Tom Ovenden became a back to back Mini Challenge Champion at his home circuit of Brands Hatch at the weekend.

He follows in the footsteps of his former teammate Dan Zelos in going back to back.

Ovenden went into the season finale sitting 18 points clear at the top of the standings thanks to victory in race two of the weekend. He was back in 13th place on the grid, with main rival Max Edmundson sitting on the front row of the grid.

Whilst Edmundson quickly grabbed the lead at the start and was able to lead throughout, Ovenden found himself only able to climb as high as seventh before getting caught up behind Nathan Edwards – a result that would see him lose the title by two points.

However, when Ovenden was able to grab the fastest lap, things turned back in his favour and the EXCELR8 driver was able to secure the title by a single point to go back-to-back.

Speaking after the race a delighted, Ovenden said: “I’ve had this image in my head all season of getting out of the car and getting on the roof to celebrate, and that image kept getting smaller and smaller and last night, I thought it was gone with only an eight point lead and knowing I would be 13th on the grid for race three.”

“I couldn’t compute in my head how it was all going to work out and ultimately race two was what was key because that made the difference. At the end of the final race I genuinely didn’t know if I’d done enough as I could see people cheering on the Cooper Straight but thought they might be wrong, and it was only when I came into the pit lane that I knew.”

The title win was in contrast to last season, when Ovenden had been trying to chase down NAPA Racing’s Jamie Osborne before he fell ill prior to the penultimate round at Silverstone and was forced to end his campaign early.

That allowed Ovenden to come through and secure the title to add to his previous success in the Cooper class.

“This feels so special compared to last season,” he said. “Obviously I was proud to win the title and I put myself in the right position to benefit when Jamie had his issues, but it was always there in the back of my mind ‘Am I good enough to win this title’ and this year I’ve showed that I am.

“We’ve had a lot of things that have gone wrong this season that have made things tough but we dug deep and it was enough to emerge on top.”

Ovenden also took time to praise Edmondson for his own campaign, having gone close to adding to the Rookie Cup crown he earned in 2025.

“Max is one talented racing driver and I said to the team after race one that what he was doing in that car was unbelievable,” he said. “He’s put up a huge fight and when things weren’t going our way, he made sure that he punished us and kept eating into the lead.

“He certainly made things stressful and I know he will be as gutted as I would be in his position, but congratulations to him for how he has driven. He did everything he could in that one as he had to win and he did, which I kind of knew was going to happen.

“Max was never going to make it easy and well done to him on his season.”

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