Porsche Club Speed Championship with NINEMEISTER 2026
Shelsley Walsh - A drama with a cast of Twenty-One, Nineteen drivers, the Weather, oh and a Cat!
There is something about old motorsport venues when the cars have become quiet, the people have gone home or to bed and the night is creeping on. They are both silent and at the same time positively scream with an atmosphere that is full of engine sounds, brakes and tyres struggling for grip. The older the venue the greater that atmosphere and Shelsley Walsh is chock full of it. The hill winds up into a dense area of forest, the sound of straining engines echoing across the fields that surround it. It can be a bit eerie at night, the odd owl or fox call drifting across the paddock.
Drivers can be a little superstitious, lucky socks, an order to things, a mascot and so on. Who was to know that luck in the form of weather that couldn’t make its mind up and even a Cat was to play a part in the end result! More of that later!
Practice
Two practice runs were available. The day had started damp in parts but by the time the second practice came around it had dried out a little, hence that combined with a greater knowledge of the circuit resulted in improved times across the board.
In P4 (0-220hp) Jake Cartwright took his Boxster to a second practice time of 37.38 seconds, just under half a second ahead of Stephen Jory in the 944. However, Martin Leach drove the 911E to an excellent 35.63 second practice to go into the lunchbreak class leader.
There were eight drivers contesting P3 (220-280hp). In a varied class we saw several classic air-cooled 911’s, a supercharged 924s a Cayman and a brace of modified and road going Boxsters.
Times tumbled after that first tricky practice run. Eoin Card took his road going Cayman to a quick best practice of 38.83 seconds while Chris Milne with his road going Boxster managed a 37.22 time. Leading the class at lunch was Jon Baldock who was a few tenths quicker in his modified Boxster at 36.90 seconds.
The P1 runners (360+hp) included two road going GT3 cars driven to the event, a shared modified GT3 and a road legal 718GT4. Nigel Watkins in his GT3 was a little over half a second quicker in practice than Wayne Helme in his 718GT4. However, Tim Barber really pushed hard in the modified GT3 to record a practice time of 34.38 seconds, the quickest Porsche at that point.
I left the P2 class (280-360hp) until last because there was a greater significance to the end result of the day given that two of its drivers had a mathematical chance of winning the overall 2026 Championship title and the class. It would not simply be decided by who was quickest but also by previous record times being beaten.
Russell Lloyd was there again his Boxster, the road legal car achieved a practice best of 39.75 seconds, some way behind the other two cars in the class, however they were very different animals, a highly modified Boxster and a standard road going 991.2T driven by an ex-champion, David Dyson. The Boxster, with Andy Fagan at the wheel has put in some incredible times this year and it was he who was quickest from David with a 34.91 second practice time, half a second ahead and seemingly on track for the epic battle that might later decide the championship.
Scoring Timed Runs
I wandered back to my little campervan at lunchtime. I confess that forty winks was enjoyed with the door open, warm air and the weather at that point bright and looking positive for the rest of the day. Did I say positive? Ah, well, I never was much good at weather predictions and to prove the point it began drizzling again soon after engines started for the first of the scoring runs.
The Porsche group were the last to run and so when they lined up for their first scoring run the drizzle had all but stopped but the track was still damp in sections. As a result, times were generally a bit slower than the second practice runs. In P1 three drivers, Nigel Watkins, David Hilton and Tim Barber all set times in the 37 second bracket with Nigel quickest at that point with a 37.00, just a couple of tenths ahead of Tim who was in turn quicker than David by a similar margin.
Andy Fagan was looking to break the class record in his Boxster but the conditions just didn’t lend themselves to such an outcome although he was quickest in P2 by 1.18 seconds from his class and championship rival David Dyson. The scene was set for an all or nothing scenario on the last run!
The P3 runners also lost a bit of time in their first scoring run, but the top two at that point, Chris Milne and Jon Baldock were only separated by half a second or so, the track conditions more aligned to the slightly softer setups run by the road cars. Even so, Jon Baldock was quickest after the first scoring run with 38.49 attempt.
Jake Cartwright was brave in his P4 Boxster to set a 38.13 first scoring run time. As ever the others were close with Martin Leach at 38.52 seconds and Stephen Jory, doing his best to get the front engined 944 off the line following with a 38.94.
The weather brightened up again and everyone was hopeful that the top times might be achievable after all in the second and final scoring run of the day, and final run of the season!
Sadly, and compounded by their place in the running order, another weather change appeared, the clouds gathering and the light fading as the Porsche cars were called to begin lining up. Clearly the track would be in better shape for the early runners and the later ones just had to hope significant rain didn’t fall or that there were any delays to their release.
The P1 cars all managed to do better than their first scoring runs. Tim Barber took the GT3 to a day’s best of 36.38 seconds to take the third place award in the class. The car was being shared with David Hilton who found another 0.48 seconds to grab second in P1 with a 35.90 second time. Nigel Watkins and his GT3 had been the quickest in all of the runs to this point and his final time was the best in the class, a fine 35.29 second run, delivering the P1 class win.
Our largest class of the day, the P3 cars, all made gains. Eoin Card took his Cayman to a 37.75 best run time, ending the event third in P3 and just 0.35 seconds slower than Jon Baldock, who was beaten to first place by a brilliant drive by Chris Milne who adapted to the variable conditions and scored a 37.26 best to take the P3 class win on the day.
Getting the 944 rear tyres to launch off the line was again a difficult task for Stephen Jory in P4 and his final run of the day, a 38.50 was 0.9 seconds slower than Jake Cartwright in his Boxster who with a 37.40 final time ended the day in the runner up spot in P4. The P4 class win on the day went to another excellent drive by Martin Leach who produced a very quick 36.40 second time on his last scoring run.
Finally, and a little out of sequence P2, the class from which the overall Champion and the class winner was going to come from. Russell Lloyd ended the day third in P2 for this event with a 39.8 second time, a significant improvement of 3.36 seconds from his first scoring run time. David Dyson was one of the early cars to go out on that second scoring run and conditions while not perfect were decent enough for him to push to a 35.18 second best of the day.
The question now was would Andy Fagan, lining up somewhat later in the queue, be able to better David’s time and go on to break the class record time for the hill previously set at a very quick 34.19?
I did mention the Cat at the start of this report and so to explain. As Andy was waiting to go out there was a short delay due to a cat wandering across the circuit, and then before he could get going the heavens opened that bit more. These two things added together meant that it would have taken quite an epic drive to win the class. As it was Andy was still quick but sadly his 36.11 wasn’t enough to threaten David Dyson’s position of class winner on the day and thus cementing his win of the 2026 overall Championship.
And so, as they say time flies! After 14 rounds starting in March, it is over again for another year. It’s been a brilliant championship season with big driver turnouts, close competition and as ever the all-important friendly community spirit that makes this championship the wonderful way to use your Porsche that it is.
2026 Porsche Club Speed Championship with NINEMEISTER
Overall Champion David Dyson (991.2). 162.72
P1 Winner Wayne Helme (718GT4). 161.05
P1 Runner Up Justin Dooling (GT3) 136.28
P2 Winner David Dyson (991.2) 162.72
P2 Runner Up Andy Fagan (Boxster) 160.54
P3 Winner Jon Baldock (Boxster) 162.15
P3 Runner Up Chris Milne (Boxster) 151.07
P4 Winner Stephen Jory (944) 161.98
P4 Runner Up Martin Leach (911E). 161.52
Best Road Car Driven to events 0-280hp Chris Milne (Boxster)
Best Road Car Driven to events 280+hp Wayne Helme(718GT4)
Best Rookie Driver Danny Jones (GT3)
Huge thanks to the Stewards, James Mclaren Rowe in PCGB Motorsport and all the team at Porsche Club office and Porsche Post that help with admin and our PR. Enormous thanks to our Sponsors, NINEMEISTER, 64 Performance, the Leading Edge Graphics team and the support we get from Allwag. And let’s not forget our Volunteer Photographers Claudia Jedrisko and Ange Rose who do such a good job capturing the images we rely on to sit alongside our reports.
Thanks again for a great year all!
See you out there in '27?
Simon Wilson
Championship Coordinator
Porsche Club GB
simonwilson@porscheclubgb.com