Photo: FastR

Jessica Hawkins joins TCR UK ranks with FastR

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Jessica Hawkins will become the first female driver to race in TCR UK since Jessica Bäckman back in 2018 after securing a deal to join the FastR team for the upcoming season.

Hawkins – a Driver Ambassador for the Aston Martin F1 team – has spent two seasons racing in W Series and has also contested rounds of the British Touring Car Championship in each of the last two seasons after inking one-off deals with Power Maxed Racing and Motorbase.

Prior to that, the 27-year-old – well known for stunt driving work on a number of Hollywood films – raced in a variety of different championship including the MINI CHALLENGE and MSA Formula.

Hawkins will be at the wheel of a Cupra TCR entered under the FastR banner and run by Area Motorsport, with Civic Cup graduate Jamie Tonks as her team-mate.

“This is such an awesome moment for me,” she said. “I’ve been trying to make a high-level touring car championship campaign come together for many years, and finally, thanks to the help of Luke and the team at FastR, it’s all happening!

“I’m super-excited for my first full touring car season, and I’m even more excited to be doing it in the UK in what has quickly proved itself to be a fantastic formula in TCR UK. I’m aiming high, obviously, but there’s some serious talent on the grid this year, so I’m going to work my socks off to do everyone proud.”

FastR founder Luke Clayton said he was delighted to be able to get a deal together to put Hawkins in a car for 2022.

“We’ve always taken pride in helping people that deserve it to get to where they want to be, and Jess is the prime example of that,” he said. “We worked with her on her inaugural BTCC drive back in 2020 and have been lucky enough to work together on some really interesting projects since then.

“She possesses almost inhuman levels of car control and race craft, and we’ve been looking at options to support her for a full season for a little while. After watching TCR UK grow and mature, it was the obvious option to put her in what is fast becoming one of the best championships on the calendar. I’m really excited to see what she can do with the car, especially following Area Motorsport’s highly successful 2021 season with Bruce Winfield.”