Rain, Restarts & Relentless Racing: Viking & Ursus Back in the UK
15 April 2026
After a two-year absence, the Team Viking & Ursus Capital Racing duo of Mark Holme and Colin Kingsnorth returned to the Fun Cup Endurance UK Championship, for its opening round of 2026 at Oulton Park.
After Friday’s testing they were 11th quickest on Saturday’s qualifying session, before drawing 14th place on the 29 car grid.
Kingsnorth started the four hour race and became embroiled in an eight car battle for fifth place. He had been in sixth, before losing a couple places, just before the first safety car intervention of the day.
There had also been a hint of rain before he pitted from ninth after 19 laps to hand over to Holme. “We made up some places, but patience was the name of the game, very different to the French Championship that we have been doing, it’s more a case of looking for weak spots in the UK,” he said.
At the first hour mark Holme was 14th, but was into the top 10 by the time he pitted to hand back to Kingsnorth. They continued to chase for a top 10 place, but the pace was proving exceptionally competitive. “When we left the UK we were looking at podiums, but today we’d be happy in the top 10,” Holme added.
At half distance Kingsnorth was 12th and pitted shortly afterwards to hand over again. But it still proved difficult to make further progress and their cause wasn’t helped when the car was reluctant to restart at the penultimate stop.
They were one of the last to make the final stop with Kingsnorth heading for the pitlane in seventh. They were still 10th when Holme rejoined but had to give best to FNS Morpheus’ Greg Evans and Seed Data’s Mike Devlin, finishing 11th just 0.448 secs away from their 10th place target.
“The delay in the pits cost us, but it was a great race and Colin drove a blinder. We were fairly even on pace, but I had two offs in the wet near the end too,” Holme concluded.
