Dempsey breaks away from battles to win Walter Hayes Trophy heat one

Photo: Ida Wood

Jordan Dempsey broke away from his squabbling rivals to win the opening heat of the 2026 Walter Hayes Trophy.

The B-M Racing started from pole and made a good launch but had Ammonite Motorsport’s Hugh Esterson on his inside heading into the opening corner.

They went wheel-to-wheel through the corner and on the way to Maggotts, where Dempsey opted not to list and cemented himself. They had a small gap to Wayne Poole Racing’s Josh Fisher in third, with Sema Racing’s Alex Ames impressing in his older Van Diemen RF90 car to sit fourth.

Fisher had a look at the outside of Esterson through Maggotts on lap two but thought better of it, as Team Dolan’s George Quartermaine overtook Ames.

When they reached Brooklands there was another look at an overtake by Fisher, but he did not get ahead of Esterson.

The American payed more attention to the man behind him on lap three, and covered the inside on the Wellington Straight to prevent Fisher from attacking. He could not defend on the pit straight though and Fisher got on his inside.

Once again there was no overtake though, and this allowed Dempsey to get over a car length clear.

Dempsey’s lead doubled to 1.587 seconds on lap four as he set the fastest lap and there was drama behind. Esterson repeated his Wellington Straight tactic, so Fisher went to the outside at Brooklands but he almost went off. He got his car turned in and it was almost entirely behind Esterson’s until Luffield as when they turned in his front-left wheel tapped Esterson’s rear-right.

It was slight contact but enough to force Esterson into making a save and costing both drivers a position to Quartermaine.

Fisher ended the lap in third, and overtook Quartermaine on lap five of eighth but ended up further away from Dempsey as the leader began a run of fastest laps.

He was totally alone by the finish, 4.156s ahead of Fisher with a gap of another second to Esterson who along with Ames had overtaken Quartermaine on the final lap.

KMR Sport’s Mikel Bezuidenhout was in sixth early in the race, overtook Ames on lap six then fell back behind him before a 10s track limits penalty demoted him to 14th.

Benn Simms held his ground in seventh, gaining a spot from Bezuidenhout’s penalty, and KMR’s Andrew Schofield held off John Svensson to finish seventh.

Heat 1 results (8 laps)