Team Northbrook Racing ready to accelerate into third season

Northbrook College students are revved up for the start of this year’s Student Motorsport Challenge

Team Northbrook Racing (TNR) are the reigning champions, having won last year’s title, and they can’t wait to start defending their title as they aim for a third consecutive championship victory.

The race season starts in April, with the team embarking on a new challenge – entering two cars for the first time.

Richard Jepp will be back in the driving seat, looking to take the drivers’ title, and he’ll be joined by Ari Barker in TNR’s second car.

Dr Emma Norton, TNR’s Team Principal and Motorsport Course Leader, said: “We’re really excited. We’ve had two amazing seasons so far, a lot of hard work has gone in to it, but the reward has been incredible. That’s not just in terms of cups, but in terms of student involvement.

“The students get so much out of the competition, and having two cars is just going to enable our ever-expanding number of students to enjoy real, hands-on experience and race time.

“That experience really is the most important thing, and it’s something that they would get with a lot of other courses.”

Leon is currently studying a degree-level motorsport engineering course at the college, having worked his way up from the level two course. He’s in his final year, and is looking forward to getting back onto the track.

He added: “We’ve won two titles, so of course there is pressure. And we’ve got two cars this season – so we’ve got to expect the unexpected and be ready for anything. But we’ve got some experience under our belts and I feel like we’re going in with an open mindset.

“I’ve been with the story of TNR from the first page – from getting and building the first car and I’ve absolutely loved it.

“Being able to actually get involved with motorsport has been a really good experience. Going to events and being able to apply the knowledge of what we’ve learnt is really good. And it will help me with my future career.”

Classmate Karis agreed with Leon’s experience. She heralded the course and TNR’s race experience, commenting: “It’s been really good to be a part of – you’re learning how to work in a team, learning about the cars and putting that into practice at the race track.

“It also shows there are more opportunities in motorsport than just working on the cars. There’s media, marketing and everything else in between, which is important.

“The course is great; it’s a lot of work, but we get through it. We’ve got a really good group and we’re getting lots of experience.”

Driver Richard Jepp joins TNR for their third season, having driven the team to the Student Motorsport Championship title in the past two years – and he’s hungry to move up the podium in the drivers’ competition, having come third in 2023.

He said: “We’ve had a great couple of years previously and I really want us to be going for the triple this year. It’s going to be tough; there’s a lot of strong colleges out there and some ware also entering two cars.

“My main goal, on top of the Student Motorsport Challenge, is the driver championship. I want to push on in that and go for that top spot on the podium.”

Richard has been driving for TNR since the team launched, just two years ago and he has praised the growth of the students around him: “It’s been a really good partnership with Northbrook, really fruitful,” he revealed.

“It’s been great to see the students develop through the years. The competition is a great opportunity for them and offers them a great foundation for them to build on.

To read more about our motorsport courses, click here: https://www.northbrook.ac.uk/courses/?_s=motorsport