Kay, Goff and Webber on the march in Rankings

Historic racer Connor Kay, Ginetta Junior ace Lewis Goff and Hot Hatch hero Corey Webber are the men on the move at the top of this week’s Autosport National Rankings.

While F1000 Jedi exponent Matt Higginson remains ahead, Kay, Goff and Webber have all made progress to move into second, third and fourth respectively at the expense of Junior Saloons starlet Ollie Smith, who is dumped from the runner-up slot to fifth.

The Autosport National Rankings is based on the simple premise of who has taken the most wins across a car racing season in the UK and Ireland, with all victories counting equally.

Kay has been a force in various 1960s weaponry this season, and used his Midget to take class honours at the Classic Sports Car Club meeting at Brands Hatch. That moves him up one spot to second in the table. Unluckily for Kay, we stipulate a minimum six cars in a class for a win to count, which means his class win in the Swinging 60s race at the same event in a TVR Tuscan can’t boost his tally. There were only three starters in his division, otherwise he could have leapfrogged Higginson. As it stands, they’re level on seven wins.

Goff started his weekend of Ginetta Junior action badly at Oulton Park when his qualifying laptimes were disallowed due to exceeding track limits. But he bounced back to take a win, moving him up from fifth to third. Of the three drivers on six wins, Goff has the largest average grid size, so he gets the verdict.

With no one by the name of Vettel in the field, Webber has been the man to beat in the Castle Combe Hot Hatch series this season. Two more victories in his Honda Civic on Bank Holiday Monday have bounced him up a huge 17 places to fourth.

Ash Sutton has a large lead in the British Touring Car Championship, and one further success to add to his tally came at Snetterton. He’s probably got his eye on a record-breaking fifth title, but he can be pretty chuffed to be up 14 positions to 10th in the Rankings.

The other upwardly mobile drivers in the top half of our chart have all entered from outside the top 50 this week.

Spearheading them is Racing Hondas force Bob Barron, whose pair of wins at Donington Park have carried him all the way into 14th. Peter Keen added two more BMW 116 Sprint trophies to his collection at Pembrey, and his reward is a presence in 17th position.

And one spot behind Keen is James Hughes. Like Kay, he was competing in the Midgets/Sprites races at Brands, winning one overall, and also collected a Swinging 60s class win.

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.

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– The Autosport.com Team