Ryder seals third straight British Hillclimb crown by single point

Matthew Ryder has been confirmed as the 2026 British Hillclimb champion, securing his third consecutive title after one of the tightest campaigns the series has produced in recent memory, according to Autosport.

The championship was settled at Prescott last weekend, where Ryder's closest rival, Wallace Menzies, crashed out during the final top-12 run-off that decided the destination of the title.

That misfortune for Menzies proved decisive. Ryder's advantage over him at the top of the standings amounted to just a single point once the season's action concluded, underlining how narrow the margins were across the year.

Will Hall, meanwhile, finished the campaign only a point further back, meaning all three of the leading contenders were separated by the slimmest of margins heading into the closing rounds at Prescott.

Ryder took the crown driving his Gould GR59, the car with which he has now built his run of titles, and Autosport described the season as among the most fiercely contested in the recent history of the championship.

The result extends Ryder's dominance of British Hillclimb to three straight years, a sequence completed against sustained pressure from Menzies and Hall rather than in the kind of runaway campaign a title defence can sometimes become.

For Menzies, the run-off crash at Prescott turned what had been a closely fought points battle into a one-point defeat, the narrowest possible margin by which a British Hillclimb title has been lost.

Hall's position just behind Menzies in the final reckoning further illustrates how compressed the top of the standings was by the season's end, with three drivers separated by two points in total.

Further detail on the individual round results and the wider standings from the 2026 campaign has not been set out beyond the confirmation of Ryder's title, Menzies' crash and Hall's final placing, as reported by Autosport.