How a British rising star has become a European champion

At the age of 21, Jenson Brickley’s motorsport CV would make any seasoned campaigner proud. The TCR Europe champion has been winning titles in cars since he was 14. In fact, in only three of the past eight seasons has he not finished the year as a champion.

So coming from behind to snatch European glory in a dramatic Barcelona showdown last September was nothing new for a Leicestershire lad who grew up within earshot of Mallory Park. If anything, heading into the weekend fourth in the standings – 11 points off the summit – meant the pressure was on his opponents.

“The last however many years of circuit racing, I’ve been the favourite going to the last round every time and then the pressure’s on you,” reflects Brickley. “I know a lot of people don’t handle pressure very well, so I think that was in my favour.”

Brickley, a British, European and National Points champion in Ministox, added titles in Fiesta Junior and the one-make Fiesta ST240 category before graduating to TCR UK touring cars in 2023.

He took his Cupra Leon Competicion to a maiden victory second time out, and finished third in the points – despite a few hiccups, including forfeiting pole position when his car wouldn’t start at the Brands Hatch finale.

After spreading his wings with a TCR Spain campaign in 2024, and representing his country at Valencia’s Motorsport Games, his successful ascent to the pan-European series came last year.

Until then, Brickley had competed as an independent entry, run from a corner of his father’s truck repair business near Hinckley. Between race weekends, he tended the cars himself – even building his own ST240.

Dad Ian and uncle Jason joined him at the circuits and, for the Fiesta categories, they ran alongside Derby-based 20Ten Racing, which provided additional support.

Brickley ended the year as number one in TCR Europe, but it wasn’t straightforward

Photo by: TCR Europe

Pyro Motorsport chief Mark Hunt came on board to help engineer the TCR cars in 2023-24, but Brickley remained fully hands-on, even acting as his own truckie on the long hauls to Spain two years ago. For the season opener at Jarama, he shared the 2300-mile round trip through France and Spain with Hunt.

“We drove all the way there and we were like, ‘Yeah, we’re not doing that again!’” Brickley laughs. “So after that I drove the truck with my girlfriend in the passenger seat and we’d leave on a Sunday, go to Portsmouth; we’d get the ferry to Bilbao. That would get there on a Tuesday morning and it’s probably an eight-to-10 hour drive to the tracks.”

Each race weekend meant almost a fortnight away from the day-to-day business of being a truck mechanic. It harked back to a bygone era when budding racers would trek around Europe, race car in tow.

“Instead of just flying out there and racing it was like, ‘You’ve got to drive the truck there, mate, if you want to race,’” explains Brickley. “Somehow we made it work.”

“They basically said, ‘We don’t know about the UK. If you want to prove yourself, come to Spain and we’ll be watching’” Jenson Brickley

Despite no pre-season testing, a win and four further podiums from the first six races put Brickley atop the standings heading into the TCR Spain finale. But the title slipped away in a tough weekend as Honda-mounted Ignacio Montenegro took the crown.

The right people were taking notice of Brickley’s progress – which was why he had gone racing on the Iberian peninsula in the first place. The previous summer, Brickley and Hunt met representatives of Spanish manufacturer Cupra. He recalls: “They basically said, ‘We don’t know about the UK. If you want to prove yourself, come to Spain and we’ll be watching.’”

Job done, Brickley signed with Cupra-backed Monlau Motorsport for a dual campaign in 2025; TCR Europe the priority, Spain boosting track time. His team-mate was Eric Gene, teenage son of tin-top star Jordi – a long-time SEAT works driver. Spanish car, Spanish crew, Spanish team-mate from a famous racing family…

“I’m thinking, ‘He’s going to be the favourite, they’re going to do everything for him,’” admits Brickley. “‘I’m going to get stiffed with a worse engineer.’ But it was not like that at all.”

The young pairing of Brickley and Gene worked well together at Cupra-backed Monlau Motorsport

Photo by: TCR Europe

Two Spanish rounds before the European season began nurtured working relationships with his new engineer, Victor Martinez Orenes, and Gene. “It just worked really well,” Brickley explains.

“Both of our driving styles were very similar, but we seemed to have the differences that we needed to make each other better. At every track we could almost make a perfect lap between us. It was a really good pairing.”

Long-time coach Peter Felix still came to some rounds. But he was mainly a spectator as, in Brickley’s words, the two young hotshots “almost just coached each other”.

Brickley finished second in the Algarve Circuit European opener before converting a front-row start to victory in race two. Second in the standings, the target of a top-five championship finish was swiftly revised: “We were like, ‘OK, so we need to go for the championship now…’ And then after that it went a bit downhill.”

Tough weekends at Spa and Hockenheim were demoralising, hampered by success ballast and punctures. But it was qualifying that was really costing Brickley as he dropped to eighth in the mid-season standings.

“The thing is in TCR Europe, if you qualify outside of the top 10, your whole weekend’s ruined because the top 10 reversed-grid race two is from qualifying [not race one’s result],” he points out.

Brickley therefore needed to smooth out the peaks and troughs. He’d already bounced back from tough times earlier in his career – like a challenging TCR debut at Snetterton in 2023.

“I was really confident after the winter testing,” recalls Brickley, “and we went to the first round and I qualified eighth and was like, ‘Oh my God, this is really bad.’ Race one I finished eighth. Race two I was starting third and I’m thinking, ‘I’ve got a good chance here.’ And I just got absolutely mullered on the first lap by everyone.

Fiesta Junior battles were enjoyable for Brickley in 2021

Photo by: Mick Walker

“Because we’ve not just gone with teams and let them do everything, I know how much everything costs. So I was a bit scared to nudge people around in TCR at first, and I worked out quickly that the more cautious you are, the more damage you get. I just got bullied and I was like, ‘That’s one thing I’m never going to do ever again.’”

Brickley had learned his craft in the school of hard knocks. Having watched his dad race full-contact BriSCA Formula 1 stock cars on Britain’s short ovals, he was soon emulating him in Ministox. From age 10, Brickley raced virtually every weekend on asphalt and loose-surfaced tracks.

“Spatial awareness and car control is massive from stock cars,” he reckons. “On shale, you’re throwing it around and, with it being full contact, you’re getting hit, you’ve got to recover the car.

“Then when you get into a Fiesta on a racetrack it’s like, ‘This is easy’. We only had one tyre [type], so wet, dry, shale, you just had to drive to the conditions. And you’re racing so much – from 10 to 16, I did 10 times the amount of racing as I have from 16 to 21.”

“To be honest, it gets a bit boring if you don’t have a bit of rivalry, people getting a little bit irate” Jenson Brickley

Brickley’s switch to circuits came in Fiesta Junior. While the series lacked depth, quality abounded with future Autosport BRDC Award winners Joseph Loake and Deagen Fairclough, with whom Brickley relished duelling for the 2021 crown.

“Throughout my Ministox career I had a really fierce rivalry with someone every year and I went to circuits thinking this is not going to happen,” he says. “Then it was me and Deagen battling throughout the whole year. To be honest, it gets a bit boring if you don’t have a bit of rivalry, people getting a little bit irate! I think that brings out the emotion and a little bit more pressure.”

Heading to Misano last June, the pressure was definitely on and Brickley responded by qualifying third and pocketing big points for second and fifth-place finishes.

“That was a confidence boost, and then we had the summer break where I was working really hard at iZone and on the sim,” he recounts. “Then Red Bull Ring went really well. We had max ballast from Misano. I qualified in the top 10, which was perfect. That’s all I needed to do with max ballast.”

Brickley had a hard fight with Alastair Kellett for 2022 Fiesta ST240 glory

Photo by: James Roberts

With an impressive performance, Brickley won the second race to rocket into title contention heading to Barcelona. Team-mate Gene led the standings, level with Marco Butti (Honda), with Audi driver Teddy Clairet third.

Brickley headed the contenders by qualifying fourth, while Butti’s hopes dived when technical issues left him languishing 16th. Second in Friday’s race elevated the Briton to the points lead, while Gene was punted off and third-placed Jimmy Clairet did not move over for brother Teddy.

Fifth on Saturday meant Brickley pipped Clairet to the title, but only after Gene, struggling for pace, yielded. But there was another twist to come: hours later, Ruben Volt’s Honda was disqualified from second and the extra points gained left Brickley and Clairet tied.

“We were going to the awards evening that night,” Brickley remembers, “and I had to get a shirt from the city. So I went to Barcelona and I was sat in McDonald’s, just about to eat my burger, and David [Simon], the team manager, messages me, ‘Volt’s been disqualified.’”

Amid fraught points calculations by girlfriend Kady, another message arrived: Brickley was champion by virtue of more second-place finishes. It was an appropriate end to a roller-coaster season. Brickley reflects: “I’m kind of glad that I had ups and downs, that it wasn’t all sunshine and roses. It was good to have the emotion, and in the end it all just came right.”

His prize is free entry and 100 Kumho tyres for the TCR World Tour, starting in Mexico City on 23-25 April. But raising the rest of a World Tour budget is another matter, leaving him unlikely to contest a full programme.

“In my opinion, once you’ve done something, you move on,” he says, effectively ruling out a title defence. “I’m going to try and at least do the European rounds of the World Tour and just see what happens from there.”

Having secured his Grade A ARDS licence, Brickley intends to expand on his coaching roles with 20Ten. There could also be a return to his roots on the short ovals, just for fun, since Kady’s father competes in National Hot Rods. Because for Brickley, motorsport is all about competition, not just driving fast: “I’m only ever happy if I’m winning, that’s just how it is.”

Even after seemingly taking the title, there was one final twist during Brickley’s season

Photo by: TCR Europe

TCR UK champion Shepherd steps into Brickley’s shoes

Sliding into the seat vacated by Jenson Brickley for 2026 is reigning TCR UK champion Adam Shepherd. The 33-year-old’s TCR Europe campaign with Monlau Motorsport will be his first overseas.

Like Brickley, third-generation racer Shepherd has a string of British titles to his name, in a variety of machinery, all while engineering himself to stretch a tight budget. The Essex driver runs his own software company, but would join forces with dad Craig at the Shepherd Motors family business to prepare his cars in their evenings.

His TCR UK title success came after a demoralising 2024 aboard an ageing Cupra Leon Competicion thwarted by gremlins – eventually traced to its fuel bladder.

Re-energised by a double win in the 2025 opener, sponsor 5G Communications funded an upgrade to the VZ model and, working with Capture Motorsport, Shepherd took another six wins en route to the crown. But it almost went wrong in the Brands Hatch finale.

“I locked up, ‘Whoa!’ Just kept it on circuit. Can you imagine losing it, last corner, last lap?” Adam Shepherd

“That last lap at Brands, I was just being careful, but when the fluid went down, I nearly went in the gravel myself,” he reflects. “I locked up, ‘Whoa!’ Just kept it on circuit. Can you imagine losing it, last corner, last lap?”

He didn’t; the bad luck had finally been shaken off. Shepherd then impressed Monlau when it gave him a deliberately tricky test at Barcelona before entering November’s Spanish round there. A 2026 season in Spain was mooted, but Shepherd’s victory in the second Barcelona race prompted the squad to reconsider: “They kind of said, ‘You’ve turned up first weekend and had a win, let’s do Europe.’”

Learning new circuits and Kumho’s control tyre will be challenging for a driver whose style is “very rear-wheel drive”. But with the novelty of having a full testing programme and engineers running the car for him, another title is the target – the Cupra’s allotted Balance of Performance permitting.

“What we can’t control is the BoP,” says Shepherd, “but there’s no other reason from a performance perspective that we can’t win the championship, so that’s our aim.”

This article is one of many in the monthly Autosport magazine. For more premium content, take a look at the April 2026 issue and subscribe today. 

Shepherd (left) is excited for TCR Europe alongside Viktor Andersson and Marco Butti

Photo by: Helena Pinchuk