The 4th season of the Student Motorsport Competition, part of the BRSCC Nankang Tyre CityCar Cup Championship, will get underway with three rounds at Snetterton on April the 5th and 6th.
Over the course of seven weekends, the Student Motorsport Competition will visit some of the UK’s most iconic circuits. With two visits each to Snetterton in Norfolk and the home of British motorsport; Silverstone, the series will also travel as far north as Oulton Park in Cheshire and Croft in North Yorkshire. Making a welcome return to the calendar for the first time since 2023 is Trac Môn Anglesey where the spectacular circuit and dramatic coastal setting is sure to make for a memorable weekend.
The Student Motorsport Competition is delighted to welcome Pitlane Development as a supporter for the 2025 season. Pitlane Development, founded and owned by Ollie Walsh, is on a mission to bridge the gap between education and starting a career in the motorsport industry. The company’s friendly, calm and down-to-earth approach can help anyone at any age start their motorsport journey. The company specialises in working with aspiring technicians, engineers and marketing professionals but can help anyone looking to take their first step into the motorsport world.
For the weekend of the Student Motorsport Competition at Snetterton, Pitlane Development will be providing student career support and will be taking bookings for 1-2-1 career guidance sessions, offered at a discounted Student Motorsport rate. They are also sponsoring a prize of a 1-hour group motorsport careers session to the winning team. Details of the winning criteria will be announced ahead of the Snetterton weekend.
Pitlane Development Managing Director Ollie Walsh is delighted to be working in partnership with Student Motorsport for the 2025 season.
“Pitlane Development is very excited to be partnering with Student Motorsport at the start of their 4th season,” he said. “We will be offering trackside career advice and supporting all of the schools, colleges, universities and students with what we believe to be the best career advice available to young professionals looking to progress in the industry.
“We will be announcing the criteria to win our weekend’s prize of a one-hour group careers session in due course and we cannot wait to be track-side at Snetterton for the start of what promises to be a fantastic season!”
In keeping with Student Motorsport’s objective of providing real-world industry experience, the Media Team for 2025 will be expanded to include students seeking a foothold in the media and marketing aspects of motor racing. Young professionals will be joining Head of Media Andy Lloyd and Lead Photographer Bernice Bradley to develop their photography, social media and presenting skills within the Student Motorsport paddock. Bernice, a photography student at Boston College, is herself an alumnus of the 2024 media work experience programme and has now moved into a mentoring and coaching role for the ‘Class of ’25’.
Six teams, fielding ten cars, will be on the grid for the opening three rounds of the 2025 season.
Team Northbrook Racing (TNR) was one of the first entrants into the Student Motorsport Competition when it launched in 2022. Fast-forward three years and the team, based at the Northbrook College campus at Shoreham Airport, is now a three-time Student Motorsport title winner, having taken 23 class wins alongside a further 19 class podiums and one outright victory in the BRSCC Nankang Tyre CityCar Cup Championship.
The team expanded to a two-car line-up in 2024 when title-winner Richard Jepp was joined by Ari Barker. Despite an early season set-back, Barker gained speed and consistency as the season progressed with his best result being a 4th place in class during the final weekend at Brands Hatch.
Over the winter, the team worked flat-out to build a new Gen II Peugeot 108 for Richard Jepp while Ari Barker’s Peugeot 107 was rebuilt and refreshed.
TNR visited Brands Hatch for a one-day test ahead of the opening weekend and Team Principal Emma Norton was delighted at the progress the team had made.
“We’ve had a fantastic day but there has been a lot of hard work to get her,” said Emma. “Building a Gen II car has had its own issues but the team have worked so hard to get to this point and I’m delighted that we’ve had really successful day’s testing. We have a few niggles to iron out between now and our arrival at Snetterton but those tasks should be more than achievable.”
But for a missed gear shift during the second race at Silverstone, West Suffolk College ME (WSC) could have secured their first Student Motorsport title since they joined the series in 2022. During the off-season, WSC saw some moves in its driver line-up. Andrew Payne handed over the keys to his race-prepped Peugeot 107 to son Haydn who joins WSC from QE Motorsport. After a breakthrough season in 2023, Payne Jr stepped his game up in 2024 and stood on the class podium on four occasions, including a memorable double podium for QE Motorsport at Silverstone.
Brady Pollock cemented his name as a future star in 2024, driving the team’s #12 Toyota Aygo to 2nd in the series standings and 3rd overall in a season that included three wins in class and further nine visits to the podium. Pollock will surely be a contender to lift the 2025 series title in only his second year of car racing.
For 2025, WSC is making moves on two additional fronts. The team will be raising its sustainability profile by committing to run on sustainable fuels after securing a deal with Coryton Fuels who will supply its SUSTAIN Racing 33 product. Course Director and Team Principal Alan Barrett’s squad will also build its media presence with the inclusion of photography and social media students within its team.
“My colleagues in the Media and Journalism department have got students who are interested in becoming motorsport journalists and we’ve got people who are budding photographers so we’re excited to see how we can build our media presence,” said Alan.
“We are also delighted to be running on Coryton’s SUSTAIN Racing 33 for 2025,” he continued. “This is an initiative that I have been working on for some time and, while it requires investment, racing using sustainable fuels is the future. We are delighted to be the first team on the Student Motorsport grid to be fully powered by sustainable fuel.”
Driver Jack Wheeler joined East Surrey College (ESC) for the 2023 season and last year drove the #57 Citroen C1 to four wins in class, including two overall CityCar Cup wins, on his way to a 3rd-place finish in the Student Motorsport Series.
For 2025, Coordinator for Motor Vehicle & Motorsport lead Laurence Sait, now about to embark on his first full season with ESC, has his sights firmly fixed on title success.
“We’re going out to win everything this year,” he said. “I don’t go competing to finish second and that’s ingrained.”
Drawing on his extensive experience in motorsport, Laurence Sait is focused on developing leadership and decision-making skills in his students throughout the new season.
“I want to promote confidence and self-belief,” said Laurence. “The staff will be there in the background but I want to see the learners stand on their own two feet. How and where are we going to go racing? What about testing? Who’s looking after fuel and tyres? These are all areas I want to see learners step up into and we will act as facilitators.”
The concept for Sussex Motorsports (SMS) grew out of a conversation with series organiser John Paul ‘JP’ Latham at Silverstone in late 2023. Fast-forward to 2025 and Sussex Motorsports, still led by Shiv Bhagnari but now with a beefed-up leadership crew, is gearing up for its second Student Motorsport season but now as a two-car squad.
Joining the South Coast squad for 2025 are Alex Jackson and Toby Owen. Jackson is a 20-year-old karting ace making his debut in cars this year while Owen brings EnduroKa experience and a 2024 CityCar Cup run which resulted in ten top ten finishes on his way to 9th overall in the championship standings.
“The great thing with our team is that it’s exposed a lot more people to leadership,” said Shiv Bhagnari. “At Sussex Motorsports everyone has an influence on the team and our structure is so malleable that if they want to change something, they have the right to do so.
“As a result, we’ve not only given people motorsport experience, we’ve also given them leadership experience as well and that’s been great.”
George Keith, previously Team Principal at East Surrey College, returns to the Student Motorsport grid for 2025 with his new team; North East Surrey College of Technology (NESCOT). George, Head of Curriculum – Construction, Trades and Green Technology, joined NESCOT early in 2024 with the intention of starting a Student Motorsport programme to provide his students with real-world, track-side motorsport experience. 15 months later, his dream will become reality when the team joins the paddock for the new season.
“We’ve worked very hard to get to this point and now we’ve got there,” said George. “It’s a new team and we’re starting from scratch. It’s going to take a few events for the students to hone their skills but they’re very excited to be going racing!”
Driving the NESCOT entry will be Paul Mellor who has considerable experience in engineering and motorsport. Paul served for over 12 years as an aircraft technician in the RAF before taking his engineering skills into civilian life with Virgin Atlantic and EasyJet. Paul has raced his own Caterham and also works as a technician at CTS Motorsport as well as instructing at Goodwood.
“I’m delighted to welcome Paul to NESCOT,” said George Keith. “He’s been helping me with some of the jobs on the car and he’s very good with the students. We tested recently at Brands Hatch and Paul was putting in some consistent lap times so we’re really looking forward to Snetterton and getting the car to the finish line.”
Lee Crisp’s Boston College Racing (BCR) returns to the Student Motorsport Compeition in 2025 with two of the most experienced CityCar Cup drivers on the overall grid.
Stuart Bliss has joined BCR for the new season and, as 2024 BRSCC Nankang Tyre CityCar Cup Champion, needs no introduction. Stuart has probably taken more wins and podiums than any other driver in the championship and made a guest appearance on the Student Motorsport grid at the end of last season when he joined BCR for the final weekend at Brands Hatch. Bliss is almost unbeatable in competitive machinery and his experience in developing and setting up a CityCar will prove invaluable to the Lincolnshire-based team.
Joining Bliss on the other side of the awning will be Andy Dyer. Like Stuart Bliss, Dyer is an experienced CityCar racer, having competed in the series since its inception and finishing 2nd in the overall standings in 2022. Andy Dyer is also no stranger to Student Motorsport competition, having driven selected rounds of the 2023 season with Harry O’Donoghue’s Barracksport. Dyer’s appearances included a memorable class win at Snetterton in July of that year. 2024 saw Andy Dyer competing in the Audi TT Cup and TCR UK so he will keen to make his mark in CityCar competition when the season gets underway at Snetterton.
BCR is renowned for fielding highly competitive cars so with the drivers to match, 2025 may well be Boston College’s and Lee Crisp’s year.
Student Motorsport series organiser John Paul ‘JP’ Latham is looking forward to getting the new season underway at Snetterton.
“I am delighted to welcome the 2025 Student Motorsport grid to Snetterton this weekend,” said JP Latham. “After a dramatic 2024, which saw the first overall CityCar Cup victory for a Student Motorsport entry and multiple overall podiums for our entries, expectations could not be higher at the start for the 2025 season.
“I want to extend my thanks to Pitlane Development and Ollie Walsh for their support this weekend and throughout the 2025. Pitlane Development’s careers advice and mentoring will prove invaluable to learners and team members in the Student Motorsport paddock as they look to progress their journey into professional motorsport.
“I am also looking forward to welcoming new members to our Media Team this weekend as we develop our work experience opportunities to include photography, presenting and social media activities. Motorsport is more than just engineering and working on racecars and, as we proved with our Boston College photography students in 2024, trackside and paddock experience can really help to develop those essential media skills.
“With so many competitive teams and drivers, TNR will have a fight on their hands to make it four titles in a row and I can’t wait to see the cars on track at Snetterton for the opening rounds!”
Track action at Snetterton gets underway at 9.25am on Saturday April the 5th with qualifying followed by Race One and Race Two at 1.45pm and 6.00pm respectively. The lights go out for the final race of the weekend at 9.30 am on Sunday April the 6th.