Branson wins EWS season opener – Report

The well-known Essex Winter Series kicked off its 2025/26 season over the weekend and with the LRP Modified defending champion Olly Jefferies missing the opening round, there was an opportunity for his competitors to get a head-start.  It was Kyle Branson who secured the TQ with his Awesomatix, ahead of Mugen Seiki’s Alex Thurston with the rest of the top five made of the Schumacher trio of Elliott Harper, Peter Eagles and Matthieu Dambrine.  Branson continued to remain in control for the Final, taking a lights-to-flag win to secure the maximum points at the season opener.  Thurston and Harper finished second and third, reflecting the qualifying positions, Eagles holding on to fourth place as Stefan Chodzynski moved up to fifth at the finish.

In the Rush Stock class, Zak Finlay picked up where he finished last season, the series champion winning all qualifying rounds. Andy Murray secured second on the grid ahead of Adam Southgate, Finley Whitelock and Sam Nicholls. The final saw Zak run away with the win, Andy having a rather lonely drive to second place, and Adam run in third for the majority of the race until an incident with a back marker forced him out, promoting Finley into a podium place.

In Tonisport Front Wheel Drive, Dan Blake took TQ after a nice fight in qualifying with Michael Chapman. Nathan Parker was best-of-the-rest and would line up third, ahead of Jon Seals and Mark Young. The top three from qualifying held their positions through the final to make the podium places, whilst Sid Lawrence raced up to fourth and Mark Burgess took a well-deserved fifth place in the final.

Source: EWS [ewsevents.co.uk]