James Higgins tallied a solid haul of points at Brands Hatch this past weekend (October 5/6) to guarantee himself a top-four finish as the ROKiT British F4 Championship certified by FIA concluded its 2024 season.
The Rodin Motorsport driver signed off the year with a quartet of impressive performances around the Grand Prix layout of the Kent venue, which in-turn meant that he secured an impressive fourth place in the Drivers’ Championship.
Embarking on his sophomore season in the single-seater series, the 18-year-old has endured his fair share of bad luck during the campaign however two wins and a further five podium finishes have been the undoubted highlights for the BRDC Rising Star.
Such are the high standards that the talented teenager sets himself, qualifying on Saturday morning saw Higgins claim fourth place however had it not been for traffic compromising his best laps, a front row start was arguably well within reach.
Despite making a difficult start as the lights went out, Higgins dug deep in the opening encounter to clinch fifth place before then going on to charge up to seventh from outside the top ten in the rescheduled reverse grid race that was originally slated to to be run at Silverstone.
Higgins closed out his second full campaign in the championship with two more battling drives on Sunday as he hustled his striking black and white machine to seventh and fifth in the remaining contests.
Frustratingly those results would have been good enough for third place in the overall standings however a post-race penalty for team-mate Alex Ninovic in a chaotic final race dropped him back a position, which handed Higgins’ main rival an extra few points.
James Higgins: “It would have been nice to end the season with some silverware but we were just missing that extra tenth of a second all weekend that would have put us right in that fight for the podium positions.
“To come away with four points finishes is a solid end to the year though. I’d like to think that we’ve shown that we’ve had some really good pace; it’s just the fact that lady luck hasn’t been on our side at all.
"We’ve won races, had some podiums and managed to end the year in fourth overall. I’ve got to give a huge shoutout to everyone at Rodin for their efforts this year and also all my sponsors and family, because without them this wouldn’t be possible.
“At the moment everything is up in the air as to what we’re going to do next year however nothing is set in stone. I feel like I took another step forward as a driver this season and I’m excited to see what I can achieve in 2025 - wherever that may be!”
Image from Jakob Ebrey Photography.
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