GT & Sports Car Cup 2026: Autumn Classic, Castle Combe Race Preview

Combe Fly at the Autumn Classic

Spurred on by GT & Sports Car Cup race victories in the two most recent editions of the Castle Combe Autumn Classic, and three from eight run at the historic Wiltshire airfield venue since 2017, the Pre-1961 Sports Racing Car side of the 2026 equation is as much a talking point as the remarkable depth of the Gran Turismo entry. Naturally, the capacity field features a splendid Austin-Healey pack at the venue where John Chatham in Le Mans veteran DD300 and Stewart Hands in the ’61 Alpine Rally winner XJB 876 enthralled your scribe as a lad on his first visit to the venue in July 1967.
 
The heady mix promises another wonderful spectacle at the relaxed showcase, inaugurated by the late Howard Strawford - the circuit’s saviour - and his long-time marketing lieutenant Rodney Gooch in 2012. “Following last year’s record entry, we are over the moon to be bringing another full grid to Castle Combe, which has welcomed us for almost a decade. We appreciate the support of our competitors, and their spirit on and off track,” said Vanessa Marçais, who with husband Flavien co-founded the GTSCC in 2007 for owners of cars with [as a model] international sporting history. 
 
Lotus, Cooper and Lister machinery populate the twin SP categories. Of these, only the Cooper Car Company has yet to emerge victorious at Combe in the charismatic invitation contest, now in its 20th season. Brainchild of Charles Cooper and son John, and espousing the pioneering work of tubular chassis design genius Owen Maddock, Surbiton-based Cooper’s fortunes boomed through the success of its superb 500cc Formula 3 cars from the late 1940s. The first manufacturer to win a F1 World Championship round with a rear-engined car, through Stirling Moss in Rob Walker’s T43 in Argentina in 1958, Cooper went on to be the first to win the crown when Australian Jack Brabham - as skilled at building and preparing cars as he was in the cockpit racing them - triumphed in 1959. The partnership repeated the feat in 1960.
 
Cooper T49 Monacos, effectively two-seater versions of the GP cars, are wieldy chassis which, in the hands of father and son Justin and Ben Maeers, should be at the sharp end of the field. Justin has enlisted the bold Fred Harper - whose taming of a Kurtis-Offenhauser Indy roadster has wowed onlookers at VSCC events for many years - as co-driver, while Ben is joined by Richard Wright. Tim Ross’ little centre-seat T39 ‘Bobtail’ is back in the SP1 division. Regular hotshoe Tom Waterfield, fresh from an Oulton Park Gold Cup race win in Tim’s ex-Roy Salvadori T53, shares it this time with fabled Cooper sorcerer Rod Jolley.      
 
They face two of Lotus founder Colin Chapman’s brainchildren, the 11 Le Mans of Doug Muirhead and Jeremy Welch and the exceptionally nippy MkVI of Charles Angrave. Squaring up to the two-litre Monacos, meanwhile, is the thunderous Lister-Chevrolet Knobbly of Richard Hudson and Stuart Morley. Vintage Bentley racer Morley is likely to top timer TSL’s speed trap readings in the curvaceous 5.5-litre Corvette-motivated monster.
 
At the opposite end of the engine capacity curve, an astonishing 16-strong GT2 entry features cars from six marques. Four lithe Lotus Type 14 Elites, powered by 1216cc Coventry-Climax FWE engines, will be the best handing machines on the 1.85-mile track. Making their speed through the corners, as opposed to the straights, the quickest will humble many of the bigger cars, indeed may well finish in the top dozen at the end of Saturday’s 90-minute race. David Alexander proved this in his Team Elite striped example by finishing third in last month’s FiSCar race here, splitting the Jaguar D-types of Gary Pearson, Christian Albrecht/Kyle Tilley and Ben Eastick. ARDS instructor Richard Fores joins David again for the Autumn Classic.
 
Americans Ben Tarlow/Tim Gregorio’s British Racing Green Elite is the car raced in 1962 by Derek Alderson and future Chevron Cars founder Derek Bennett, the Salford legend among the greatest racecar designers in history. Irishman Michael O’Sullivan’s white car has US provenance, raced in period by Bob Challman under the Ecurie Shirlee banner. Michael has mentor Olly Bryant - whose AC Cobra to Lola T70 exploits are legendary - as co-driver. Kyle Tilley, who won last year’s race in the newly acquired ‘clockwork orange’ Lotus 15 in which Philip Walker/Miles Griffiths triumphed here in the inaugural race of 2017, completes the quartet in mid-1970s’ Formula Super Vee racer father Charles’ Elite, shared with the vastly experienced Christian Albrecht.
 
Spawned from Lord Nuffield’s Morris Garages concern, the competition-rich MG marque spans half of the category with eight entrants. The earliest machine is the Fitzwilliam stable MGA Twin-Cam of Alpine UK chief Nicola Burnside, her husband Neil and A expert Mark Daniell, whose family has owned and raced the ex-Dick Jacobs teamsters I MTW and 2 MTW for decades. Seven robust MGBs will not only be vying for class honours, but their crews will be fighting tooth and nail to be the first home.
 
The driver roster has form, for Chris Ward (with Jonathan Hopper) won here outright in 2024 sharing John Spiers’ Lister-Jaguar and the equally versatile Jason Minshaw (with Mark Hope) is a three-time Spa Six Hours winner in a Jaguar E-type. Ian Stinton and dads and lads Nick and Chris Thompson and ERA racers Nick and James Topliss are in the mix, as are two teams starring Coupe des Dames protagonists. Alice Locke and father Richard bring out their famous ‘Bristolian’ B, the Windmill & Lewis dealer-supported car registered 222 WAE raced from 1964 to ’70 by Dr Roy Ashford, then Terry Osborne to two MGB/C/V8 championships. Beverley Phillips, husband Chris and son Oliver, continue their unbroken run of Combe GTSCC entries in Beverley’s car.
 
Past masters Malcolm Paul and Rick Bourne need no introduction with their BMC powered TVR Grantura MkIII, many times a class winner over the seasons, nor do Cotswolds flyer Richard Plant and Jonny Shears whose Triumph-engined Morgan Plus 4 Super Sport usually gives a good account of itself. And it’s a warm welcome to Germany’s Jan Hunger, who brings his 2.0L Cup contending Porsche 911 to share with compatriot Christian Albrecht, and American Greg Heacock with an Austin-Healey Sebring Sprite.
 
GT3 promises to harbour a grand Austin-Healey 3000 fight, with no fewer than eight - including Dutchmen Christiaen van Lanschot and Karsten Le Blanc’s storied DD300 taking on the pristine bubble-topped Hilton & Moss Jaguar E-type of Will Garrett/Tim Crighton, the open Jaguar XK120 of Ian Beattie (who showed well at Combe last month) and the omnipresent Triumph TR4 of Dr Allan Ross-Jones and son Daniel.
 
Big Healey experts Rawles Motorsport are running a brace of cars, the family example for Bill with sons Charlie and Jack, plus vintage Riley racer Alex Hewitson’s which Jack co-drives like the wind. Oliver Marçais and 2021 overall Combe winner Jeremy Welch, GTSCC rookies Bruce Weir and Simon Niesler - teamed with Bristolian Mike Thorne and the rapid Murray Shepherd, Mark ‘Pangio’ Pangborn/Harvey Woods and the Ingrams, former Historic F1 racer Paul and son George, complete the rasping sub-set.      
 
Moving into GT4, two Jaguar E-type winners head a three-way marque battle. Gary Pearson, victorious at Combe in 2018, saddles his semi-lightweight version and Canadian Read Gomm - first past the chequered flag at picturesque Anglesey in June with Nigel Greensall co-driving, a live-streamed thriller available on YouTube - has Andy Keith-Lucas back in his gorgeous low-drag coupe, replacing Nigel Greensall who co-drove it to gold in Wales.
 
The Ford France tribute AC Cobra Daytona Coupe of local heroes David ‘Meerkat’ Smithies and Chris ‘Lord Borneo’ Clarkson, with its gruff 4.7-litre V8 powerplant, goes head-to-head with the 3.8-litre straight-six Jags. Lotus Elan 26R won at Combe in 2020 with Andrew ‘Ralphie’ Haddon/Andy Wolfe, so the ever-competitive Steve Jones/Ben Tinkler and Alex Montgomery/Nick Sleep have marque honour to protect. Haddon, another Spa Six Hours winner, loves Combe thus has entered his Ford Mustang in the Touring Car category.
 
Opened for racing in July 1950 on the demobilised RAF Castle Combe aerodrome’s perimeter track, the Bristol Motor Cycle and Light organised events - including international sportscar and F1 races in 1955 won by George Abecassis (HWM-Jaguar) and Harry Schell (Vanwall) - at the Chippenham, Wiltshire venue. Although car racing was discontinued at the end of 1955, it rejoined motorcycle racing on the calendar in 1962. Noted for having hosted the first regional Formula Ford championship in 1969, Castle Combe hosted Formula 5000 races in 1970 and ’71, won by Peter Gethin (McLaren M10B) and Australian Frank Gardner (Lola T192) respectively.
 
Our Autumn Classic race marks 50 years and one day since circuit saviour Howard Strawford ran the first meeting under his ownership on September 11, 1976. Speeds rose dramatically with chassis, aerodynamics and engine development, and crucially tyre technology, thus the original layout was slowed by chicanes - the Esses and Bobbies - for the 1999 season. In August 1977, Nigel Greensall had set the ultimate lap record of 50.59s, an astonishing average speed of 130.93mph in an F1 Tyrrell 022.

MARCUS PYE 
 
 
GTSCC CASTLE COMBE RACE WINNERS 2017-2025:
 
2017 Philip WALKER/Miles GRIFFITHS (Lotus-Climax 15)
2018 Gary PEARSON (Jaguar E-type)
2019 No Race
2020 Andrew HADDON/Andy WOLFE (Lotus Elan 26R)
2021 Mark HOLME/Jeremy WELCH (Austin-Healey 3000)
2022 Chris CHILES JR/Chris CHILES (AC Cobra)
2023 Chris CHILES JR/Chris CHILES (AC Cobra)
2024 John SPIERS/Chris WARD (Lister-Jaguar Costin)
2025 Kyle TILLEY (Lotus-Climax 15)