HAWKINS BACK IN THE FORMULA FORD HARNESS AFTER THREE DECADES AWAY
Formula Ford racer Bob Hawkins ended a 33-year break from the category by driving a Swift SC92K alongside his son Tom at Castle Combe’s recent 2020 season-opener.
Hawkins, now 63, had his previous Formula Ford race in 1987 at Brands Hatch when he broke both ankles in an accident at Graham Hill Bend involving circuit specialist Andrew Guyejohnson. Hawkins had been a regular Champion of Brands frontrunner.
“This is a moment of madness,” he said of his Formula Ford return.
“I’ve been drag racing a 3000bhp dragster at Santa Pod and I needed to get out and do some driving. I saw this car for sale.”
Both Bob’s Swift and the Ray GR11 raced by Tom are prepared by Bob’s older brother Ted who ran many leading Formula
Fords in the 1980s and ’90s. The father-and-son pair will now contest a range of Formula Ford races over the rest of the season and Bob reckons it is cheap motorsport after regularly spending £800 each weekend on fuel for the dragster.