Westwood Wins the War, Copsey Wins the Day

Ricky Copsey sweeps King of Clubs’ final round at West London as Glenn Westwood claims the 17.5 Touring Car title, Ivan Murphy-Brown wins the Rookies Cup and Aldershot end Eastbourne’s six-year hold on the Teams’ Championship.

KOC26 Round 4 — West London Racing Centre — 20 September 2026

By Sunday morning at West London, a season of racing had boiled down to three questions. Could Ben Cane overhaul his Aldershot teammate Glenn Westwood and retain the 17.5 Touring Car Drivers’ Championship? Could Aldershot finally win the Teams’ Championship, ending six consecutive years of Eastbourne rule? And, at the other end of the experience spectrum, which of Ivan Murphy-Brown and Aariz Hussain would emerge from a dead heat to take the Rookies Cup? Those looked like straightforward questions. Then the racing started. Copsey took the biggest race of the day and made it entirely his own. Jay Westwood changed classes to strengthen Aldershot’s team and promptly won that too. Ivan Murphy-Brown took the Rookies title by winning the first two finals before his rival could respond. And somewhere amid all of that, Glenn Westwood became KOC26 17.5 Touring Car Champion despite having probably the worst race meeting of his season. Motorsport rarely follows the script. That is why we keep coming back.

What Happened at West London

For anyone who just wants the results before the story: Copsey swept Round 4 outright, taking TQ and all three A-finals in 17.5 Touring Car — a result that had nothing to do with either title contender and everything to do with how the title got settled. Glenn Westwood finished tenth on the day but is KOC26 17.5 Touring Car Champion regardless, his title already secured on points from earlier rounds. Ben Cane, needing a win to keep the championship alive, finished eighth. Elsewhere, Ivan Murphy-Brown won the Rookies Cup, beating Aariz Hussain to two final wins before Hussain could reply. Aldershot became King of Clubs Teams Champions for the first time, ending Eastbourne’s run of six straight titles. Daniel Saunders, already crowned Talent Cup champion coming into the round, won it anyway — his fourth round win from four starts this season. Damian Giddins took the Masters round win in Jay Westwood’s absence, and James Snashall — freshly crowned Frontie champion — turned up to race a different class purely, it seems, because he could. Sixty drivers took part across the day completing more than 6,000 race laps. Whatever else Round 4 did or didn’t resolve, it wasn’t short of racing. Here’s how it actually happened.

Copsey Disrupts the Title Fight

The build-up to the finale had understandably centred on Cane and Westwood. Westwood arrived with three strong scores already banked. Cane had missed Eastbourne, but wins at Aldershot and strong recent form at West London meant his route back into the championship remained genuinely open. The maths was clear. If Westwood finished second or better, the title was his regardless. If he finished third or lower and Cane won, Cane could draw level on points and take the championship on countback. Neither man appeared interested in racing conservatively. “It’s straightforward for me,” Cane said before the meeting. “I’m racing to win and don’t need to think about the maths.” Westwood was equally clear. “I won’t be racing for second — I always race for the win. However, there’s more pressure on Ben, as he needs to win.” There was just one problem: Copsey had not read that brief. The West London racer had been threatening something like this all season. Second at Eastbourne, and always near the front. He’s a racer who largely avoiding the drama unfolding around him, and arrived at his home circuit feeling quietly confident. He took TQ. Tim Hancock, fresh from victory at his home track, Eastbourne (see…it’s not Adur, Mick –ed) lined up second, Cane third. James Snashall — the newly crowned Frontie champion, having apparently decided that one title was reason enough to try another class — qualified fourth. Westwood was having a mare, and lined up eighth, forced to use his wet car after a collision with a marshall at the end of Q3. Already, the anticipated title duel was beginning to look like a tall order. Copsey then won A1. Cane pushed hard and salvaged third, keeping his championship route technically alive. A2 put it all on the line, Cane pushing Hancock hard, knowing he needed to get by to stand a chance of catching Copsey. Luck wasn’t on his side tho, Hancock’s Avalon clothed car doing what they sometimes do, letting go suddenly and rolling, collecting the close chasing Cane. Racing incidents decide races, and this one decided Cane’s championship race. Copsey out front, winning A2 to secure the overall on the day. Hancock secured P2 on the day completing another excellent meeting (taking second in the drivers championship), with Soteris Liasi third and Snashall fourth. Kenny Hyde finished sixth in a strong home performance for the WLRC team. So, in the end the two championship protagonists finished eighth and tenth on the day. After the four rounds of KOC26 in which Glenn Westwood, Ben Cane, Tim Hancock and Ricky Copsey all won meetings, the 2026 17.5 Touring Car Championship belongs to Westwood. It was not quite how anyone had drawn it up, but the trophy went home with Glenn.

The Rookies Cup Needed No Calculator

If the 17.5 title required drop scores and countback scenarios to explain it, the Rookies Cup needed none of them. Ivan Murphy-Brown and Aariz Hussain arrived at West London tied on 298 points. Whoever had the better day would be champion. Aariz started from the front, but A1 went badly wrong: he completed only eight laps while Ivan kept going, kept it clean, and won. Harrison Bennion took second, with Aariz recovering enough to record third. The first final went to Ivan. A2 mattered even more. This time Aariz was there throughout making it a great race, but Ivan beat him again. Two finals had brought two wins, and because two results from three decide the podium, that was all she wrote – Ivan had won the day and, with it, the championship. Aariz responded exactly as one would hope a young racer would, returning for A3 and winning it, completing 15 laps and beating the new champion fair and square in consolation. The result could no longer change the title, but it said something about the two young Rookies. Ivan’s journey through the season has been impressive. He won at Adur, lost out to Aariz at Aldershot, recovered at Eastbourne, and delivered when the two arrived at West London level on points. Three round wins give Murphy-Brown a perfect record and the KOC26 Rookies Cup. Hussain made him earn it. Behind them, Harrison Bennion marked his secon d KOC appearance with third overall, while Omar Woodroffe completed the field. The Rookies grid remained small this year, a point discussed at length elsewhere. But consider what happened: two young racers arrived level after three meetings, raced directly for a championship, shared final victories, and left as friends and rivals with considerably more racing experience than they arrived with. That is rather the point.

Aldershot. Sponsored by Aviva

The Teams’ Championship had its own equation. Aldershot won the opening round at Adur, then their home meeting in Round 2. Eastbourne, champions every year since KOC began, responded with victory at Round 3. Going into West London, only one combination could deny Aldershot their first KOC Teams title: Eastbourne had to win the round, and Aldershot had to collapse to fourth. West London were never going to make that straightforward. The home club had strength across the classes, and Adur had brought a useful-looking squad of their own. Aldershot chose not to leave the outcome to chance and took out some insurance. Jay Westwood had already won the Masters Drivers’ Championship with three victories from three, leaving nothing further to achieve in that class. There was, however, a gap in Aldershot’s Frontie team, so Westwood switched. As policies go, it proved fairly comprehensive. He started at the front and won A1. That mattered beyond his own result, because the KOC Teams’ Championship is scored from the first set of finals. At precisely the moment Aldershot needed a result from its substitute Frontie driver, its reigning Masters champion delivered one. Daniel Saunders did the same in the Talent Cup, and the pressure eased. Westwood’s A2 then went wrong — 11 laps and seventh place — before he returned to win A3 and take the Frontie round overall. Mark Trinder won A2 and finished second for the meeting, with Dominic Skinner producing the day’s most symmetrical scorecard — second, second, second — for third overall. The feared Eastbourne-win, Aldershot-fourth combination never materialised, and for the first time, Aldershot became King of Clubs Teams Champions. The achievement is significant. Eastbourne’s six consecutive championships rank among the defining achievements of KOC: the club won the inaugural title and then simply kept winning it, six seasons running. Last year the new A22 Inter-Club Shield was created to recognise that extraordinary run. Aldershot are the first club to take it from them. Their championship was not built around one outstanding performance or one spectacular round. It came from recruiting strength in depth, two early victories, minimising damage at Eastbourne, and understanding exactly what was needed at West London. Teams don’t win by accident, Aldershot made the point emphatically.

Saunders Makes It Four From Four

Daniel Saunders arrived at West London with the Talent Cup championship already secured. Apparently that was not sufficient. After a DNF and DNS in Q1 and Q2, he qualified only fifth, with Poppy Allcock-Green starting from the front. Racers hone their race craft in the Talent Cup. Patience and consistency pay, and Saunders is ahead on those scores at the moment. He won A1, then A2, and the round was over. Allcock-Green fought back to win A3 and secure second overall, with Aliza Hussain completing the podium in third. Her result is memorable because Aliza is one of the Hillingdon Council RC Vision holiday camp recruits, demonstrating the pathway opened up in the partnership between WLRC, RC Vision and Hillingdon Council.

Saunders therefore ends KOC26 having won all four rounds. At Aldershot he was disqualified from qualifying and responded by winning every final. At Eastbourne, Allcock-Green beat him to TQ and he responded by winning every final. At West London, he broke down, started fifth and had the meeting won after A2. Others have produced the quicker individual moments — poles, race wins, genuine challenges. Allcock-Green’s West London result caps an excellent season of her own and confirms her as one of the young racers most likely to make Saunders’ progress more difficult next time around — precisely the pressure he needs. The Talent Cup has a habit of producing racers who go on to bigger things — just ask graduates James Snashall and Kenny Hyde. On this evidence, the future looks bright. And female, too.

Giddins Takes the Masters Finale

With Jay Westwood away racing a Frontie, Masters had a new vacancy at the front. Damian Giddins and Dave Ringsell picked up where they left off 12 months ago, and filled it. Ringsell took A1 for West London, after Andy Hyde messed up, and knocked Damo out of the lead. Giddins hit backin A2 and then won A3 as well to secure the meeting. Ringsell’s first, second and second gave him runner-up honours, while Andy Hyde recovered from seventh in the opening final to take fourth and then third, enough for third overall. Giddins ends the season as the strongest challenger to Jay Westwood’s title-winning campaign. The outgoing Masters champion never quite found a way past Jay while the championship remained live, but with Westwood elsewhere he ensured the final round belonged to him. Sometimes the simplest statement is the right one: Damo remains quick.

F1 and Tamiya Join the Finale

Two additional classes gave the West London programme further variety. Rob Chaldecott took the F1 victory with wins in A1 and A3; Jason Petch won the middle final on his way to second overall; David Petch completed the podium. Tamiya produced its own split decision. Matt Digby won A1, Simon Cleaver took A2, and Digby returned to win A3 and the meeting. Cleaver finished second, and Dave Johnson completed a remarkably consistent set of three third places for third overall.

Has KOC Run Its Course?

An awkward question has hung over this season, one posed by this blog itself. After fewer than 40 racers completed Round 3 at Eastbourne, we asked whether King of Clubs had run its course. That question was asked in earnest. One larger finale does not resolve the structural challenges facing regional outdoor touring car racing. Racers continue to move on faster than we are replacing them. Events require considerable work from organisers and volunteers, all operating on a shoestring. We need more racers through the gate and higher margins at the same time – tow factors that can pull in opposite directions. But, racing like this reminds us why we grid up, and why we go the extra yard when we can. A defending champion tried to steal a title from his teammate. A home racer disrupted their fight and swept the meeting. Two young Rookies arrived level on points and settled their championship on the track. Four clubs still cared enough about an Inter-Club Championship that one of them moved a champion around its line-up to improve its chances. And Aldershot finally broke an Eastbourne dynasty that had lasted from the first King of Clubs season until now. These results do not settle the argument about what KOC should become. They do, however, explain why the argument is worth having. Over to you.

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KOC26 finishes with Glenn Westwood as 17.5 Touring Car Champion, Jay Westwood as Masters Champion, James Snashall as Frontie Champion, Daniel Saunders as Talent Cup Champion, and Ivan Murphy-Brown as Rookies Cup Champion. amyas and F1s returned and added to the show. Aldershot take the Teams’ Championship for the first time. View the full race results from Round 4 at West London.