Thurston back on top at EWS – Round 2 Report
The 2025/2026 Essex Winter Series presented by Team Cayote continued last weekend with Round 2 where Alex Thurston would take the big win. The LRP Modified Class was one to watch, with defending champion Olly Jefferies returning to the series after missing the first event, and Round 1 winner Kyle Branson looking to capitalise on his early championship lead. It was a tight battle for TQ between Kyle and his Awesomatix, and Alex Thurston. Branson took Q1, whilst Alex topped Q2 and Q3. The drivers traded positions in Q4 initially, with Alex then taking the lead, only to have a battery failure two laps from the end. Kyle took the round, but lost out on the tie-break by just 0.002 seconds! Elliott Harper lined up third for Schumacher, with Olly taking his factory Awesomatix to fourth ahead of the privately-entered example of Stefan Chodzynski. In the A Final, Alex led off with Kyle close behind. Olly immediately put Elliott under pressure and was able to get by on the second lap, and then set about closing on the leaders. Alex soaked up the pressure from Kyle, and the battle up front became a four-way fight as Olly closed in and pulled Elliott along with him. The four drivers circulated at high speed for the remaining four minutes of the race, often getting nose-to-tail but everyone keeping the door closed and not allowing the car behind the chance of an overtake. The high-speed freight train entertained the watching crowd as Alex stayed out front, crossing the line to take his second ever victory at EWS.
Over in the Rush Stock class, the question was could anyone stop Zak Finlay? The simple answer was no – the Zombie/Tonisport backed driver topping every qualifying round. Finley Whitelock was the closest challenger, with the Schumacher driver securing second in each round, but a few seconds behind Zak every time. Sam Nicholls would line up third with his privateer Awesomatix, ahead of Iris’s Adam Southgate and Schumacher’s Chris Ashton. Zak led the A Final away, with Finley applying pressure right from the start. Zak managed to maintain composure and kept his car out front, with Finley less than one second behind. By half distance, Zak started to increase the gap, building it up to two seconds and seemingly just managing his lead. Behind, Sam Nicholls had a rather lonely run to third place, whilst Billy Fletcher moved up from seventh on the grid to fight with his Iris teammate Adam, but Adam held on to fourth at the finish, just three-tenths of a second ahead of Billy. Out front, Zak maintained that two-second advantage to cross the line and take his ninth consecutive TQ-Win result from EWS, with Finley keeping him very honest to take the runner-up spot, one place higher than he finished at R1.
In the Tonisport Front Wheel Drive class, it was the same battle for TQ as at the opening round of the series – but again with the same result. Dan Blake would start on pole position, taking all four rounds, and Michael Chapman lined up second on the grid. Mark Burgess secured his best qualifying result and would line up third, ahead of R1 podium finisher Nathan Parker, and Thomas Looney completing the top five on the grid. The A Final saw much of the same story – Dan led away from Michael, and slowly built a gap as the race progressed. Michael couldn’t do anything about Dan out in front, but had a good gap back to the third place battle between Nathan and Thomas. Thomas managed to get past Nathan to secure the final podium step, leaving Nathan in fourth and Sid Lawrence again improving on his qualifying position, moving from seventh up to fifth at the end of the five minutes. The main series now takes a pause until January, as EWS hosts the EWS International event in December, with a fully-booked entry which will see the UK’s best fighting it out with drivers from across Europe and beyond!
Source: EWS [ewsevents.co.uk]
