Winner: Ray West (BMW E36) · Armed Forces class winner: John Cobley (SEAT Ibiza Cupra) · Weather: Bright, dry · Distance: 14 laps (16.91 miles), reduced from 20 minutes after a lap-one red flag and further shortened by a late safety car

Race Summary

Ray West took a hard-fought win in a Round 6 race twice interrupted by yellow and red flags at Brands Hatch, holding off fellow guest entry Anton Martin’s BMW by 0.926 seconds after the pair pulled clear in the closing, safety-car-shortened laps. Behind them, John Cobley claimed his first Armed Forces Race Challenge win of the season in his SEAT Ibiza Cupra, surviving contact between his closest rivals to beat Jasmin Norman’s Audi TT to the class honours, with AFRC debutant Andrew Bailey completing the podium in his Caterham Seven after a post-race time penalty for Norman’s car reordered the final positions.

The 28-car field — a mix of Armed Forces personnel, veterans and invited guests running production saloons and sports cars across five classes (A to D, split by power-to-weight, plus a novice 116 class) — needed a full restart after a heavy accident on the opening lap, and the race was later neutralised again by a safety car when a novice-class BMW 116i beached itself in the Paddock Hill Bend gravel trap. Between the two interruptions, barely two laps of green-flag racing separated the restart from the chequered flag.

How the Race Unfolded

Grid and Build-Up

Anton Martin’s BMW E46 330ci — one of four guest entries invited to bolster the 28-car grid — started from pole position ahead of Alex Rivett’s Lotus Elise, with Andrew Bailey’s Caterham Seven 270R and John Cobley’s SEAT Ibiza Cupra sharing row two. Ray West, deputising for regular partner Gavin Dunn after the pair’s Snetterton enduro win earlier in the season, lined up fifth in his BMW E36, alongside Class C regular Kieran Lambourne. Jasmin Norman — already a three-time winner this year at Silverstone (twice) and Cadwell Park — started seventh in her ex-Tony Hutchings Audi TT, alongside fellow Cadwell winner Jack Ijewsky’s Honda Civic. Further back, a cluster of novice-class BMW 116i drivers lined up for their first outing at Brands Hatch.

Opening Lap Red Flag

The 20-minute race was stopped almost as soon as it began. Sean Storey’s Mazda MX5, starting from the back row, was collected in heavy front-end contact right in front of race control, with Jake Osborne’s Renault Clio — stalled on the grid — also involved; Peter McNicol’s MX5 pulled into the pits during the same opening-lap melee. With the incident occurring on the very first lap, race control ordered a full restart to the original grid order. Storey, Osborne and McNicol were unable to rejoin, reducing the field to 25 cars for a shortened 15-minute race plus a green-flag warm-up lap.

The Restart and the Lead Battle

Alex Rivett’s Lotus Elise led away cleanly from the second start but retired within a lap with a mechanical problem, promoting Anton Martin to the front. Ray West then powered his BMW M3 past Martin into Paddock Hill Bend, and the two guest BMWs ran nose-to-tail for the remainder of the race, swapping fractions of a second through the lap before West controlled the closing stages to win by 0.926 seconds and set the race’s fastest lap, a 54.071.

Behind the outright leaders, the Armed Forces class contest was the race within the race. John Cobley’s SEAT Ibiza Cupra, Jasmin Norman’s Audi TT and Caterham debutant Andrew Bailey traded the class lead through Paddock Hill Bend and Druids, with Norman’s straight-line speed repeatedly cancelled out by Brands Hatch’s short straights. The group’s order was settled when Cobley and Norman made contact while negotiating lapped traffic exiting Graham Hill Bend; Norman lost ground to both Cobley and Bailey in the process, handing Cobley a lead he would not relinquish.

Safety Car and the Sprint to the Flag

With just over six minutes remaining, novice-class competitor Jamie Brackley — who had also gone off in qualifying — speared into the gravel at Paddock Hill Bend in his BMW 116i, bringing out the safety car. The recovery, combined with a second full safety-car lap, compressed the finish to just two laps of green-flag racing. On the restart, West and Martin immediately broke clear at the front, while Cobley timed his pass of a lapped Citroen Saxo perfectly to keep Bailey and Norman bottled up behind and secure the Armed Forces class win by three tenths of a second. A separate incident across the startline between Peter Fisk’s Ferrari 308 GT4 and a lapped Peugeot 206 did not affect the result.

Jasmin Norman’s Audi TT was subsequently handed a one-second time penalty for a contravention of Motorsport UK’s National Competition Rules, which demoted her from fourth to fifth in the amended final classification and promoted Andrew Bailey — on his series debut — to fourth overall.

Class Honours

Kieran Lambourne recovered from a poor original start, which had dropped him outside the top ten through Paddock Hill Bend, to finish sixth overall and claim his third Class C win of the season following earlier victories at Silverstone and Snetterton. Alexander Martin’s Mazda MX5 continued a rich vein of recent form to take Class D, while in the 116 novice class Charlie Honeywood held off Joe Turrell by just 0.254 seconds for his second win of the year after Cadwell Park, with David Inglis completing the class podium in third; Brackley’s earlier retirement ended his own hopes of a repeat win in the class.

Full Classification

Race Distance: 14 laps / 16.91 miles · Start 12:17, Finish 12:32 · Brands Hatch Indy Circuit, 1.2079 miles · Weather: bright, dry.

Pos	No.	Cl.	Driver	Car	Laps	Time / Gap	Best Lap
1	130	—	Ray West	BMW E36	14	15:27.542	54.071
2	330	—	Anton Martin	BMW E46 330ci	14	+0.926	54.389
3	47	A	John Cobley	SEAT Ibiza Cupra	14	+3.501	54.974
4	131	B	Andrew Bailey	Caterham Seven 270R	14	+4.650	55.335
5	277*	A	Jasmin Norman	Audi TT	14	+4.887	54.797
6	7	C	Kieran Lambourne	BMW E46 330ci	14	+11.105	55.507
7	99	C	Jack Ijewsky	Honda Civic	14	+18.851	56.439
8	230	B	Paul Waterhouse	Peugeot 306 GTi-6	14	+25.307	57.386
9	95	C	Mark Jones	Renault Clio 200	14	+27.694	58.318
10	310	INV	Peter Fisk	Ferrari 308 GT4	14	+33.628	58.317
11	51	C	Ian Cooper	Daewoo Nexia	14	+34.387	58.769
12	11	D	Alexander Martin	Mazda MX5	14	+35.353	58.750
13	26	C	Gareth Moss	Mazda MX5	14	+42.454	57.785
14	6	C	Lee Kenealy	Citroen Saxo	13	1 Lap	1:01.290
15	43	D	Dean Fletcher	Ford Fiesta	13	1 Lap	1:02.286
16	134	A	Sean Graham	Sylva/Locost	13	1 Lap	1:01.924
17	305	116	Charlie Honeywood	BMW 116i	13	1 Lap	1:02.206
18	18	116	Joe Turrell	BMW 116i	13	1 Lap	1:02.766
19	92	C	Mason Cook	Peugeot 206 GTi	13	1 Lap	1:01.805
20	39	116	David Inglis	BMW 116i	13	1 Lap	1:02.850
21	56	D	Luke Davies	Peugeot 206 GTi	13	1 Lap	1:03.000

Not Classified

Status	No.	Cl.	Driver	Car	Notes
DNF	17	C	Sebastian Unwin	Mini Cooper S	8 laps
DNF	69	116	Jamie Brackley	BMW 116i	7 laps
DNF	213	INV	Robin Fisk	Ferrari Mondial QV	6 laps
DNF	113	A	Alex Rivett	Lotus Elise	1 lap
DNF	44	C	Jake Osborne	Renault Clio 182	0 laps — opening-lap incident
DNF	14	D	Peter McNicol	Mazda MX5	0 laps — opening-lap incident
DNF	34	D	Sean Storey	Mazda MX5	0 laps — opening-lap incident

* Car 277 (Jasmin Norman) had one second added to her race time for a contravention of Motorsport UK National Competition Rules, Ch.2 App.1 Art.1.14.

Class Winners

Class	No.	Winner	Car	Detail
Overall win	130	Ray West	BMW E36	Winning margin 0.926s
Armed Forces / Class A	47	John Cobley	SEAT Ibiza Cupra	First win of the season
Class B	131	Andrew Bailey	Caterham Seven 270R	AFRC series debut
Class C	7	Kieran Lambourne	BMW E46 330ci	Third Class C win of 2026
Class D	11	Alexander Martin	Mazda MX5	Extends recent winning run
Class 116 (Graduates)	305	Charlie Honeywood	BMW 116i	Won by 0.254s; second win of 2026
Invitational	310	Peter Fisk	Ferrari 308 GT4	Quick starter, 10th overall

Performance Index — The Consistency Award

Alongside the class-based race results, the Armed Forces Race Challenge scores every driver on a Performance Index (PI): a measure of how close each driver’s average lap time was to their own best lap, rewarding metronomic consistency over a stint rather than outright pace. It produces a very different order to the race result — outright race winner Ray West placed only sixth on the PI table, while Armed Forces class winner John Cobley was ninth, both bettered by drivers who never led a class.

Mark Jones’s Renault Clio 200 topped the overall Performance Index with a score of 97.90, matched on points by Andrew Bailey’s Caterham but classified ahead of it; Jack Ijewsky, Ian Cooper and Lee Kenealy completed the top five, all Class C or B runners rather than outright pace-setters.

Pos	No.	Cl.	Driver	Best	Average	PI
1	95	C	Mark Jones	58.32	59.57	97.90
2	131	B	Andrew Bailey	55.34	56.52	97.90
3	99	C	Jack Ijewsky	56.44	57.79	97.67
4	51	C	Ian Cooper	58.77	60.23	97.58
5	6	C	Lee Kenealy	61.29	62.83	97.55
6	130	—	Ray West	54.07	55.43	97.54
7	230	B	Paul Waterhouse	57.39	58.89	97.45
8	330	—	Anton Martin	54.39	55.82	97.44
9	47	A	John Cobley	54.97	56.46	97.37
10	43	D	Dean Fletcher	62.29	64.00	97.31

Sub-Championships

Veterans: 1st Mark Jones (97.90), 2nd Lee Kenealy (97.55), 3rd Paul Waterhouse (97.45).

Novice: 1st Dean Fletcher (97.31), 2nd Joe Turrell (97.25), 3rd David Inglis (97.20), 4th Charlie Honeywood (96.88), 5th Mason Cook (95.65), 6th Luke Davies (95.21), 7th Jamie Brackley (89.05, DNF).

Graduates (116)— ranked on raw race position: 1st Charlie Honeywood, 2nd Joe Turrell, 3rd David Inglis, 4th Jamie Brackley (DNF).

Retirements

Seven cars failed to reach the finish. Sean Storey, Jake Osborne and Peter McNicol were all caught up in the opening-lap accident that brought out the red flag and did not take the restart. Alex Rivett’s Lotus Elise retired after leading the second start for less than a lap with a mechanical problem. Jamie Brackley beached his BMW 116i in the Paddock Hill Bend gravel under the late safety car. Robin Fisk’s Ferrari Mondial QV retired after six laps, and Sebastian Unwin’s Mini Cooper S after eight.