Harper wins 2026/27 EWS season opener – Report
The opening round of the 2026/27 Essex Winter Series took place over the weekend with Schumacher’s Elliott Harper getting his title defence off to the perfect start with victory in the LRP Modified class. The fifteenth season of the EWS, entries were as popular as ever, leading to a fully booked race and a stacked field in all the classes. In qualifying it was the Mugen Seiki of Alex Thurston who topped the opening qualifier ahead of ToniSport’s Kyle Branson, with Harper in third. Harper then however found the groove and took the top spot in the remaining three qualifiers to secure pole position, ahead of Thurston, Branson, the Awesomatix of series returnee Olly Jefferies and Xray’s Harley Eldridge. Thurston initially stayed close to Harper at the start of the final, but by the half-distance point had dropped around 2 seconds behind. Meanwhile, Jefferies hounded Branson, the two former champions putting on a great display of close racing throughout. As Thurston’s pace began to fade, this pair closed in, and the final half-minute saw a three way battle to be “best of the rest”. But Thurston held his composure to cross the line in second place, with Branson and Jefferies right behind him but still in the order they qualified. Out front, Harper secured maximum points with a perfect drive to take the win.
In the Rush Stock class, it was a tight battle at the front through qualifying. Current champion Zak Finlay shared honours with Ollie Payne, with the tie-break meaning the Team Zombie supported Zak would line up ahead of the R1 Wurks-backed Ollie at the front of the grid. Schumacher’s Finley Whitelock was just a fraction behind the top two, but within striking distance should either put a wheel wrong. Adam Southgate (Cosmic RC/Ruddog) and Bailey Graves (Schumacher) rounded out the top five on the grid. The Final was a brilliant five-minute battle between the top three, as the gaps grew and shrank lap by lap. Zak held control at the front and despite everything Ollie and Finley could find, it wasn’t enough to mount a passing move on the lead car, with Zak taking victory by just 0.8 seconds over Ollie, with Finley one-second further behind. Adam Southgate had a rather lonely drive to fourth, whilst Ethan Southall had qualified 11 th , bumped up from the B Final and had a great run to move to fifth at the finish.
In the ToniSport Front Wheel Drive class, Stuart Collard secured pole position after four close rounds, with former champion Shane Chipolina lining up second on the grid, ahead of Lee Graves, Thomas Looney and Mark Burgess. Stuart led the final away, but a mistake on lap one from Shane dropped him to fourth. A few laps later, Lee rolled his car, dropping him from second to fourth, putting Thomas up to second and Shane into third. Shane was glued to the rear bumper of Thomas’ car for the remaining four minutes of the race, desperately trying to find a way past. However, Thomas held on to secure second place in the race, with Shane rounding out the podium. Out front, these battles allowed Stuart to pull out a one-and-a-half second lead by the time he crossed the line.
Round 2 of the 5 round series takes place on November 22nd.
Source: EWS [ewsevents.co.uk]
