In what became a season of utter dominance, Deagen Fairclough sealed the British F4 championship at Silverstone last time out, taking the record for most wins in a single season in the process.

By Gavin Guthrie

Despite the cancellation of a race midway through the weekend, British F4’s second visit to Silverstone in 2024 was a dream come true for Fairclough, who took two poles, two wins and the championship title he’s always coveted.

The 18-year-old faced a strong challenge throughout qualifying from Rodin Motorsport’s James Higgins and Alex Ninovic. Entering the weekend, the latter could have still denied Fairclough the title, mathematically at least, but the Hitech driver made Ninovic’s task more difficult by claiming pole for both the first and third races of the weekend. 

Come race one Saturday afternoon, a damp track left Fairclough under pressure through the first few corners. Ninovic pulled alongside the Hitech car out of Copse and through Maggots, but by the end of the lap, Fairclough managed to pull out a 0.33-second gap as the Rodin trio of Ninovic, Higgins and Jack Sherwood wrestled their way through Brooklands, holding one another up in the process. 

From that point on, there was no looking back for the driver of the #7 car. Fairclough pulled an 8.3-second lead over the next 21 laps on his way to seal a record-equalling 11th race win of the season and take the championship win in the process.

Rain and an early red flag contributed to the eventual cancellation of the reverse-grid race two on Sunday, but Fairclough carried forth his momentum from race one into race three by winning with a 6.652-second margin in the wet.

In achieving his 12th win of the season, Fairclough broke the single-season win record previously set in 2022 by Alex Dunne, then a Hitech driver and now a McLaren junior in F3. He had already broken the record for all-time wins in British F4 at Knockhill in August with his ninth of the 2024 season to add to the three he scored with JHR Developments in 2023.

“It was incredible!” Fairclough told Feeder Series after the weekend. “It was an amazing weekend. Obviously, getting the championship title finally with a round to go is a bonus, and breaking the win record this weekend – there’s a lot of bonuses that have come a long way, and I’m over the moon with how it’s gone.”

“I say it all the time, but I’m very grateful to the team. They’ve worked so hard all season and made it possible for me to win the championship.

“And the financial backing via ROKiT – without that sim competition, I wouldn’t be in British F4, so the opportunity they’ve given me this year and last year, a chance to get my name out there … this is my way to repay them,” Fairclough added, referring to the ROKiT Racing Star competition he won in May 2022.

With the final round of the season at Brands Hatch just around the corner, Fairclough still has four races, including the re-run of the cancelled second race from Silverstone, to extend his win record. That means, however, that there will be a second reverse-grid race, which means frontrunners like Fairclough face more risk of incidents while pushing through the pack.

Though the drivers’ championship is already wrapped up, Fairclough, who now has 508 points to Ninovic’s 318, could still help Hitech secure the teams’ title. The Silverstone-based team have a 31.5-point lead over Rodin Motorsport entering the final four races, with 59 still on offer for the three-car Hitech effort and up to 71 available between the four Rodin cars.

“I want to have some fun and extend that win record so no one else can beat it in the future,” Fairclough said. “Obviously we’re going for the teams’ championship too. I don’t want to do anything too silly or my reputation’s going out the window as a championship winner. I don’t want to be sending an invoice to the team with a big damage bill!

“So just keeping my nose clean and doing what we’ve done all season so far is the approach we’re going to have into Brands Hatch.” 

Fairclough set the fastest time in F4 testing at the Grand Prix circuit on September 25 and on the shorter Indy circuit during Wednesday’s F4 test.

That pace, which saw him 0.248s clear on the full circuit and three-tenths clear on the shorter Indy circuit, puts him in prime position to maximise his results in this final weekend.

“Last year with JHR, I was able to do really well there,” Fairclough said. “Putting it on the front row with Louis [Sharp, 2023 champion] and getting a win there to end off the season was nice.

“It’s probably one of my favourite UK circuits,” he continued, “especially the back section! I enjoy every moment of it, and when we’ve been testing there this year, we’ve been really strong on pace.”

Fairclough set the fastest times in both free practice sessions on the Grand Prix layout earlier today, ending the day 0.173s clear of Ninovic.

Header photo credit: Jakob Ebrey Photography