People tell me about the achievement and it’s never been done before. To me it’s just I got to race for a year.”

And Bray relished being part of a competitive MX-5 field. “Bang for buck, the racing is far better than anything else,” he says when asked what has kept him around Mazdas for so long.

“Just because of the value, the access and also the people in that championship really do make it. There’s so much talent there and they’re in the same boat as me – they haven’t got hundreds of thousands of pounds to chase a dream.

“I want to race something, I really don’t care what it is. I would love to do some historic stuff – I’m a massive Ford fan and I love Escorts and Cortinas” Ali Bray

“The raw talent on the grid is incredible. Adam Sparrow [two-time runner-up] was always going to be at the front and Steve Foden was coming back as a previous champion. Tom Walker was phenomenal at places in his rookie year and Neil Chisnall came on leaps and bounds.”

However, none of them were ultimately able to stop Bray’s metronomic mastery as he swept to the title. Although he currently has no plans to defend his crown, he certainly does not want it to be the end of his competition story.

“I want to race something, I really don’t care what it is,” he concludes. “It does just boil down to the financials. Last year was always going to be a one-off in Mazdas to tick the box. I would love to do some historic stuff – I’m a massive Ford fan and I love Escorts and Cortinas. This year I will go back to the tools and we’re looking at doing more Fun Cup as a team.”

Whatever the future holds, this will always be remembered as a remarkable campaign as Bray scored the most wins in a year since Autosport revived the Rankings in 2020. Not a bad achievement for a driver some dismissed as ‘just a mechanic’!

How Bray topped the rankings

Gambrell was the only other driver to head the leaderboard in 2025

Photo by: Mick Walker

Considering how Ali Bray ended the year undefeated, it is not a surprise that he also topped the Ryan Motorsport Insurance Autosport National Rankings. Bray assumed control at the head of the leaderboard in mid-May and was never displaced from there on.

For a couple of weeks in October, his lead over the rest was a gargantuan eight victories, before Jason Smyth’s end-of-season Formula Ford success left the final margin at five.

The only other driver to occupy first place last year was Steve Gambrell. The Porsche 911 GT3 Cup racer enjoyed a very strong couple of events to begin the campaign as he competed across multiple categories. But he soon slid down the table and ultimately ended up 77th with seven wins.

While Bray dominated, a host of other drivers had spells as his closest competitor. Ginetta Junior champion Rocco Coronel assumed second from Gambrell in May, while Radical Cup UK conqueror Marcus Littlewood and Pre-’66 Touring Car star James Ibbotson also had stints in second.

But for three months it was Monoposto master George Line who held the place, until he slipped back to third in the final table after not electing to contest the autumnal Tiedeman Trophy competition.

Had he continued his domination into that, he would have been right with Bray’s tally by the end of the year. Instead, he dropped to third behind Smyth, who also missed out on a couple of potential wins when the September Kirkistown FF1600 event was rained off.

Smyth’s late-season charge netted him second in the table

Photo by: Gary Hawkins

Final 2025 Ryan Motorsport Insurance Autosport National Rankings

This article is one of many in the monthly Autosport magazine. For more premium content, take a look at the February 2026 issue and subscribe today.