Career best result for Morgan Kidd in Silverstone season finale

Morgan Kidd achieved a career best result of fourth in the AIRTEC Motorsport Fiesta ST240 Championship to round-off an excellent weekend at Silverstone, where she narrowly missed out on claiming overall pole position, before running as high as second in race one.

Morgan Kidd achieved a career best result of fourth in the AIRTEC Motorsport Fiesta ST240 Championship to round-off an excellent weekend at Silverstone. Kidd narrowly missed out on claiming overall pole position, before a tyre strategy play saw her run as high as second in race one.

Despite Kidd’s choice of wet tyres working against her following a red flag, her speed in the dry was impressive. Running with the lead group of drivers in the final race of the season, Morgan took the checkered flag in fourth position to secure her best result in the series.

Kidd arrived at Silverstone looking to end the season on a high in which the JRW Motorsport driver has made significant progress during the second half of the campaign. Although it was a tough end to the previous round at Thruxton, Morgan was confidently battling with the lead group of drivers and secured her best result of the season.

Albeit on the National layout, Silverstone was the site of Kidd’s largest points haul prior to the weekend and therefore she was looking to continue her strong form at the home of the British motorsport.

Qualifying took place on Saturday morning in cool conditions at Silverstone. Kidd was immediately on the pace and spent a large portion of the session inside the top-5 overall, with an expanded 22-car grid of drivers taking part in the season finale. Nonetheless, Morgan enjoyed her best qualifying session of the season as she set the sixth fastest time overall, fifth fastest in the Pro class, while the margin to the polesitter was less than a tenth of a second.

Following the qualifying session, a number of drivers had laps disallowed for not slowing under yellow flags and this promoted Kidd to fourth on the overall grid for race one, third in the Pro class. Conditions were challenging for race one with a damp track leading to tyre choice being difficult and a split in strategy throughout the field. Lining up from the second row of the grid on wet tyres, Kidd made an excellent start and quickly moved into third position, before claiming second prior to the end of lap one.

Kidd’s tyre strategy in the early stages was the correct one as she had a sizeable margin behind her while keeping race leader Connor Blackburn in her sights. Multiple race-winner Lucas was starting to catch Kidd, however a personal best time on lap five saw her reduce the deficit to Blackburn.

The following lap saw Lucas apply further pressure and Kidd ran wide on the exit of Club corner and slipped to third position, while also picking up some damage to the floor of the car. After defending stoutly from a fast group of drivers behind, Simon Horrobin made contact with the barrier and this led to a red flag period with Kidd remaining in third position.

Conditions improved during the stoppage and the race resumed for a duration of seven minutes. With Kidd on the wet weather tyres, the restart was set to be a challenge but she made an excellent start and ended lap one in fourth position. Morgan was suffering from understeer and was working hard to keep her rivals behind who were on the slick tyres.

Despite falling to seventh overall, fifth in class at the end of lap two, Kidd was fighting hard to maximise her points. Although she lost out to two Am class drivers on the final lap, Morgan took the checkered flag in ninth position overall, while securing a top-5 Pro class result.

For the second race of the weekend, Kidd lined up from ninth position overall, fifth in the Pro class, courtesy of her race one result. It was a challenging initial start for Morgan as she lost a number of positions off the line, however a strong second half to the opening lap saw her hold a top-5 position in the Pro class while falling to 11th overall. On lap two, Kidd had a high-speed spin on the exit of Abbey but was able to avoid any major damage, falling to 15th position overall, eighth in the Pro class.

The race was then brought under red flag conditions after a significant incident involving Caitlin May and Daniel Lewis. Starting positions for the restart were based on the original grid with Kidd back inside the overall top-10. After lap one of the restart, Morgan was tenth overall, sixth in the Pro class and looking to make further moves forward.

On lap two, Kidd overtook Am class driver Charlie Ellis and after a mistake from John Cooper, Kidd was into eighth overall as lap three unfolded. Also passing Henry Howarth, Morgan was up to seventh overall and holding down a top-5 position in the Pro class before a second red flag brought the race to an early conclusion.

Lucas Hayden had rolled his Ford Fiesta and although he escaped uninjured, the cleanup process required meant the race was not resumed. Just two full laps were completed with Morgan classified in ninth position, sixth in the Pro class, in the final standings.

The final race of the season saw the grid formed by a random draw of the top-10 places and this saw Kidd line up from third. It was a challenging start for Morgan who struggled off the line, completing lap one in tenth position overall, seventh in the Pro class. Kidd’s strong pace was evident however, with the JRW Motorsport driver overtaking Charlie Ellis and John Cooper on lap three. This was followed by a pass on Joseph Knight as Morgan’s Pro class rival retired with a technical issue.

On lap four, Kidd was the second fastest driver on track before setting the overall pace on lap five as she passed Luke Warr. Now into sixth position overall, fifth in the Pro class, Morgan was closing in on an overall podium position. Contact between the leading Am class drivers of Graeme Colfer and Henry Howarth on lap eight allowed Kidd to pass Colfer, before she made a move on Howarth for fourth place overall.

The leading four drivers were now all Pro class competitors and were trading fastest laps at the head of the field. Kidd’s pace was superb, however she was starting to lose touch with Gary Miller and Zach Lucas, therefore reducing the benefit of the slipstream effect.

Morgan was looking for the drivers in the podium places to start battling for position, however they continued to stretch their legs in the closing stages. Taking the checkered flag in fourth position, Kidd secured her best result of her AIRTEC Motorsport Fiesta ST240 Championship career.

Kidd enjoyed a fantastic weekend of racing at Silverstone and was unfortunate not to score her first podium finish in the series. Consistently battling with the leading group of drivers, Morgan displayed excellent speed and racecraft to close out the 2024 season.

It has been a season of two halves for the JRW Motorsport driver with technical issues preventing her from achieving her potential earlier in the season. An impressive end to the campaign saw Kidd battle towards the front of the field and narrowly miss out on a maiden trip to the overall podium.