SCOTTISH JUNIOR BMW CHAMPIONSHIP
This year the available UK junior circuit racing championships becomes a quartet, as the Scottish Junior BMW Championship is new on the scene. And it’s new in other senses as well. Even with Scotland’s rich heritage of developing driving talent, this will be the country’s first junior championship. Also with the BMW 116i (2004-2006), it will be the only budget rear-wheeldrive junior championship.
“It’s filling a gap in the market, the UK market, not just the Scotland market,” championship representative Emily Glanvill tells Motorsport News.
The championship will be run by the Scottish Motor Racing Club, on its primarily Knockhillbased calendar (though this year there’s a Cadwell Park away day meeting too).
The inaugural junior contest will start with a ‘soft launch’, with it running open test sessions instead of races at 2022’s opening meetings. These will build up to a ‘mini championship’ of races planned for the final two rounds of the season, before the first full championship in 2023. The meeting format is set to be a 12-minute qualifying session plus two 12-lap races, all taking place on a Sunday, easing costs and logistics.
As for the open tests, “we’ve gone through loads of talks with Knockhill to really push to make this open to everyone between the ages of 14 and 17, we wanted to make it really accessible,” explains Glanvill. Indeed, even if you don’t have your own car fear not as the club will bring its own car that you can hire 30 minutes in during the hour-long test.
You won’t even need an ARDS licence, plus there will be an instructor alongside you.
“So basically all you need to do is sign up. It’s no experience required, no kit required, just bring yourself,” Glanvill says.
The championship’s build kit comes from Raceworx, and you can either install it to your donor car yourself or Raceworx can do it, though for safety reasons the rollcage has to be installed by Raceworx in all cases.
Glanvill also brings wide experience as a racer including in junior championships as she won the Junior Saloon Car Chamapionshp’s 2016 scholarship. “Certainly when I was in JSCC they really nailed the paddock atmosphere and getting that balance of fun but also serious,” Glanvill notes, “so it will be really important to get the families together, get the drivers together and make sure that we get that atmosphere right, that’s my main goal.”