KOC26 Round 3 — Eastbourne Electric Car Club — 19 July 2026

Eastbourne Electric Car Club has been racing for 50 years, and for Round 3 of KOC26 it showed the championship its best side: sunshine, an immaculate circuit and a quality field of racers ready to put on a show.

*The new grid at Eastbourne looking into Turn 1*

In Masters, Frontie and the Talent Cup, three dominant campaigns reached their conclusion with one round still remaining. Jay Westwood, James Snashall and Daniel Saunders became deserved KOC26 Drivers’ Champions.

In 17.5 Touring, the opposite happened. Tim Hancock swept all three A-finals, became the third different winner in three rounds and blew the championship wide open. In the Rookies, Ivan Murphy-Brown bounced back to win, taking the advantage into the final round at West London.

Hancock tears up the 17.5 script

Nobody at Eastbourne was surprised to see Tim Hancock running at the front. What mattered most was what his victory did to the Drivers’ Championship.

Tim took all three A-finals. Ricky Copsey kept him honest in the opening race, finishing less than two seconds behind, but Hancock tightened his grip as the afternoon unfolded and finished the job with increasingly controlled victories.

That leaves 17.5 Touring with no obvious No. 1.

Glenn Westwood won Round 1 at Adur before losing out at RD2 in an epic battle with Aldershot teammate and reigning KOC champion Ben Cane. The cards didn’t fall for Glenn at Aldershot, with a small crash becoming a big one through no fault of his own.

That kind of luck carried on at Eastbourne for the Hampshire Viking. Mid-pack on the grid is an unpredictable place more often than it should be in Touring Car, and Glenn’s setup woes were not made any easier by contact from the chasing pack in the early laps.

A common motorsport saying is that you can’t win the race on Lap 1, but you can definitely lose it.

We should probably make a sign.

Cane was absent at Eastbourne, away at a family wedding. With Hancock winning Round 3, the Drivers’ Championship outcome is even harder to predict.

But that doesn’t stop us. Oh no.

Last season, Cane TQ’d and won both mains fairly comfortably. His fastest time was some four seconds ahead of Hancock, who finished P3. Glenn wasn’t there. Westwood’s last KOC appearance in 17.5 at West London was back in 2022. His times then, a smidge faster than Cane benchmark. This will be close.

One of the quieter results belonged to West London’s Ricky Copsey. Second, second and third earned him the runner-up position without the accidents or dramatic reversals experienced elsewhere in the field. Further back, 14-year-old West London racer Kenny Hyde recovered from a difficult opening final to finish fourth and fifth in A2 and A3, securing a notable fourth overall.

Former Talent Cup rival Chloe Snashall, from Eastbourne, continued the encouraging trend for young drivers, improving in every race: tenth, ninth and then seventh.

Jay Westwood completes his Masters campaign

While 17.5 Touring goes down to the wire, Jay Westwood removed the last remaining statistical doubt from the Masters Championship.

Westwood arrived at Eastbourne unbeaten after victories at Adur and Aldershot. Wins in A1 and A2 completed a third consecutive round victory and secured the Drivers’ Championship with one meeting to spare.

Once again, he had completed the job before the final race. Westwood put the car away and headed home for the football, knowing the title was already his.

Behind him, defending champion Damian Giddins finished second in the first two races before winning A3 in Westwood’s absence. The West London club chair has spent much of the season just behind Westwood, patiently accumulating strong results. The championship may now be settled, but the final round can still tell us whether the gap between them is as large as the table suggests.

Andy Hyde had the kind of afternoon that makes writing the report slightly awkward when you are also the author. Qualifying third, his opening final lasted until Turn 1, where contact from behind caused a body tuck that neither the kerbs nor two marshal stops could resolve.

Third in A2 and second in A3 recovered third overall to complete the Masters podium.

*Giddins (P2) and Hyde (P3) led the chasing pack*

Another West London team member, Dave Johnson, meanwhile, ran two classes. He finished eighth in Masters, suffering some strange handling issues that couldn’t be resolved in the limited time available while double-classing.

His other car presented no such troubles, with DJ winning the Tamiya class in some style.

Poppy Allcock-Green takes TQ. Saunders takes the title.

Daniel Saunders has been almost untouchable throughout KOC26, but Talent Cup qualifying produced an important moment at Eastbourne.

Poppy Allcock-Green took TQ.

It was the first clear interruption to Saunders’ control at the front and proof that the championship leader could be beaten over the clock. Allcock-Green had been quick all day and converted that pace into TQ with a round to spare.

The other Poppy, Hyde, qualified second, making it an all-female front row. Saunders was two rows back in P4.

Aldershot’s Saunders and Eastbourne’s Elliot Theobald race each other — and everyone else — hard. Instead of racing for five minutes, they appeared at times to be racing simply to be first into the next corner.

Poppy emerged second best and needed to sit out A3 with electrical gremlins.

Saunders’ three wins made it nine final victories from nine starts across the opening three rounds, including Aldershot, where a qualifying disqualification left him at the back before he swept every final anyway.

He sealed the Talent Cup Drivers’ Championship with one round remaining. Saunders did not merely survive the pressure created by Allcock-Green’s TQ.

He responded and won it all.

A Lama Drama? Not IN FWD for Snashall

Eastbourne’s James Snashall approached the Frontie Championship rather differently. Instead of allowing the tension of his race against Stu Rand to build, he spent three rounds systematically removing it, race by race.

There is not much more to say, which is precisely the problem for Rand and everyone behind him. Snashall has been fast, controlled and relentless throughout the season.

Victories in the opening two finals secured the Eastbourne round and completed his third consecutive meeting win. With the result decided and the Drivers’ Championship sealed, Snashall sat out A3.

Reigning champion Stuart Rand won A3, his first final victory of the campaign, and secured second overall.

After we had packed away and left the track at the end of the meeting, Rand was back on the circuit running laps, searching for the extra pace needed to close the gap on his younger rival.

Ivan keeps the Rookies battle alive

*Some say the sunglasses are permanently attached.*
*The Rookies podium of Copsey, Murphy-Brown and Hussain*

Ivan Murphy-Brown won the Rookies round ahead of Aariz Hussain and debutant Ronnie Copsey, adding Eastbourne to his victory at the opening meeting at Adur.

Unlike the championships decided elsewhere, however, the Rookies title is very much alive. Hussain’s victory at Aldershot means the two young racers will carry their contest into Round 4.

The Rookies field may be small, in height and number, but a championship does not need huge numbers to matter. It needs young drivers learning, improving and refusing to give in.

This one has that in spades.

There was another Murphy-Brown on the podium in Tamiya, with Ivan’s dad, Dean, finishing second behind Dave Johnson. Darren Simpson took third and Derek Snashall completed the result.

That meant the Snashall family had representation in Frontie, 17.5 Touring and Tamiya across the meeting — and in most of the podium pictures, with Chloe standing in for any absent prize winners.

Some families share a Netflix account. The Snashalls share a race paddock.

Eastbourne brings the Teams’ Championship back to life

Aldershot had controlled the Teams’ Championship through the opening half of the season, winning at Adur and then defending home ground at Round 2.

West London followed them home at Aldershot, with reigning champions Eastbourne third, leaving the hosts needing a strong response when KOC arrived in Hailsham.

They produced it.

Eastbourne won their home round ahead of Aldershot, with West London third and Adur fourth. The result ended Aldershot’s winning run and ensured the Teams’ Championship will go all the way to Round 4.

Aldershot’s consistency leaves them in a powerful position, but Eastbourne have reminded everyone why they are the defending champions.

One final round remains, and the result is no longer a certainty.

*WLRC Hosts the final round on 20th September 2026*

What Round 4 inherits

After 50 years of racing, Eastbourne still managed to produce a day in which half the championship became more predictable and the other half fell open.

Jay Westwood is the Masters champion. James Snashall has secured Frontie. Daniel Saunders has completed a perfect opening campaign to win the Talent Cup.

Each will arrive at the final round free from Drivers’ Championship arithmetic, but all are key players in the teams’ battle, which remains undecided.

Ivan Murphy-Brown and Aariz Hussain will settle the Rookies contest. The Tamiyas will return. We’ll figure out what to do about that championship, and someone will own it.

Round 4 has some sorting out to do.

We can’t wait.

Masterclass at Eastbourne