BRSCC’S SNETTERTON SPRING STARTER LOADS UP FOR NORFOLK
Another season starter is in store this coming weekend for the British Racing & Sports Car Club, as we travel east to the Snetterton circuit in Norfolk to kick off a few more championships and series on the Club’s roster. With spring sunshine expected, drivers will hope it’s an omen for a positive season ahead as they get underway.
This year’s BRSCC Fiesta Junior Championship will be another important season as it marks the very first to feature an all-Mk7 FJC race car grid after the Mk6 ST150 was phased out at the end of 2024. Registration numbers have been healthy across the winter and another 20+ car grid is set to line up for the Snetterton opener this weekend. Of the highest placed returning drivers, Thomas Merritt is top and one of the favourites to do well along with Archie Davies and Jack Burgess, after the rest of the top ten have all graduated to new series.
Along with many other returnees, there’s also a brilliant influx of brand new names to the championship. Notable amongst them are two surnames you’d typically find on a touring car grid these days – Turkington and Doble. Lewis Turkington, son of four time BTCC champion Colin, makes his circuit racing debut in Fiesta Juniors this season, and he’ll be joined on track by Isaac Doble, the younger brother of Mikey. They’ll be joined by fellow first-timers such as Kacper Tomalewski, Dara McInerney and the 2025 Fiesta Junior Scholarship winner Lewis Islin, who will be sporting a striking Goodyear-backed car as part of his season prize. It’s set to be an all-action start to the FJC season!
Their senior counterparts in the AIRTEC Motorsport Fiesta ST240 Championship also look set to have a healthy 2025 season, with defending champion Alastair Kellett hoping to defend his hard-fought title from last year. Carrying the #1 on the door once again, Alastair’s task of holding on to top spot is much easier said than done, especially as his competition this year looks to be even stronger.
Many of his main rivals from 2024 are back to try and stop him, including race winners Zachary Lucas, John Cooper, Simon Horrobin and a welcome return to former multi-time champion David Nye back on the grid too. Other young talents to watch will include Morgan Kidd, Connor Blackburn and James Pope, while the new names feature another crop of Fiesta Junior graduates. Maggie Webster and Ben Doughty were impressive on their senior debut in the Pro Sports Sprint races at Silverstone a couple of weeks ago, and George Foxlow steps up to ST240s too in Kellett’s 2024 title winning car. This is sure to be a fast and thrilling spectacle.
There’s even more Fiesta goodness this weekend as we begin another year of the Vinyl Detail Fiesta ST150 Challenge at Snetterton too. Last year it was a dominant display by the now two time champion Michael Blackburn and he’s back to defend the #1 on his window too. He will again have some fast rivals in Sam Watkins, Dillon Davis, Liam Browning, Max Buxton, Mark Blunt and Jade Goodwin, all of whom had their moments in 2024 and will be keen for more.
This has been another championship that has enjoyed a healthy infusion of brand new drivers to the grid, certain to make their mark throughout. Along with George Foxlow doubling up alongside his ST240 efforts, there’s also entries from Brisky Racing boss Richard Wheeler (father of FJC racer Michael), Cooper Motorsport’s Gary Cooper, the impressive young Sophie Kinghorn moving across from Scottish Fiestas and SIM Motorsport Race School graduate William Box. This looks set to be another season that will be full of unpredictability and Snetterton will certainly bring plenty of intrigue too as a new season dawns.
If there’s one grid that’s positively blossomed over the winter off-season, it’s the Nankang Tyre CityCar Cup. For the Snetterton opener this weekend, the championship is set to feature a capacity grid – a sensational 45 entries from top to bottom. That not only guarantees a busy track at any one time, but also plenty of competition for defending champion Stuart Bliss, who chooses this season to race with Student Motorsport outfit Boston College racing – could we potentially see the first SM team to take the overall title?
Of course, answering that question is literally easier said than done. Especially when the rest of the field will feature plenty of challengers up and down the paddock. You can look to any of the following to be a threat – Andrew Dyer, Richard Jepp, Philip House (in one of several Gen 2 CityCars in the line-up), Jack Wheeler, Brady Pollock, Christopher Parkes, Alistair May and Joshua Jackson. All of them have had their moments, their victories and strong results, so don’t be surprised if any of them give Stuart a hard time.
It should also be an exciting season in the Student Motorsport contest for competing colleges, universities and other educational institutions, with Northbrook Racing looking for four titles in a row. Bliss and Boston College Racing look to be a serious threat this season as will East Surrey College, West Suffolk College, QE Motorsports (Queen Ethelburga’s), City College Norwich, Sussex Motorsports and more.
One grid heads into a brand new era in 2025 as the Nankang Tyre BMW SuperCup Championship kicks off for the very first time at Snetterton, after the winter amalgamation of the BMW Compact Cup and the BMW 1 Series SuperCup. This means both groups of cars will compete together in respective classes on one combined grid, making for an impressive spectacle on track.
The Compact Cup class will see the return of champion Connor Grady after clinching the 2024 crown in his very first season in the paddock. He will have the chance to go toe to toe once again with the Dobles (Joe and Mike), along with Matt Kendall, 2023 champ Gareth Claydon, Richard Sutherland and Max Noble, all of which are established front runners in this group. In the new BMW 1 Series class, a solid initial entry includes Danny Wilkinson and Millie Hart who already have existing mileage in these new cars, along with Compact Cup convert Thorburn Astin, ex-Civic Cup racer Aydan Hassan, and MX-5 pilot Simon Waterfall.
A mammoth grid awaits the opening Modified Ford Series weekend of 2025, which this weekend will see the series sponsored by DT Racing Developments. This series never disappoints for both grid size and variety of Blue Oval machines. Looking down the Snetterton entry, there’s plenty of Modified Ford regulars that will surely be in contention for victories, so keep an eye on the likes of James Allen’s Ford Focus, Tom Ovenden’s Mk1 Escort RSR, Ashley Shelswell’s Sierra XR4i and Lloyd Jamieson’s Escort Maxi Cosworth to be race win contenders. There’s the usual phalanx of Fiestas, Escorts, Sierras, Focuses and Pumas here, so if you’re a Ford fan, this grid will be heaven.
This weekend, our paddock also receives a visit from the legendary Mini 7 Racing Club, which brings both Mini Se7ens and Mini Miglias to the party. These iconic race-prepped Minis may be small, but the action is anything but. The Se7ens offer ultra-close, slipstreaming battles where drafting and teamwork often come into play, while the faster Miglias bring outright pace and razor-sharp reactions into the mix. It’s classic Mini racing at its best, and with two championships on one grid, fans are guaranteed non-stop action.
Adding to the spectacle are two exciting guest series this weekend. The Snetterton Saloons series showcases a variety of saloon and touring cars from a range of eras and specs, creating a thrilling mixed-class battle. Some of Norfolk’s finest will be on the grid in the shape of three Lotuses (two Evoras and an Elise), plus BMWs, hot hatches and more will do battle across the weekend. If there’s one circuit this series knows better than any other in the UK, the clue is in the name!
Meanwhile, the CMMC Southern division’s Super Saloons & Tin Tops deliver a wild combination of high-powered saloons and lightweight hatchbacks all fighting for supremacy. With cars as varied as high-horsepower beasts and nimble track weapons, the racing will be unpredictable, dramatic, and full of on-track fireworks. The range is usually very broad, from ex-Australian V8 SuperCars and rapid BMWs, to a wide scope of smaller, faster tin-top looking to run circles around the bigger machines. Always a treat to watch!
Written by Scott Woodwiss
