2025/26 Questars Winter Series: Podium battle before the final race

Saturday 24 January 2026

With just one race remaining in our 2025/26 Winter Adventure Race Series, the competition for podium spots is heating up! We’ve reviewed the scores so far and provided a summary of where things stand across all Duo Full categories — Open, Female, Vets Open, and Vets Female.

Questars Winter Series Championship – a reminder

The Questars Winter Series Championship covers our four winter races. Everyone’s top three results count towards their series score, with a minimum of three races required to be considered for prizes. Series points are calculated per individual participant / team member. If an individual’s team composition between races changes, their series points are unaffected. Individuals in teams with the same team members throughout the series will gain the same series points and ranking on the series leaderboard.

In the event of a tie at the top, head-to-head race results will be used to determine the series winner (i.e. who beat who in the races in which all the tied participants took part). If this is also tied (e.g. everyone beat each other once) then the combined times (only for these head-to-head races) will be used, with the person with the fastest cumulative time being crowned the series champion.

Race scores are converted into series points and series points from different races are added together for each person, to give their series score.

Series points are calculated by dividing an individual’s race score by the overall race winner’s score and multiplying by 800.

An example is shown below:

Pos.	Race Score	Series Points	How Calculated?
1st	700	800	(700/700)*800
28th	350	400	(350/700)*800

Calculating series points like this improves consistency throughout the series by minimising the impact of variable conditions between races which are beyond the course planner’s control e.g. the weather.

Vets Scoring – a reminder

Our Vets category starts at 50 and an individual’s score is adjusted above this age with individuals receiving a 1.5% increase for every year that they are over 50. How this works is set out below:

Age	Score	Vets	Calculation
50	500	508	500+(500(11.5%))
55	500	545	500+(500(61.5%))

All team members take the age of their oldest team member and ages are taken as of 1 March each year.

Racers are only eligible for one Series podium place. Where racers appear on both the Vets and non-Vets podium, they will be included on the podium on which they rank higher (e.g. if someone wins the Vets Series and finishes second in the non-Vets Series then they would not be included on the non-Vets podium).

The state of play with one race to go

With one race still to go, there is a lot still to be decided with several racers just a whisker away from the top in their respective categories. We’re set for thrilling finishes across the board!

We’ve looked at the current standings and at the leaderboard based on each racer’s top-two results from the first three events — since only the top-three scores count, there’s still plenty of opportunity to shake things up.

There’s still everything to play for in the Chilterns on 14 February, and it promises to be a gripping conclusion! Click here to view the full leaderboard. Below, we’ve broken down the standings across each of the Full Series categories.

Female

Taking three races, Helen Chapman leads the way with 2069 points followed by Jen Hunt and Pollie Boyle.

Pos.	Name	Overall Score
1	Helen Chapman	2069
2	Jen Hunt	1822
3	Pollie Boyle	1717

The leaderboard after two races shows Helen taking an insurmountable lead into the final race and she will be crowned our Winter Series Champion – congratulations Helen! Behind her, the racing is tight with Jen Hunt in the driving seat taking a 50-point lead over Pollie Boyle and Tamara Curnow into the final race with a further four racers all within a shout of fighting their way onto the podium with a strong final race.

Pos.	Name	Top-2 Score
1	Helen Chapman	1410
2	Jen Hunt	1242
3	Pollie Boyle	1192
3=	Tamara Curnow	1192
4	Stephanie Gibbins	1157
5	Julia Robson	1136
6	Vanessa Fisher	1113
7	Sarah Russell	1067

Open

Counting three races, Campbell Walsh leads the way with 2375 points ahead of Daniel Thorby and Carl Silver.

Pos.	Name	Overall Score
1	Campbell Walsh	2375
2	Daniel Thorby	2352
3	Carl Silver	2265

The leaderboard after two races shows Campbell Walsh with a lead of 16-points over Daniel Thorby, a win for Dan in the Chilterns will make things very interesting indeed! Behind them, it is likely that Carl Silver will drop off the podium (due to his superior ranking in the Vets category), meaning it is a two-way fight for the final podium spot between Ben Hawkins and Tom Davies. Ben takes a 70-point lead into the race and is on brilliant form having won our last race in the South Downs, Tom is an incredible racer though and should never be counted out!

Pos.	Name	Top-2 Score
1	Campbell Walsh	1596
2	Daniel Thorby	1580
3	Carl Silver	1547
4	Ben Hawkins	1546
5	Tom Davies	1476

Female Vets

Taking three races into account, Pollie Boyle leads the way with an adjusted Series score of 1768 points from Liz Jones & Maggie Salter and Sarah Russell.

Pos.	Name	Overall Score
1	Pollie Boyle	1768
2	Maggie Salter	1736
2=	Liz Jones	1736
3	Sarah Russell	1597

The leaderboard taking the top-two results shows Pollie taking an 8-point lead into the final race with Liz and Maggie within reach of her score. What a battle we have in store! For the final podium spot, Vanessa Fisher takes a 16-point lead into the final race from Sarah Russell, with June Kingsbury a further 14 points back and Caroline Howe and Julie Banton all with a shout of fighting their way onto the podium.

Pos.	Name	Top-2 Score
1	Pollie Boyle	1227
1=	Tamara Curnow	1227
2	Maggie Salter	1219
2=	Liz Jones	1219
3	Vanessa Fisher	1130
4	Sarah Russell	1114
5	June Kingsbury	1000
6	Caroline Howe	988
7	Julie Banton	985

Open Vets

Taking three races, Carl Silver leads the way with an adjusted Series score of 2298 points ahead of Phil Haycock and Andy Prince.

Pos.	Name	Overall Score
1	Carl Silver	2298
2	Phil Haycock	2097
3	Andy Prince	2044

The leaderboard taking the top-two results shows Carl Silver taking what looks like an insurmountable lead into the final race (not quite mathematically safe, but almost there). Behind him though, the racing is incredibly tight with only ten points separating second and fifth and a further five racers all with a chance of fighting their way onto the podium. We’ll certainly be taking our calculators with us to the Chilterns!

Pos.	Name	Top-2 Score
1	Carl Silver	1570
2	Kevin Stephens	1436
3	Eddie Winthorpe	1428
4	Phil Haycock	1426
5	David Salter	1426
6	Andy Prince	1393
7	Steve Burnham	1390
8	Jeremy Waite	1364
9	Rob Burridge	1346
10	Sid Hardy	1345