Fortec Motorsport has confirmed Jessica Edgar as the team’s first driver for the new GB4 Championship partnered by the BRDC. The 16-year-old from Ennerdale in Cumbria has enjoyed several test days with the team in recent weeks, and the new season will mark her first campaign in car racing following a successful karting career. Jessica began karting in 2010 and highlights soon followed, including being crowned as the Rowrah Club Champion in 2017.
The following year saw plenty of success with race victories in the Super One category on the way to fourth overall in the final standings of the Mini X30 division. She was fifth in the Little Green Man (LGM) Championship in the same category.
Edgar broke records in 2019 after becoming the first female to win more than one round of the LGM Championship on the way to second overall in the final standings, the highest end of year finish for a female karter. She also secured the runner-up spot in the Kartmasters Grand Prix, just one hundredth of a second away from being the first female to win a GP title, with her performance earning a place at the X30 World Finals at Le Mans. Jessica was also fourth in the British Kart Championship as she continued in the X30 Mini division. Last year saw Edgar finish fourth overall in the LGM Series, while also competing in the British Kart Championships.
She was selected to represent Team UK in the FIA Motorsport Games in 2019, and in 2020 was chosen as a member of the Motorsport UK Academy as well as being enlisted into the FIA’s ‘Girls on Track Rising Stars’ programme.
Jessica is the tenth member of her family to establish a career in motorsport, following in the footsteps of her cousin Johnny, a Red Bull junior who won the ADAC F4 title in 2020 before moving into FIA F3 the following season, in which he was a finalist for the Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year Award.
Three other generations of the family have preceded her, including her Great Grandfather Iredale Edgar, her grandparents Terry and Winnie Edgar, plus father Jason (who was a top motocross rider before switching to karts) and uncle Justin. Terry competed against future F1 stars including Nigel Mansell, Keke Rosberg and Alain Prost, while Jason and Justin were multiple Super One champions.
Jessica Edgar said: “I am really excited to be racing in the GB4 Championship and am enjoying working with the team at Fortec. I’m looking forward to the year ahead, they are a great team and have lots of experience in helping young drivers progress from karting to car racing. I know I have a big learning curve ahead of me but want to maximise every opportunity I get. Guy [Smith] and Andy [Meyrick] at Greenlight Sports Management have helped hugely in putting everything together to allow me every chance to succeed.”
Fortec Motorsport’s Oliver Dutton said: “We’re very pleased to confirm Jessica in our GB4 team for the 2022 season. She’s shown a lot of promise in the testing we’ve done together over the last few weeks and made a lot of progress. We’re very excited about her potential and we’re looking forward to continuing the good work so far ahead of the first round of the year at Snetterton.”