Olly Bryant’s title crowns successful Paul Ricard weekend for Era Motorsport

A second consecutive title for Oliver Bryant in the ultra-competitive 2.0L Cup for first-generation Porsche 911 cars capped Era Motorsport’s successful weekend at the Dix Mille Tours event at Paul Ricard. Olly was crowned the Cup’s champion with one round remaining on the calendar, which not just proved his speed, but also Era’s level of preparation.

Ably seconded by Kyle Tilley in the ‘Queens of Diamonds’ 911 from the third round on, Olly remained unbeaten until this weekend, when a close second place proved enough to lift the title for the second year running. In the 2.0L Cup’s class structure that penalises an Elite driver pairing with 40-second time penalties applied during the mandatory mid-race stops, against 20 seconds for a mixed Elite-Gentleman crew and no penalty for an entirely Gentlemen crew, Olly was always forced to come from behind to negate his handicap. In a car that continued to run like clockwork, the Era Motorsport driver was consistently able to show his pace to come out on top at Barcelona, Spa, Dijon and Imola.

“The Era Motorsport team have done a mega job all season to give us a competitive car to challenge for wins. I’m over the moon to have secured the championship for Era and very grateful to Kyle and the team for the opportunity to defend the championship again”, said Olly. “Back-to-back titles in the ‘Queen of Diamonds’ is very special, and I can’t thank the team enough. Special mention must go to Historika who built the car and support us on the engine side. Founder Kevin Morfett is in ill health, and I know he has very much enjoyed seeing the car perform so well the last two seasons. We look forward to the final round at Estoril, where we will all push to achieve another strong result.”

At Paul Ricard, Kyle and Olly eventually came up five seconds short on a strong mixed crew of Gentleman and Elite driver that have challenged them in every weekend so far, but with a run of four wins out of five, they were still immensely pleased with tying up the championship with October’s Estoril round in the Peter Auto series still to go.

“Paul Ricard was a tough race with the heat, and the pace of some of the gents was very impressive”, Olly continued. “We struggled with an intermittent misfire, which hampered the car’s pace throughout the race and made Kyle’s job at the start more difficult. Despite this he managed to hold the lead for most of his stint only losing out in traffic shortly before the end. When I took over, I knew the task in hand and we were fortunate that a safety car came out and managed to close the pack up. I pushed hard and managed to get to the front briefly in the final corner before dropping back to third place due to a poor exit. I made it back up to second place and then focused on bringing the car home for a decent haul of points.”

“Two-time 2.0L Cup champions for Era Motorsport!” Kyle rejoiced. “I’m very happy for Olly and the team to have secured another championship – the fourth for Olly now. We have done a fair amount of development on the ‘Queen of Diamonds’, which I think has shown with four overall wins and five podiums from the five races. We would love to carry this over to other customers for the 2026 season, as I think our experience in modern racing will help develop gentleman drivers no end. A final shout-out has to go to our own Lee Woodhams, who is tasked with looking after the Queen of Diamonds. Without his tireless work, none of this would be possible.”

“Heartfelt congratulations to the Era team, Kyle and Olly on their second successive 2.0L Cup championship win”, said James Turner, 2.0L Cup founder and promoter. “The whole paddock welcomes their friendly professional approach. Olly’s drives to overcome the Elite driver pit stop penalty have been particularly impressive this season, and we have all enjoyed watching them. We hope to see Era back in 2026 with more cars and more customers – they have done a superb job this year!”

Era Motorsport’s historic department will now head to the Goodwood Revival (12-14 September) before rounding out their season at the Estoril Classics (3-5 October). In modern racing in Europe, the Barcelona 24H race is next up on 26-28 September, while in IMSA, the Motul Sportscar Grand Prix (Road America, 1-3 August), the TireTrack.com Battle On The Bricks (Indianapolis, 19-21 September) and the Motul Petit Le Mans (Road Atlanta, 8-11 October) still await.