KMR Sport's Alex O'Grady became the 2026 GB4 champion at Brands Hatch, after a superb season of consistency and excellent pace.
The Irishman, in his second campaign in the series, claimed three race wins, nine podium finishes, four fastest laps and two pole positions. He ultimately secured the title with his second podium finish of the Brands Hatch weekend, and ended the year with a 33-point margin to Fred Green, his season-long challenger for the title.
Notably, O'Grady was one of only two drivers to finish every race in 2026, and his supreme consistency resulted in a total of 20 top-10 finishes, more than any other contender.
"It’s amazing, we've worked towards it all year," a relieved O'Grady said at the end of the season. "Even going from last year into this year, I didn't think that we'd be able to achieve that. But we've done it in the end, we’ve been consistent all year long, always in the top five, always scoring points as well, and the only driver in the grid to score points in every race. So it's just been a mega job by the whole team, and I'm just so happy."
O'Grady secured the title in race two on Sunday morning. He entered the race knowing he needed to simply finish on the podium to guarantee the crown, but things were made more nerve wracking when the start of the race was delayed due to an oil spill on the formation lap, which required dressing by the circuit's marshals.
Driving through the dust kicked up by race leader Green, and a constant challenge from behind from Fortec's Thomas Ingram Hill added to the pressure, which he soaked up in cool fashion, only for the emotion to flow afterwards.
"The last two laps were quite intense because you had the dust down main straight and Fred was always putting it in my eyes, so that wasn't nice! And then the last corner too, a couple of the laps, I missed a gear and then went wide, nearly onto the grass. So that was quite sketchy as well with Tom behind me.
"But you know, when I crossed the it was just relief and the two hands out of the cockpit came up! I was just so happy and to see the team there, all the emotions and the tears, it was just amazing."
O'Grady's supreme consistency was the bedrock of his championship success, but when a big score was on offer, he never let it slip, with excellent wins coming at Oulton Park and then at Snetterton, where he took full advantage of troubles for Green. His season-long effort left very little on the table for his rivals.
"There's races where I think, yeah, I could have finished P5 instead of P6. But I mean, that's the same reason why I was so consistent, because I wasn't always going for it. Fred sometimes, especially at the start [of the season], maybe went for it a bit too much and ended up losing his wing or something and losing a lot of points.
"So that's really what's kept me in it. And overall every race has been positive, we never left a race weekend thinking, oh, we could have done a lot better or we lost too many points. It's just been consistent and an almost perfect year."
Green now has his eyes set on moving up the motorsport ladder, and will spend the winter looking to build a budget for GB3, which will be boosted by a £50,000 contribution from GB4 promotor MotorSport Vision, should he secure a drive in the series next year.
"It definitely helps my chances getting the 50 grand as well. With the budget being so high in GB3 now, we're definitely going to have to work on that over the winter and see if we get an opportunity."
As for Team Principal Kevin Mills, it's a fifth GB4 title in as many seasons, with his squad adding O'Grady's title to three consecutive team titles across 2022-2024 and Tom Mills' driver's title in 2023.
"It's huge, really, to get another Drivers' Championship" Kevin commented. "Obviously the first one was with my son, but to do it with a customer is just amazing. We've worked for this for two years with Alex. He was loyal to us over the winter and stayed with the team, and that continuity was so important. He's just got better and better as a driver and it's an amazing result for us."
While Mills credits O'Grady with his class-leading consistency, he was also keen to point out that the team steered clear of any potential misfortune both on and off track, with a lot of that being down to O'Grady's development as a driver since his GB4 debut last year.
"You can still be unlucky, some teams have been unlucky, not with any fault of anybody. It's motorsport and things go wrong, and we've been lucky this year that hasn't happened.
"But as a driver for Alex, he knows when to push and when not to push. He knows when to take the points and when he needs to be faster and take a little bit more risk. And I think in his second year with us, that's something he's got much better at.
"Maybe in the first year there were a few times he would take a move on that was a little bit dodgy, and he would lose points over it. But this year, he's played the percentage game when he needed to. Mid-season, at Snetterton, yes Fred had some bad luck, but Alex was really fast anyway. He had a pole that weekend anyway. Since then, he's basically made sure he stayed on the track and he's taken the rewards."
Mills is now hoping to see his protégé move up the ladder next year.
"He has some really good sponsors on the car and hopefully, from his results today, they might well get behind him even more. We'd all like to see him in GB3, wouldn't we? I think for any GB3 team out there now, Alex would be a really good asset to them. So let's see, hopefully his phone starts ringing, and he can sort of deal over the winter because he deserves it."
