JENSON’S FIESTA

Continuing his Junior form, Jenson Brickley converted a maiden pole at the Brands Hatch Indy season-opener into a first pair of senior podiums, as third and second were his reward for battling back and forth with double race-winner Simon Horrobin along with Alastair Kellett and Jon Cooper, and right away it was clear the competition would be this strong all season

The Croft triple-header a few weeks later allowed both Kellett and Brickley to really stake early claims to a title charge, as both finished first and second respectively in the first two races before issues for Jenson left him a distant 13th in the weekend’s final race. Kellett missed out on the podium, too, as David Nye got back to the top step ahead of defending ST240 champion Rob

It was only a matter of time before Brickley won his first senior race, and he only had to wait until the third meeting at Oulton Park to achieve it, comfortably taking a brace with Kellett left chasing his wheel-tracks in second both times, while Alastair’s son William Kellett and Smith also took silverware home that day. Snetterton in July further cemented the fact that both Brickley and Kellett had the rest of the field on lockdown, as Jenson won a red flag shortened first race before his pace faded in the second. This left Kellett to fend off a racy Zachary Lucas and narrowly beat him to the flag to pick up race two victory, surviving a late slow rear puncture in the final

Cadwell Park was next up, with the weekend producing the first wins of the year for both Lucas and champion Smith, the former taking a pair in races one and three either side of the latter’s race two triumph. As for the title contenders, both collected two podiums each, keeping everything finely balanced with just a handful of points between them with two more rounds to go.

A visit to Scotland was next as both directions of Knockhill welcomed the Fiestas, but out of the three races run neither Brickley nor Alastair Kellett made the top stop. In fact, it produced three different winners with Smith on the top step again in the opener, then a first ST240 success for William Kellett and Cooper topping a frantic third encounter in which Brickley ended up on his side at the hairpin forcing a dropped score in the process. Alastair, meanwhile, couldn’t better P2 in that third race, setting up a showdown at the Formula Ford Festival back at Brands Hatch.

Brickley’s first race was a rather tentative one due to a power issue which left him sixth in race one (but collecting points for fifth due to a guest driver finishing ahead), only losing a couple of points to Kellett who took fourth. Both men moved up to second and third with Kellett ahead again, leaving it all to play for in the final race. Despite Brickley almost throwing the championship away in the wet Clearways gravel on the opening lap, he battled back through to capitalise on Kellett’s visibility problems to take fifth on the road, the points for fourth and an incredible ST240 and overall title in the process. As for the race winner on this weekend, Zachary Lucas collected a stellar hat-trick to round off his season, while Brickley celebrated back-to-back junior and senior Fiesta titles, leaving Kellett as runner up and Lucas an excellent 3rd. No doubt Jenson will go forwards to relish the new challenge TCR UK will bring in 2023.

In the final year of the ST150s, it was a clear run to the class title for Misty Racing’s Nick Moore, as he consistently outscored the rest of his rivals throughout the season to finish an impressive 46 points ahead of the second best man Thomas Davis, with another Fiesta Junior graduate in Joseph Knight topping the class a couple of times on his way to third. With these ST150 cars moving on to join the newly rebranded Fiesta ST150 Challenge for 2023, it means the ST240s will stay on next season to fight amongst themselves for the title!

A new era began to dawn in the Fiesta Junior Championship for the 2022 season, as it marked the first year it had run two specifications of car at once. Coming in alongside the established and evergreen Mk6 ST150s was a brand new next-gen Mk7 Fiesta race car developed in conjunction with Cooksport Performance headed by BTCC star Josh Cook. This helped to breathe new life and new interest into the championship, which once again welcomed a fresh crop of young, talented 14-17 year old racers. Scott Woodwiss reviews the action.