How do you win the Festival?
So, we’ve established the importance of the Formula Ford Festival. How therefore do you go about winning it? Well who better to ask than a man who’s done it all before, and more than once, Joey Foster?
“You’ve got to take a view of the overall bigger picture,” he tells Motorsport News. “It’s very easy to get into a car in a Formula Ford race and really wring its neck and take risks in terms of the overall finishing position, but in the Festival you’ve got to look at the heats as really your qualifying for the semi-final and the final.”
Yet, as Foster also notes, you cannot be too cautious. “Also [at] the same time in the heats if you finish third you could easily be starting well down for the semi-final. So you’ve got to get that position but it’s all about calculated risks and really making that count because if you start a low row three for the final it can be a very difficult race, you put yourself on the back foot.
“That’s probably the biggest part of the Festival, everyone’s done so many laps around there, generally anyone can be quick on their day but it’s really just making sure you’re there when it matters and it’s that pressure which I think a lot of the drivers have to work on dealing with for that event.
“It’s just that mind management really, in those situations you just need to have that overview and that does apply in any kind of racing. It’s certainly valuable skills to take forward.
“There’s some [Festival] years where it’s more competitive than others
I’d say, but generally it’s always a challenge to win, there’s never a year which is an easy win that’s for sure.”