Kay rises to the top of Autosport National Rankings

We have a new name at the top of the Autosport National Rankings table this week, with historic racer Connor Kay making his way to the summit.

Kay has become an ever-increasing force in a variety of historic cars in recent seasons, and has been a winner this year in three different machines. Victory in the GT & Sports Car Cup mini-enduro at Silverstone’s International Trophy meeting, at the wheel of a Lotus Elan 26R, has propelled him past previous table-topper Matt Higginson to the prime spot.

The Autosport National Rankings is based on the simple format of tallying each car race win in the UK and Ireland over the season to find the most successful drivers, with each victory counting equally. When there is a tie, overall wins take precedence over class success, hence Kay was behind Higginson prior to last weekend on seven victories apiece. But now he has taken his total to eight.

Intriguingly, Kay teamed up with fellow National Rankings high-flier James Hughes for that Silverstone win. Hughes, like Kay, has been a force in this season’s Midget and Sprite series run by the Classic Sports Car Club. Unlike Kay, he had only a few laps’ experience of the Elan by the time the race started at Silverstone, but their shared success lifts Hughes 11 places to seventh in the Rankings.

The other high-placed upwards mover in the Rankings this week is Craig Ewing, who continued his domination of Kirkistown’s Modi-5 Cup series for Mk1 Mazda MX-5s with another pair of victories. Ewing has therefore hit the giddy heights of third in the table, up 13 positions from last week.

There is a strong batch of drivers entering the top 50 this week, with Paul Cook the highest placed of them in 18th. The BMW M3 E46 racer notched up two successes – one overall, one in class – in the BMW CC races at Donington Park. That 750 Motor Club-run series was one of the ‘guest’ championships at what was a Historic Sports Car Club event, and two of the HSCC’s star single-seater aces have also entered the top 30: Ben Glasswell’s Historic Formula Ford 2000 brace moves him into 28th, and a Historic FF1600 double for Benn Simms puts him 30th.

Photo by: Mick Walker

Ahead of both of them is Noah Osbaldeston. He won three times in his Sports 1000 Mittell at Silverstone and, with the S1000 screamers merged with the Sport Special series over the Grand Prix circuit, that had a good effect on his average grid size to hoist him into equal 25th in the Rankings.

Autosport National Rankings

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.