Imp racer now has 10 class wins to his name this year
Photo by: Gary Hawkins
Ali Bray's large lead at the top of the Ryan Motorsport Insurance Autosport National Rankings has been cut after a triple success for James Ibbotson last weekend.
It is a week where there has been plenty of changes towards the summit of the leaderboard, in complete contrast to the previous one when the lack of movement meant we did not include an update on Autosport.com.
But Hillman Imp pilot Ibbotson has now trimmed long-time leader Bray's advantage to just two wins after enjoying three Pre-'66 Touring Car class triumphs at the Brands Hatch Super Touring Power event.
Ibbotson missed out on the chance of making it a quadruple success as he was among the drivers eliminated in a huge pile-up at the start of the finale, but nevertheless still shoots up eight spaces and into second spot.
There is a new third-placed driver, too, as Taylor O'Flanagan was another to score a hat-trick last weekend. He headed all three Caterham 310R contests at Croft to make a meteoric rise up the table from 33rd. He now heads an increasing gaggle of drivers with eight wins to their name so far in 2025.
Also joining that club is one of the other conquerors at Brands Hatch, Ian Bower. The BMW M3 pilot bagged two victories among the Pre-'93 ranks to gain 13 places and move into fifth, although he was stripped of a third triumph after being penalised for contact.
Rounding out the group on eight wins is Focus Cup frontrunner Ali Topley, who notched up another two Zetec S division victories to climb from 21st to sixth.
Outside of the top 10, Ben Wheatley enjoyed more Caterham 270R glory at Croft. But it was just the one win for him this time and he therefore only progresses from 13th to 11th.
He is, in turn, three spots ahead of one of the few drivers to add to their tally the previous week: Paul Cook. His double BMW Car Club Racing triumph at Donington Park had initially brought him inside the top 10 but he has slipped back to 14th amid the latest flurry of improvements.
Corker and his Datsun were another combo on form at Brands
Photo by: Gary Hawkins
Back at Brands Hatch, Jonathan Corker and his rapid Datsun 510 also achieved multiple successes in the Pre-'83 bouts, to shoot up from outside the top 50 and straight into 15th.
He is one place ahead of Aidan Mulready, who only topped one of the Northern Irish Fiesta Zetec battles at Kirkistown this time to therefore climb just the solitary spot.
The only other driver to improve from the penultimate weekend in June was Jonathan Moore, who added two more class wins in the Porsche Sprint Challenge GB Oulton Park event to now sit 18th - although he had initially progressed to 12th.
And the other change inside the top half of the table concerns Scottish Fiesta ace Gerry Hendry. We inadvertently missed off his latest Knockhill wins in the previous table and he should actually have been into 16th. He now finds himself 24th.
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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.
Source: Autosport