Humble Pye: the voice of club racing
By Marcus Pye, the voice of club racing
WALTER HAYES, THE JOURNALIST-TURNED-PR CHIEF-turned-motor industry guru, immortalised in motorsport for enthusing The Blue Oval to put its financial heft behind Formula Ford and badge Cosworth’s all-conquering DFV F1 engine, was doubtless quietly proud of the fruits of their success. Both entered the public eye in 1967, as a pivotal year for the sport, and neither has done the Ford Motor Company’s sporting heritage any harm over 50 years. Indeed both gifts keep on giving.
Only last weekend the shrill V8 power unit that triumphed in 155 World Championship grands prix was performing before today’s F1 circus – at its second successive venue, for the cars were trucked from the Circuit of the Americas at Austin – as the lifeblood of popular Mexican GP supporting races. A new short-stroke DFV may cost £100k with taxes, the same numbers as Ford’s original (pre-inflation) investment, but the genius of Keith Duckworth’s design is still evident half a century on. That Japan’s Katsu Kubota won both races in Lotus 78/4 has personal significance, for my first experience of driving an F1 car was in sister chassis 78/1 at Donington Park in 1980. Coincidentally, owner Colin Bennett had prepared a Lotus 51 for the inaugural Formula Ford race at Brands Hatch in July ’67.
FF1600, as it became universally known when its two-litre cousin arrived with slicks and wings in ’75, was still growing – and on every aspiring pro driver’s bucket list through the ’80s, long after the DFVS had fallen silent in contemporary F1, outgunned by sizzling 1500cc turbos. While ringmaster Bernie Ecclestone had liquidated his DFV stockpile, creating F3000 to supplant two-litre F2, enlarged 3.3 and 3.9-litre DFL derivatives were long active in sports-prototype racing on the global stage, and in hillclimbs. Ask Andy Priaulx.
This year’s Formula Ford golden jubilee celebrations have been magnificent, fuelling unprecedented competitor demand for the Historic Sports Car Club’s Historic championship (for cars built and raced before 1972). Consistently drawing some of the largest fields in Britain and embroiling a wider range of chassis marques than before (22), the racing has been awesome too, with five different winners, eight points splitting the top three at season’s end and several races decided by a hair’s breadth. Just as it always was.
The British Racing and Sports Car Club’s annual FF Festival, originated at Snetterton in 1972 but run at Brands Hatch since ’76, may not be the event it was before the class abandoned the venerable ‘Kent’ engine after Jan Magnussen’s ’92 victory, but it returned to its roots in 2013. The old favourite, key to the class’s longevity and accessibility, rules the roost again, as past master and current champion Joey Foster, who has won thrice – driving Van Diemen, Reynard and Ray chassis – will attest.
But it is the Walter Hayes Trophy at Silverstone – instigated in his memory by fellow visionary (and dyed-in-the-woolly hat FF1600 nut) James Beckett – that has taken over the mantle as the end-of-season showdown they all want to win. This year’s 17th edition brings together the biggest entry of a very special year, around 100 competitors from around the world, to pay homage to the man who recognised the value of John Webb, Brands Hatch boss, and its resident racing school owner Geoff Clarke’s call for an inexpensive single-seater racing class. Little did they expect to change the course of history.