KELTY motorsport star Ronan Pearson is up-and-running in touring car racing after picking up his first points in the series last weekend.

The talented 21-year-old, who last year was competing in the Quaife Mini Challenge competition, headed to Brands Hatch Indy for the second race weekend of the 2023 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship (BTCC).

The EXCELR8 Motorsport team racer, whose outfit includes current champion, Tom Ingram, had starred in the opening weekend at Donnington Park, powering his Macklin Motors and Saltire Energy-backed Hyundai to a top three finish in just his second start in the series.

Pearson, however, suffered heartbreak when his podium finish was taken away due to a technical infringement, robbing him of a dream start, but bounced back to find his first points at Brands.

In free practice, he set the eighth-quickest time - ahead of Ingram - before an impressive performance in a challenging, and wet, qualifying session then saw him break into the second phase of qualifying by the slimmest of margins to guarantee himself a top-10 grid slot.

Pearson's hard work in putting himself into 10th for the opening race, however, looked set to be undone when the lights went out and he failed to get away from the line, dropping him down towards the rear of the field.

He was then fortunate to avoid an on-track incident, which saw the race halted, with the field lining up in its original positions for the restart, from which he was able to retain his place initially, although he lost ground when he ran wide on lap three, contributing to a 16th-place finish.

Running on soft tyres in race two, Pearson, thanks to a mature drive that saw him run in tandem with experienced team-mate, Tom Chilton, throughout, as the pair worked together to climb the order, took the flag in 13th place to score his first BTCC points, which he repeated in the final race of the weekend.

The latter effort came despite the majority of the field running on quicker soft tyres, with Pearson displaying his potential by being one of the fastest drivers on the medium tyre, lapping at a similar pace to multiple champion, Colin Turkington, and current points leader, Dan Cammish.

"Overall, it's been a positive weekend, and big thanks to the team for their efforts once again," he said.

"We had a quick car in the wet conditions on Saturday, and to make it into the top 10 showdown in just my second weekend was great, and gave me a platform for race day.

"Although you don't want to see incidents like the one that cause race one to be stopped, I was glad it gavce me a second chance at the start, and the opening race was good, even if we didn't score. I made a few mistakes and didn't get my car in the right place when battling for position, which cost me places, but I knew we could fight back in race two.

"Given I was on the soft tyre, I felt I had the legs on Tom, but the opportunity to follow him and work together as a team was really positive, as it gave me the chance to learn from being behind one of the most experienced drivers on the grid, and it's something I know I'll benefit from.

"Putting points on the board for the first time was great, and I was really happy with race three, considering we were on the medium tyre, as I was one of the quickest drivers not to be on the option.

"Importantly, we've scored loads of points in the Jack Sears Trophy (open to drivers without an overall podium finish, in which Pearson is now third) and climbed up the standings, and hopefully we can continue that progress when we go to Snetterton next."

The next round of the BTCC takes place over the weekend of May 20-21.