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Leaney leaps up to third in Autosport National Driver Rankings

Newly crowned F3 Cup champion Stefano Leaney was the main mover in the Autosport National Driver Rankings after last weekend, having taken another three wins.

Leaney won the 3rd F3 race from Line in 2nd

Leaney has utterly dominated the series this year to secure a second consecutive title and he took his 2021 tally to 14 victories with a hat-trick of triumphs at the final round of the season at Snetterton, meaning he was only defeated twice all campaign.

His latest wins have taken him from 11th to third on the leaderboard - and he would be second if he had indeed achieved a clean sweep. However, it is worth noting that the F3 Cup has struggled with tiny grids all season, providing limited opposition to Leaney, and just five cars raced in Norfolk.

Elsewhere, two Honda Civic drivers were also on the march. Alistair Camp has been near the top of the winners' table for the past couple of months but had slipped down to ninth place last week as his run of success in the Civic Cup and the 750 Motor Club's Hot Hatch category had come to an end.

But he was back on form at Brands Hatch at the weekend, taking his 12th victory of 2021 to move to fifth. That was also where he finished the second race, denying him the chance to gain a further place on the leaderboard.

The Type R Trophy was also in action in Kent and Adam Shepherd, despite being crowned champion in the previous round at Anglesey, added another two victories to end the season in style.

Those latest successes gained Shepherd 22 places as he moved up to 17th. Another driver to make a similar charge up the leaderboard was Sam Smith, his two Mazda MX-5 Supercup triumphs at Donington Park sending him from joint 35th to 15th.

Roadsports race winner Jim Larkham

Roadsports race winner Jim Larkham

Smith has split the father and son duo of Richard and Sam Neary as, despite many of their victories being shared, there were more starters in some of Richard's solo GT Cup successes, giving him a higher average grid size for his wins than his son.

Further back, Jim Larkham continued his peerless Northern Irish Roadsports form in his Radical PR6 to climb from 43rd to 22nd, while another double Kirkistown winner was SEAT driver Shane Murphy, who reenters the top 50 in 33rd spot.

Autosport's most successful national racers so far in 2021

Pos Driver (Car) Overall wins Class wins Total
1 Cam Jackson (Winkelmann WDF2/Brabham BT2) 17 0 17
2 Miles Rudman (Legends 34 Ford Coupe) 15 0 15
3 Stefano Leaney (Dallara F317) 14 0 14
4 Michael Cullen (Stryker/Ford Fiesta ST/Lotus Cortina) 10 3 13
5 Alistair Camp (Honda Civic EP3) 12 0 12
6 Ollie Neaves (MGB GTV8) 12 0 12
7 Dan Gore (Jedi Mk6) 11 1 12
8 Barry McMahon (Alfa Romeo 156/Alfa Romeo Giulietta) 10 2 12
9 Harry Senior (Caterham 7 SigMax) 9 3 12
10 Ben Short (Mazda MX-5 Mk1) 11 0 11
11 Nic Grindrod (Citroen C1) 11 0 11
12 Jon Woolfitt (Spire GTR) 9 2 11
13 Dave Griffin (BMW M3 E36) 6 5 11
14 Richard Neary (Mercedes-AMG GT3) 10 0 10
15 Sam Smith (Mazda MX-5 Mk3/Mazda MX-5 Mk1) 10 0 10
16 Sam Neary (Mercedes-AMG GT3) 10 0 10
17 Adam Shepherd (Honda Civic Type R) 10 0 10
18 Oliver White (Medina Sport JL17K) 10 0 10
19 Lewis Thompson (Caterham 310R) 10 0 10
20 Rod Birley (Ford Escort Cosworth WRC) 10 0 10
21 James Little (Ferrari F355 Challenge/Ferrari 458 Challenge) 10 0 10
22 Jim Larkham (Radical PR6) 10 0 10
23 Scott Parkin (Volkswagen Golf/Ford Focus 2.0 TDCI Zetec S/Ford Ka) 9 1 10
24 Andy Smith (March 783/March 742) 8 2 10
25 Gary Prebble (Honda Civic EG/SEAT Leon Cupra 20v T) 7 3 10
26 John Davison (Lotus Elan S1/Lotus Elan 26R/Lotus Elite) 3 7 10
27 Michael Winkworth (Mini Se7en S) 0 10 10
28 Steven Dailly (BMW E36 Compact 318Ti/Ginetta G40 GT5) 9 0 9
29 Brad Sheehan (BMW E46 M3) 9 0 9
30 Sam Kirkpatrick (MG ZR 190/MGB) 9 0 9
31 Steve McDermid (MG ZR 170) 9 0 9
32 Dave Cockell (Ford Escort Cosworth) 9 0 9
33 Shane Murphy (SEAT Leon) 9 0 9
34 Paul Brydon (BMW M3 Solution F) 9 0 9
35 James Harridge (Maverick Vee) 5 4 9
36 David Drinkwater (BMW Compact) 0 9 9
37 Simon Orange (Ginetta G55 GT4) 0 9 9
38 Josh Steed (Ginetta G40 GT5) 8 0 8
39 Simon Clark (Porsche Cayman S) 8 0 8
40 Niall Bradley (BMW E46 M3) 8 0 8
41 Charlie Hand (Citroen Saxo VTR) 8 0 8
42 Alex Walker (Spectrum 011) 8 0 8
43 Stewart Black (Legends Ford Coupe) 8 0 8
44 Theo Edgerton (Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport) 8 0 8
45 Aaron Cooke (Toyota MR2 Roadster) 7 1 8
46 Matt Bell (Radical SR3) 7 1 8
47 Joshua Jackson (McLaren 570S GT4) 0 8 8
48 Marc Warren (Ginetta G40 Cup) 0 8 8
49= Ben Pearson (BMW E46 330Ci) 0 8 8
49= Michelle Hayward (Mallock U2 Mk23) 0 8 8

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. Only classes divided by car characteristics are included. Classes divided by driver characteristics such as ability, professional status, age, experience (for example rookie or Pro-Am classes) are not included. 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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