Praga racing to victory – 2024 UK motorsport season review
As the 2024 UK race season draws to a close, the Praga R1 has once again proven its dominance on track, winning silverware across Britain’s most demanding and iconic racetracks in the fiercely competitive ZEO Prototype Series.
Finishing the year with 13 podium finishes, two race wins and one fastest lap, R1 drivers Chris Bridle, Ed Bridle, Tom Canning, Jack Fabby, Shane Kelly and Daniel Oliver battled for silverware on healthy grids of mixed prototypes in two sprint races per round.
Praga’s UK season started at Silverstone on 16th March where experienced R1 driver, Jack Fabby, began the year on top form. On a grid of 23 mixed prototypes, Fabby finished in second place overall in race one and repeated the same result in race two in an excellent start to the season.
Round two at Snetterton on 18th May proved to be another celebratory weekend for Jack Fabby, who took second place in the first race and third place in the second. Fellow R1 racer, Shane Kelly, with University of Wolverhampton Racing, joined Fabby on the winners’ podium for race two with a second-place finish.
At round three, this time at the popular track of Donington Park on 22nd June, it was Tom Canning who entered the prototype fray, securing third and fourth place finishes from the weekend. Meanwhile, Shane Kelly delivered his best drive of the UK season so far with second and third-place finishes, earning a double podium for the student-run team.
At round four at Brands Hatch on 17th August, Shane Kelly went one better securing first place in race one while setting the fastest lap of the race on the Indy circuit layout (45.531 seconds). Praga debutant Daniel Oliver, who travelled from America for his seat in the R1, finished both races with an eighth and a seventh place.
The series finale at Oulton Park on 26th October saw Jack Fabby and Shane Kelly battle it out at the front of the grid, with Jack Fabby taking the outright win in race one with a 10-second lead over the second-place finisher. In race two, it was a second-place finish for Fabby in an extremely close battle for first place, concluding his race weekend with a double podium. Shane Kelly took the outright pole position in qualifying and finished third in both races, earning another double podium for the Praga competing teams.
In a nice postscript to the season, Texan-based Daniel Oliver’s UK debut has inspired his plans to return to race an R1 with Idola in 2025 as part of the newly formed Equipe Sports Prototype series: https://equipeclassicracing.com/sports-prototypes/
To find out more about the Praga R1 visit https://pragaglobal.com/cars/praga-r1/, or to speak to a member of the Praga team about R1 ownership or available seats in the 2025 season, write to sales@pragacars.com.
Photo credit: James Roberts
