University motorsport team tastes national championship success

A University of Derby motorsport team is celebrating its biggest success to date after securing a national motor racing championship.

Team Derby Motorsport recently won the 2026 Radical Cup UK Championship. with Scottish racing driver Gordie Mutch at the wheel.

The student engineered race team clinched the title at Donington Park, with Gordie taking victory in the penultimate race of the weekend before a second-place finish in the season finale capping off an impressive campaign.

Across the season, the team won four of the opening five championship events before heading into the final round with a narrow points advantage.

Using skills developed on the university’s Motorsport Engineering course, Team Derby Motorsport put their academic knowledge into practice as they supported the car in competition.

The Radical Cup UK is one of the country’s premier prototype racing championships, featuring high-performance Radical SR3 machinery and attracting a grid of experienced and up-and-coming competitors from across the UK and beyond.

The season extended beyond domestic competition; the University of Derby team also competed on the international stage, taking part in the Radical Europe Cup in Barcelona and the prestigious Radical World Finals where the team finished just 0.2 seconds behind the winner.

Andrew Menzies, lecturer in Motorsport Engineering at the University of Derby, said: “This championship success demonstrates exactly what can be achieved when academic knowledge is combined with real-world motorsport experience.

“Our students have not simply observed a professional racing team; they have become one.

“Throughout the season they have been exposed to the pressures, the decision-making and technical challenges that exist at the highest levels of customer motorsport.

“To contribute to a championship-winning campaign and compete for victory on the world stage is an experience that will open doors for them for the rest of their careers.”

Adam Pointon, a Third-Year Motorsport Engineering student who has worked on the Radical Cup UK series, said: “Working on the Radical Cup UK programme has been the highlight of my time at university so far.

“There’s no substitute for the experience of engineering and operating a race car in a championship environment where every decision matters.

“The opportunity to apply all the concepts from vehicle dynamics, race engineering and simulation techniques we’ve learned directly at the circuit and has accelerated my development enormously.

“Being part of a championship-winning team while still studying is an experience that very few engineering students get to enjoy.”