Team Northbrook Racing (TNR) has been one of the stalwarts of the Student Motorsport Series. Originally named MET Motorsport, the team, led by Emma Norton, evolved into Team Northbrook Racing after becoming part of the Chichester College Group and was one of the original teams on the then-Student Motorsport Challenge grid at Oulton Park in April 2022.
The first outing for the team was a challenging one with a major incident for their #73 Peugeot 107, thankfully with no injuries to driver Richard Jepp, resulting in the acquisition of a new donor car and a re-shelling ahead of Round Three at Snetterton
Fast forward three years and Team Northbrook Racing is now a three-time Student Motorsport title holder with the Shoreham Airport-based squad having taken 23 class wins alongside a further 19 Student Motorsport podiums and one outright victory in the BRSCC Nankang Tyre CityCar Cup Championship.
For 2024, Team Northbrook Racing expanded to a two-car entry with ex-karter Ari Barker joining existing pilot Richard Jepp. Despite making his debut in car racing, Ari Barker showed huge courage and determination across a season which saw an unfortunate incident in testing early in the season requiring a new donor car. Barker gained speed and consistency as the 2024 season progressed with his best result being a 4th place in class during the final weekend at Brands Hatch.
In motorsport, however, the work does not stop for the winter and Northbrook College HE Motorsport Leader Emma Norton and her staff and students at the Shoreham campus have been working hard to build a new second-generation Peugeot 108 for Richard Jepp as well as prepare Ari Barker’s Peugeot 107 for the opening weekend at Snetterton on April the 5th and 6th.
Speaking to Studentmotorsport.com, Emma Norton emphasised how important preparation and organisation are in readying the team to go racing in 2025.
“Over the years we’ve competed we’ve learned that preparation and organisation are key,” said Emma. “This year we’ve tried to be as organised as possible. We decided to build a new Gen II car for Richard and refresh Ari’s car and we thought we were ahead of the game but unfortunately, we’re still waiting for some components for the new car.
“We were much more organised this year as we’d seen many of the pitfalls of not being well prepared in the past so we’ve tried to mitigate against potential delays and hurdles. We’ve done everything we possibly could have so it’s now a case of waiting for things to resolve themselves. If we’d been late with our preparations, we would have been in a worse position. As it is, our schedule is delayed but we’re doing well and we will get there in the end.”
The whole purpose of the Student Motorsport Series is to give students and learners real-life track-side motorsport experience that they can then build on as they start their careers. Emma has been delighted to see many of her students moving into engineering and motorsport roles as a result of being a part of TNR.
“We’ve had students that have gone on to work at Ricardo Engineering and a variety of different employers and programmes,” she said. “We have also seen students who, while they’re still at college, are actually working in race teams on the back of the experience they had in the race team and that is both good to see and evidence the programme is working”.
Northbrook College is a popular choice for Sussex-based students looking to study for Motor Vehicle, Light Vehicle or Motorsport qualifications and the college works hard to ensure that the racing programme offers fair and meaningful experiences to interested learners.
“We only have two race cars and a lot of students so I have to share the resources out fairly,” said Emma. “We are careful to ensure that everybody has access to the racing programme but that we don’t have an excess of students. This means that when we arrive at a circuit, the people who are working on the car know their responsibilities and if we have additional students, they’ll be watching rather than participating. We can involve those students in the test days rather than the race weekend. It’s about maximising opportunities for engagement.”
After three years of Student Motorsport success, what is Team Northbrook Racing looking to build on and develop for the 2025 season?
“We’d like to improve our social media presence and develop our website so there’s the back-office element that we’d like to concentrate on a bit more with the students,” said Emma. “Having a lot of students, we need to take care to nurture new students and bring them into the team while making sure experienced students continue to enjoy being part of the team and help the newer students come through.
“Consistency is essential, despite the team potentially having different team members on any particular weekend. We need to also ensure that there is a consistent approach to the drivers and the cars and, of course, safety at the circuit is paramount.”
Learning how to work with sponsors is an important element of the motorsport experience and Team Northbrook Racing is very grateful for the backing they receive from both commercial organisations and the college.
“Sponsors are essential. We couldn’t do this without sponsors,” said Emma. “Even at club level, motorsport is expensive. Our relationship with our sponsors, including electrical connectors manufacturer Harwin, precision engineers Star Micronics, machining solutions provider Georg Fischer and precision cutting tools supplier Rainford Precision, is very positive and the loyalty they have to us, we’d like to think we show that back to them.
“The Chichester College Group has been excellent in promoting the team and this can only help cement relationships with our sponsors.”
Being part of the Chichester College Group, which encompasses seven colleges including Worthing, Crawley and Brinsbury Colleges, support from the group is essential to allow Emma and her team to develop the Northbrook College racing programme.
“The Group’s senior leadership team are incredibly supportive and are keen to help us in our racing because it helps promote our courses and enable our students to do something amazing and that they really love doing,” said Emma. “Members of the leadership team have attended events and are always happy to promote the team and their amazing achievements.”
For 2025, TNR has retained its two drivers; triple-standings winner Richard Jepp and, entering his second year with the squad, Ari Barker. Emma must be very pleased to have kept such a stable driver line-up.
“We are so proud of Richard and Ari and their incredibly supportive attitude towards our students,” she said. “They understand the ethos of Student Motorsport and the requirements of the students. They are very good at communicating with the students and explaining what they need. We couldn’t do what we do without Richard and Ari and if they decided to move on, they would be very hard to replace.
“We’re going to do our very best to ensure that Richard and Ari have an amazing season!”
Despite all the on-track success that TNR has achieved over the past three years, Emma Norton is still clear about the team’s greatest accomplishments.
“When I look back at pictures from the weekends and the students standing on various podiums and the delight on their faces as they see their achievements literally encapsulated in wins and podiums, that’s our greatest accomplishment!” said Emma. “They’re so proud of what we’ve achieved and we’re so proud of them. I was looking at some photos and I know the destinations of these students and I know what an important part they played in TNR and TNR played in their development. That is everything!”
The 2025 Student Motorsport series, part of the BRSCC Nankang Tyre CityCar Cup Championship gets underway at Snetterton on April the 5th and 6th.