FIESTA JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIP
The British Racing and Sports Car Club’s Fiesta Junior Championship celebrates its 10th anniversary this year and the championship’s alumni include British Touring Car Championship race-winner Aiden Moffat and British Formula 4 race-winner
Joseph Loake.
And the on-track racing on its 16-race calendar is only part of what it offers young drivers. “I’m a teacher, so I take the education of children very seriously,” coordinator Laura Payne tells Motorsport News.
“We teach them the right way, how to be respectful on the race track and develop their skills.
“We give them a good foundation by giving them the experiences and having visitors come and talk to them and things. We did a really nice activity last year when one of our safety car drivers came and did a quiz with them and it was so much fun, but it taught them something as well.”
This year, Fiesta Junior’s nextgeneration car makes its bow. It’s based on the 1.6 Sigmaengined Mk7 Fiesta Zetec S, and will initially race alongside the incumbent Mk6 ST150 model. Build kits and fully built cars are now available with Cooksport, BTCC star Josh Cook’s organisation, supplying the new-spec parts. And Cooksport will pay the entry fees this year of those racing the next-gen car.
The championship has also nipped in the bud its previous major weak point of small grids, which as recently as 2019 dipped as low as four.
“We’ve got a consistent 12 to 17 cars over the last couple of years,” Payne explains. “With the new car the future’s really looking really bright. I’m confident that I’m going to have a steady 15 at least [this year], but I’m hoping for 20.
“A lot of people said [before] ‘oh we didn’t know that you existed’, and what we did was just get the name out a bit more. Somebody said to me last week that it was the hidden gem that no-one knew about.”
Payne believes too that the cost of competing in Fiesta Junior is comparable with the Citroen Saxo-based Junior
Saloon Car Championship, commonly viewed as leading on junior championship cost effectiveness.
“I think it’s a misconception from the past [that Fiesta costs more],” she says, “it’s pretty much on par to the Saxos. Our registration fee is actually a lot lower than the Saxos, our entry fees I think they’re [slightly] more but if you average that out with the registration fee then it’s much of a muchness. Then it’s only the cost of the car that’s the difference but when you sell the car you get that back anyway.”