2026 Riponian Rally Report: Payne goes fourth!

Elliot Payne won the Riponian for the fourth successive time.

Words by James Downie, Video by Michael Whiteley, Photography by Amber Laybourne, Gary Bray and James Downie for Rally Media UK.

North Yorkshire hosted the curtain raiser to a brand new season of British Forest Rallying at the weekend. The Stages, the weather and the result were all very familiar though.

The Riponian Rally was again the opening round of several championships, chiefly the British Historic and ANECCC series and was sponsored for the fourth time by K.T. Green. The only real new element was the scrutineering venue. The Thirsk Farmers Auction Mart was in use for another event, so Econ Engineering of Ripon and Ripon Racecourse were used for the Saturday business of scrutineering and noise testing. The venues turned out to be surprisingly pleasant even if the weather wasn’t.

On Sunday, the start, finish and service reverted back to Thirsk. As in 2025, the stages used were Boltby, Cropton and Gale Rigg, each to be run twice. It had rained almost every day since Christmas and with the odd side helping of storm force winds also battering the forests, the tracks were very muddy and in some places, damaged. Indeed a late change to Boltby was enforced and sadly the classic loop through the hairpins at the top of the stage had to be cut.

Local man Elliott Payne has made the Riponian his own in recent years and with Patrick Walsh alongside once again he was red hot favourite to take his fourth straight win in the rally2 Fiesta. His closest opposition would come from the similar cars of Liam Clark/Jack Morton and Alex Vassallo/Chris Lees and the WRC example of Joe Cunningham/Josh Beer. The Icelandic crew of Daniel Sigurdarson and Asta Sigurdardottir brought their Skoda and the spectacular Alan Carmichael and co-driver Michael Gilbey were back for another shot in the Hyundai.

The British Historic Championship had its usual fairly strong entry with the Escorts of Ben Friend/Osian Owen, Matthew Robinson/Hannah McKillop, Matthew Stroud/Simon Jones, Richard Hill/Pat Cooper, Paul Thompson/Josh Davison and Simon Webster/Jez Rogers lining up against against the Fiat 131 Abarths of Nick Elliot/Dave Price, Adrian Hetherington/Hamish Campbell and Jack Matthewson/Chris Williams. The latter in particular drawing some admiring looks in scrutineering on it’s Yorkshire debut. 

This year there will not be the leveller of reverse seeding though, and the early February conditions in the forests were an absolute benefit for the turbo charged 4wd cars which have become eligible for the BHRC over the last few years. Providing they stayed reliable, well driven examples such as the Mitsubishi Galant VR4 of George Lepley/Dafydd Evans and the Lancer Evo 4 of George’s younger brother James with Tom Jordan on the notes looked likely to leave the Escorts and Fiats scrabbling in the mud…

George Lepley used the power and traction of the Galant VR4 to take a comfortable Historic win.

First up was Boltby. Starting on the Boltby Village side of the forest and running downhill onto the bridge before the steep climb up the hillside and back along the other side of the valley. Without the hairpin loop the stage length ran at just over 3 miles. As expected, Payne was quickest but only 2 seconds ahead of Cunningham. Vassallo was third quickest, a further 2 seconds adrift, with a threeway tie behind him for 4th between Clark,  Sigurdarson and Carmichael. 

The Lepley brothers shared fastest time in the historics and 8th quickest overall. Irish crew Damien Tourish and Kevin Duggan were the quickest historic 2wd car through Boltby, although not championship registered. Unfortunately Ben Friends Escort went into a ditch and stayed there on Boltby. Nobody was hurt but some straightening will be required before the next BHRC round in north wales.

Onto Cropton and “spectator issues” meant that the start time was delayed by one hour, putting the rest of the rally badly behind schedule which would have a knock on effect later in the day. Elliott Payne pulled clear of the pack over the ultra quick 12 miles with Cunningham second, chased by Clark and Vassallo. George Lepley moved a solitary second ahead of James. Over 20 seconds further back already was the first 2wd historic of Tourish, ahead of BHRC championship runners Thompson, Hill and Stroud. Jack Matthewson’s run of awful luck in the Fiat continued. Unbeknownst to the crew, the radiator had been holed by a collision with a pheasant in Boltby but by the 8 mile point in Cropton the car was overheating to the extent that they had to pull over and retire.

Joe Cunningham was 2nd on the Riponian but couldn’t quite get on terms with Payne.

Gale Rigg followed and as usual on the Riponian, the layout of this beautiful picturesque stage contained a short stretch of closed public moorland road to allow the stage to be extended to well over 7 miles. Payne took the field apart again and stretched his overall lead to almost 20 seconds over Cunningham and Clark with Vassallo now 35 seconds off the lead in 4th. Sigurdarson and Carmichael rounded out the top 6 back at service in Thirsk. George Lepley was best historic and 7th overall at this point but diff failure put James out after SS3. Half a minute further back, the Escorts of Richard Hill and Matthew Stroud had moved ahead of Tourish with impressive times through Gale Rigg.

With the rally still running an hour late and the road closure order at Gale Rigg only effective for a fixed period, the organisers had to take the decision to scrub the second pass of Boltby. Tough on the spectators and marshalls there but it was either lose the 3 miles there or run out of time for Gale Rigg and lose much more stage mileage.

Richard Hill was the first 2wd car home and won H8.

So it was straight back to Cropton where Cunningham sprung a surprise and took 5 seconds back from Payne to cut the lead to 13 with one stage remaining. With his brother out, Lepley could afford to back off in the historics, but still maintained a gap of 40 seconds to Richard Hill’s Escort. Driffield’s Paul Thompson was now an excellent 3rd after the demise of fellow Yorkshireman Matthew Stroud in Cropton with Tourish and Matthew Robinson’s Escort behind. The Fiats of Elliott and Hetherington were further back still and not able to seriously challenge the Escorts in these conditions.

Liam Clark took 3rd Overall on the Riponian.

Payne struck back on the final stage back at Gale Rigg, extending his lead over Cunningham at the finish to 17 seconds, and winning the Riponian for the 4th season in a row. There were no major positional changes on that final stage, with Clark holding 3rd and Vassallo 4th. Sigurdarson and Carmichael completed the top 6 with Stephen Petch, Michael O’Brien, John Bannister and Stephen Waugh rounding out the overall top 10. Lepley duly won the historic category with an effective if unspectacular drive, reigning in his natural flamboyant style in order to suit the Galant.

Paul Thompson was 3rd historic behind Lepley and Hill.

The 2026 Riponian didn’t feel like a classic. The weather in the run up had been vile and the organisers had a difficult time before and during the rally to keep things on track. There weren’t many tight battles at the front and it will primarily be remembered for the mud, the delays, and Payne’s 4th straight win. At the end there was a sense of relief more than anything else to get this first major championship rally of the year ticked off and done without major traumas.

Result:

1.Payne/Walsh 38m09s

2. Cunningham/Beer +17s

3.Clark/Morton +29

4.Vassallo/Lees +51

5.Sigurdarson/Sigurdardottir +52

6.Carmicheal/Gilbey +1m36s

7.Petch/Wilkinson +1.42

8.O’Brien/Burns +1.45

9.Bannister/Clark +1.56

10.Waugh/Williamson +2.12

11.Lepley/Evans 40m28 - Historic

12. Hill/Cooper +35 - Historic

13. Thompson/Davison +52 - Historic

14. Tourish/Duggan +1.17 - Historic

15.Robinson/McKillop +1.26 - Historic