Last season Matthew Smithson won the brushless title with a perfect score, and Ollie Payne — the only driver to beat him in a straight fight — raced just twice. This season Payne says he’s going for the championship. Here’s our preview of Mini Masters Season 3: the rivalry, the new Mini Clubman class, and six rounds to a two-day finale at the NEC.
Mini Masters Season 3 — six rounds, 24 October 2026 to 25 April 2027
Matthew Smithson and Ollie Payne raced each other at two Mini Masters meetings last season. They won one each.
At the opening round at Eastbourne, Payne took TQ and won all three legs of the A-final, beating Smithson in every one of them. A month later at Crewe, Smithson took TQ and the round, though Payne fought back from seventh in the first leg to beat him in the third. Across the six A-final legs they both started, it finished Payne four, Smithson two.
Then Payne stopped racing. Smithson won every remaining round, finished the season on a perfect 300 points, and the head-to-head that was just getting going never got a decider.
On 10 October, at the Season 3 warm-up at ACS International School Egham, Payne was back. He was quickest in all three qualifying rounds and won the A-final on the first two legs. And this time, he says, he’s staying.
“This was great preparation for the season ahead,” Payne said. “The RC Vision team deliver one of the best organised and best presented series in the UK without a doubt, and I’m looking forward to racing the Mini Masters series this season.”
Smithson wasn’t at the warm-up, but he’s entered for the new season, starting at Robertsbridge. So Mini Sport looks set to get the championship battle it promised a year ago, with Sam Richardson sure to be in the fight, too.
Season 3 starts at Robertsbridge on Saturday 24 October, and the series looks different. Brushless is now Mini Sport — same cars, basically same rules, new name. Brushed has gone, replaced by Mini Clubman, a new class for 30.5 brushless motors. And the calendar ends somewhere Mini Masters has never been: a two-day finale at Model World Live at the NEC in Birmingham.
Looking back: Season 2
Brushless: Smithson’s perfect season
Matthew Smithson finished Season 2 on 300 points from a possible 300. After a third place at the opening round at Eastbourne, he won Crewe, Holbeach, Hednesford and Oxford — four rounds in a row, three of them from pole. With the best three rounds counting, it was mathematically flawless.
It wasn’t always easy. At Oxford he started the A-final second on the grid and finished leg one third, before winning legs two and three to take the round. But it was the closest anyone came.
Behind him, the battle for second was fierce. Michael Chapman and Samuel Richardson tied on 294, with Craig Nutting one point behind on 293 and Stephen Davies on 291. Five drivers covered by nine points, with only the top spot never in doubt.
And all the while, the season’s other big storyline was the driver who wasn’t there. After his win at Eastbourne and second place at Crewe, Ollie Payne didn’t race again, finishing 29th in the championship on two scores.
Mini Masters kept growing too. Brushless entries went from 58 at the opening round to 75 at Crewe, and 96 at the final round at Oxford.
Brushed: one point, three drivers
If Brushless was a procession, Brushed was a scrap all the way to the line.
Craig Hook won the title on 299 points, from only three appearances: wins at Eastbourne and Oxford and second at Hednesford. Noah Smithson was one point behind on 298 after winning Crewe and Holbeach — both with three straight leg wins. Jen Garrett also scored 298, missing out on second on the tie-break, after taking TQ at Eastbourne, winning Hednesford and finishing second at Oxford. Paul Flude was fourth on 295.
Between them, Matthew and Noah Smithson won six of Season 2’s ten A-finals.
What’s new for Season 3
Mini Sport is Brushless under a new name — the same class, the same cars, the same championship lineage. That makes Matthew Smithson the defending champion.
Mini Clubman replaces Brushed. It’s a brand new class running 30.5 brushless motors, slowing the cars down to make Mini Masters even more accessible. Brushless brings reliability and a level playing field — in Brushed, the dark arts of motor tuning made a real difference to performance if you knew how.
The championship runs over six rounds, with each driver’s best four scores counting, up from best three of five last season. The two-day NEC finale counts as one round.
The warm-up: early clues
The Season 3 warm-up at ACS International School Egham on 10 October gave us our first look at both classes. Read the full warm-up report.
Payne set the fastest qualifying lap of the day as well as taking TQ and the win. Chris Kerswell finished one point behind him and won the final leg. Mark Barford and Niall Cochran were third and fourth.
The biggest news may have been further down the A-final: last season’s Brushed champion Craig Hook and Jen Garrett, who missed that title by a single point, have both moved up to Mini Sport, and both made the A-final first time out.
In the first ever Mini Clubman meeting, Wayne Meade took TQ and the win, recovering from sixth in the first leg.
Five questions for Season 3
1. Payne or Smithson?
One win each last season, Payne ahead four legs to two, and they haven’t raced each other since November 2025. Payne says he’s going for the championship, and Smithson is entered too, so every round from Robertsbridge to the NEC becomes a chapter in the season’s main story.
2. Can anyone else get between them?
Chapman, Richardson, Nutting and Davies were separated by three points behind Smithson last year. Kerswell has now finished on the podium in both of his last two Mini Masters appearances. Barford and Cochran look quicker than ever.
3. How fast can Hook and Garrett adapt?
A Brushed title and a Brushed near-miss count for a lot, but Mini Sport is a much deeper field. Both made the warm-up A-final. Can they get onto its podium?
4. Who owns Mini Clubman?
A new class means no form guide. Wayne Meade set the early standard, but there were only seven drivers at the warm-up. As the field grows, the class could go anywhere.
5. Who turns up?
With the best four of six counting, a title challenger can afford to miss two rounds, but no more. Last year Craig Hook won a title from three appearances. This time it will take at least four.
The calendar
| Round | Date | Venue | Host |
|---|---|---|---|
| Warm-up | Sat 10 October 2026 | ACS International School, Egham | RC Vision |
| Round 1 | Sat 24 October 2026 | Robertsbridge Community College, TN32 5EA | Eastbourne Electric Car Club |
| Round 2 | Sat 14 November 2026 | Sir William Stanier High School, Crewe, CW1 4EB | Crewe Model Car Club |
| Round 3 | Sun 13 December 2026 | Forest Raceway, Forest Oak Farm, Lydney, GL15 4LN | Forest of Dean RC Car Club |
| Round 4 | Sun 24 January 2027 | Heath Lane Academy, Earl Shilton, LE9 7PD | Hinckley RC Car Club |
| Round 5 | Sat 6 March 2027 | BMW MINI Plant Oxford | RC Vision |
| Finale | Sat–Sun 24–25 April 2027 | Model World Live, NEC Birmingham | Model World Live |
Full details and entry links: rcvision.co.uk/events
There’s also a 1/12 Christmas meeting at ACS Cobham on Saturday 19 December — not part of the Mini Masters championship, but it will be a great race at a superb venue, and a chance to race on the carpet that will be used for the NEC finale.
The Christmas meeting at ACS Cobham, Round 5 at BMW MINI Plant Oxford and the NEC finale will be streamed live at a minimum, with RC Vision’s new live timing graphics, on the DDRC.TV YouTube channel.
See you at Robertsbridge.
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