West Suffolk College ME (Motorsport Engineering) storms back to the Student Motorsport Series after a breakout 2024, where young gun Brady Pollock cemented his name as a future star. His rookie season – kicking off at Snetterton last April – delivered three class wins, nine more Student Motorsport podiums, and a second-place series finish, plus third in the overall BRSCC Nankang Tyre CityCar Cup Championship. But for a missed gear shift during the second race at Silverstone, Alan Barrett’s squad could have secured their first standings win in three years of competing in the world’s top race series for schools, colleges and universities.
Two-Car Gamble Pays Off
In 2024, Pollock teamed up with Andrew Payne, who piloted the #72 WSC Peugeot 107 to eighth in the series standings. Payne brought veteran nous to a squad bold enough to jump to a two-car entry, a courageous leap for a college crew. Ahead of Snetterton’s 2025 season opener, WSC locked in Haydn Payne – Andrew’s son – to join Pollock, handing him the keys to his father’s freshly re-shelled car.
Winter Rebuild, Student Focus
Course Director and Team Principal Alan Barrett turned the 2024 season’s end into a launchpad for a fresh assault on the Student Motorsport title.
“The main focus for us over the winter has been the complete re-shelling of Andrew Payne’s car in readiness for Haydn,” he said. “We’ve been working on that alongside training the students so they know what they’ve got to do and what their roles are within the paddock.”
With the popularity of WSC’s Light Vehicle Maintenance and Repair, and Motorsport Engineering Diploma Level 3, courses increasing due to the college’s involvement in the Student Motorsport competition, Alan Barrett is careful to make sure the team has the right number of members to operate efficiently when it goes racing.
“Ideally each car needs about five people working on it and when you have more than that, it’s not conducive to what you’re trying to achieve,” he said. “We’re planning it so we have a set number of students as the pit crew and we will rotate that so that everybody will have the opportunity and be part of the team throughout the year.”
Media Game Steps Up
For 2025, West Suffolk College is looking to build its media presence by adding photographers and social media to its team.
“West Suffolk College offers Social Media and Journalism courses so we have students who are keen to join us as well as photographers within the team so the plan is to build our own media team,” said Alan Barrett. “My colleagues in the Media and Journalism department have got students who are interested in becoming journalists in motorsport and we’ve got people who are budding photographers so we’re excited to see how we can build our media presence.”
Classroom Meets Track
The purpose of the Student Motorsport programme is to offer students real-life trackside and workshop experience that cannot be replicated without the discipline of going racing. Alan Barrett, in his role as Course Director Motorsport at WSC, has been careful to integrate the College’s racing activities with teaching in the classroom.
“With students starting their courses in September and the season finishing in October, we’ve got the advantage of planning the work we do on the race car around the topics we’re teaching at the time,” he said. “If we’ve got to change an engine, we’ll tie that in with the content of the course. With experience built up over successive years, we know what we need to do over the winter and we can build those activities into our teaching.
“Our training cars are all C1s and 107s so the students can learn how to diagnose a fault on the cars in workshop and apply that knowledge if we have a similar fault at the track.”
Alumni on the Podium
Having run the Student Motorsport race programme since its inception in 2022, WSC now has many students who have passed through the team and gone on to success either at university or within the industry.
“We’ve seen students go on to study at the University of Wolverhampton and work on their Praga programme,” said Alan. “Our paths crossed with the University of Wolverhampton team in the Brands Hatch paddock in 2023 and we had a long discussion which has led to us working together to offer students work experience in both our programmes.
“Another student went on to work at UNI-Virtuosi, later renamed Invicta, and last year he ran Gabriel Bortoleto in Formula 2 before Bortoleto made the move to F1. We’ve had a student win the Rallycross Mini Cooper Championship and another student move into the industry with Complete Motorsport Solutions and he’s now running historic F1 cars around the world. Our involvement in Student Motorsport has, in many cases, made a significant difference to the further success of our learners.”
Green Fuel, Big Future
For 2025, WSC has raised its sustainability profile by committing to run on sustainable fuel throughout the season after securing a deal with Coryton Fuels who will supply its SUSTAIN Racing 33 product. It’s a move that has the full approval of the BRSCC.
“We are delighted to be running on Coryton’s SUSTAIN Racing 33 for 2025,” said Alan. “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. Coryton’s SUSTAIN products have been tested both in the harsh environment of the Dakar Rally and in series such as GT Cup and Radical Cup and we are delighted to be the first team on the Student Motorsport grid to be fully powered by sustainable fuel.”
Mature Heads on Young Shoulders
With 2024 WSC driver Andrew Payne handing over his car to son Haydn for the 2025 season, the Bury St Edmunds-based squad will have two young chargers vying for title success in 2025. Could competitiveness between the drivers cause friction within the team?
“I think they’re going to work extremely well together because, for their ages, they’re quite mature and they’re very respectful of other drivers on the track,” said Alan. “This was proved at Cadwell last year when Haydn got pole and Brady took the win. They don’t hold each other up, they keep pushing, work with each other through and see what happens at the end of the race.
“I think they will make an excellent pairing and will be drivers to watch this year.”
The 2025 Student Motorsport Series, part of the BRSCC Nankang Tyre CityCar Cup Championship, fires up at Snetterton on April the 5th and 6th. West Suffolk College ME is ready to steal the show.