Alastair Kellett clinched his eighth saloon car championship last weekend in Silverstone , the Meath man finally taking home the Airtec Motorsport Fiesta ST240 Championship after three hectic races.
Having taken the title previously in 2016, he returned to the revamped series in 2021 when it switched to running the MK7 1.6 EcoBoost model with the latest Fiesta racer turning out 240bhp in race trim. Having finished 3rd in the 2021 championship, he lost out in title deciders in both 2022 and 2023 to finish runner up in both season and the championship was the only goal in mind for the 2024 season.
Having built a very comfortable points lead by mid-season, two freak mechanical failures had cut into his points advantage but he still headed into the finale with a 73 point lead over nearest rival Zach Lucas with 157 points on offer across the weekend. Knowing he needed to just score two solid points finishes, he went into qualifying aiming to be as close to Lucas as possible on the grid. Almost immediately though, he was in trouble as he dived into the pits in the early part of the session with a loss of turbo boost and the problem was not going to be fixable during the session. He headed back out and salvaged a lap that put him P11 on the grid while title rival Lucas initially snatched pole on the final lap but as the lap was completed under yellow flags, his lap time was deleted and he dropped back to P9 on the grid meaning both the main championship contenders were starting in the mid pack for the first race of the weekend. 
With the damp track drying out for race one it became a tyre lottery gamble. Most drivers including Kellett and Lucas went for slicks on the front and wets on the rear while a few drivers gambled on full wets. As the lights went out the drivers on full wets rocketed away while the slick-shod cars fought for grip on the run to the first corner. As the pack headed into Village corner, the championship battle took a dramatic turn as the livestream cameras showed the Kellett Motors ST240 arriving into Village corner backwards and collecting another car and Alastair plummeted to the tail of the field while Lucas was already into P4 by the end of the first lap. Kellett was soon on a charge and by mid race had clawed his way up to P8 before the race was halted just after the halfway mark after a huge shunt on the pit straight. Lining up for the restart in P8, he took the first lap cautiously but once the tyres came in, he was soon on a charge and picked his way up to P3 and set off after race leader Lucas and fellow Irish driver Gary Miller who were engaged in a hectic battle for the lead. Taking 1.5 seconds out of them on the penultimate lap he was soon onto the back bumper of the leaders but the chequered flag was shown a lap early meaning he came home to take P3 having been P22 at the start of the opening lap.
Heading into Sunday, Kellett knew a top 5 finish in one of the two races would be enough to secure the title. After making a decent start he maintained P3 until the red flags flew for another accident at Village corner and on the restart he dropped back to P4 knowing he had a safe gap back to P5 to bring the car home. However, the race was cut short after three laps when there was a large accident heading onto the Hangar Straight and the race was subsequently red flagged for a second time. After a large delay the race result was subsequently declared and this meant Kellett claimed the 2024 Airtec Motorsport ST240 Championship!
With a reverse grid draw for race three, the Irish driver was picked to start from pole position and duly led away at the start and built up a four second lead by halfway and controlled the race to bring home an eighth victory of the season to finish off a brilliant year for him and the Kellett Motorsport team.
He would like to thank SmartPart and Performance Brake Solutions for their support this year and to everyone to who has helped out during the season. He will be back to defend his title in 2025 with a new car with the aims of bringing back a third UK Fiesta Championship against ever increasing competition.
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