How F1000 is thriving in its 25th season
This year marks the 25th anniversary of the F1000 Championship’s creation. In that time, it has endured mixed fortunes but it’s now thriving and proving to be a force once again
It is somewhat fitting that the cars in the F1000 Championship are called Jedis. The category is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year and yet organisers have had to display some warrior-like resilience to enable the series to survive throughout that period – and now it is thriving once more.
Championship manager Frazer Corbyn describes F1000 as now being “the best it’s ever been”, but it has taken a lot of hard work for the category to be a major force once again. Back when it launched in 1997, the British Racing and Sports Car Clubad-ministered division was known as Formula 600, with the nimble slicks-and-wings Jedi mated with a 600cc motorbike engine. It proved a hit and future British Touring Car racers Mat Jackson and Tony Gilham were among the early recruits. A class for the faster 1000cc engine was later introduced and it was not long before this became the motor of choice. Throughout this time, the long-standing ethos of offering competitive singleseater racing at an affordable price remained. And yet the financial crash of 2008 brought momentum to a clattering halt.
“When the credit crunch happened, our grid disintegrated in quite a short time,” says Corbyn. For almost 10 years, the series continued but struggled to attract healthy entry numbers. And then, in 2016, came the moment Corbyn feels was the deepest low. He recalls that year’s Donington Park round where Formula Jedi
– as the series was then called – attracted just nine cars. That led to a period of reflection about the category’s future, Corbyn wary that he “didn’t want to flog a dead horse”.
But there was still plenty of life in these steeds. Corbyn decided that, instead of giving up on the series, it was time for a reset and fundamental changes were made. First up was the name. “We needed to do something to try and get out of this rut,” says Corbyn. “One of the key changes was I wanted to rebrand it. Jedi is the name of the car but, for the championship, Formula Jedi was too gimmicky in the name. In 2017, we took that leap and rebranded it.”
With a nod to its F600 origins, F1000 was chosen – which better reflected what the series is all about. But the changes ran far deeper than just a name. “At that point, one of our drivers worked at Facebook and they helped getting the reach and name out there,” continues Corbyn. “More people were getting involved on social media.”
Around this time, Sarah Fraser also joined the organising team, bringing in a fresh set of skills and taking on race weekend coordination as well as developing an attractive prize programme – including prize draws and numerous awards, such as for ‘driver of the meeting’. And, then to complete the set of alterations,
F1000 found a new home for 2019.
Ever since its F600 origins, the championship had been part of the BRSCC’S portfolio but it was time for this to be reassessed, too. The decision was taken to join the 750 Motor Club’s stable, an organiser with a reputation for providing low-cost racing and that already had other bike-engined classes, such as Bikesports and Sports 1000, as part of its events.
“The 750MC and Giles [Groombridge, the club’s competitions manager] offered us a good package and that change happened very quickly,” says Corbyn. “When we moved, we had an influx from 750MC members. Suddenly the second-hand cars got bought up. Teams who had been with 750MC for years wanted to run F1000 cars. It was great because people wanted to get on board with that.”
One such 750MC member to join the series was 2016 Sport Specials champion Matthew Booth. He was looking for a new challenge for 2019 and, having long since admired the classic shape of the Jedi single-seater, made the move.
“I’ve always been a fan of F1000 since I was a kid,” says Booth. “I was going through my wardrobe and found some drawings
I did when I was younger with the number I started karting with on an F1000 car, so I’ve always been a fan.
“I’d been doing Sport Specials for a while and wanted a bit of a change. We were looking at Bikesports or RGB and then I heard F1000 was moving to 750MC so I thought perfect timing! I went
“WHEN WE MOVED, WE HAD AN INFLUX FROM 750MC MEMBERS. SUDDENLY CARS GOT BOUGHT UP”
down to Kartmania, spoke to Frazer and asked people what they thought of it and a week later we’d gone and bought a car. As we found they were coming to 750MC, we thought ‘let’s go for it’.”
Booth did not look back from there, taking two podiums on his debut weekend and going on to win the championship as a privateer entry, his car being run by him and his father.
Booth’s instant success mirrored the fortunes of the championship itself as the raft of changes quickly led to results. Entries for the first event of the 2019 season were up 50% on the previous year’s season-opener and have continued to climb ever since – now regularly reaching the mid-20s. “To be able to build this back up again is quite rewarding,” says Corbyn. “We’ve got a great mix of drivers, we’ve got guys and girls straight from karting, seasoned club racers, enthusiast racers and novices. It seems to work and it’s a supportive paddock.”
One of those karting graduates is 18-year-old Billy Styles, the Motorsport UK Enhanced DISE student joining the series last year for his car racing debut. “I hadn’t been karting competitively for a few years and was looking to get back into a form of motorsport and someone I knew was interested in doing F1000 and it seemed like a good, competitive championship,” he says. “I’m glad I went for it because it’s been brilliant!
“As the first step, it’s a great way to get into single-seater racing. It’s more accessible – the grid this year is about 25 cars, which is massive, so that helps with the competitive side of it. You’ve always got someone to compete with and it’s easier to learn when you’re racing other people because you can see what they’re doing.
“It’s also a sequential gearbox and the skills you learn from driving a car like that you can take with you into other forms of racing. Anyone I know from karting, if they’re looking to move into cars, I would always say to them to do the F1000 Championship.”
For the series to attract such a diverse range of drivers – from teenagers taking their first steps in cars, to drivers who have been competing in the category for years – the car must also be right. And the Jedi is a little bit special. Corbyn’s father John has been producing the single-seaters for over 35 years and the steel spaceframe cars are among the quickest cars in club competition. A glance at Autosport’s annual ‘fastest racing laps of the year’ feature regularly reveals pacesetting Jedi times – and the cars were the quickest machinery at three circuits in 2019 alone.
Paul Butcher has raced Jedis for almost 20 years after graduating from a Caterham and is yet to find a more appealing alternative. “I’ve occasionally looked around at what else is out there but you would spend more money to go slower,” he says.
“It’s really fast and high performance but also forgiving and relatively benign if you go over the limits.”
Booth agrees: “It’s brilliant – it’s a very nimble car. Once you’re in it and driving it smoothly, with those big slick tyres and wings, which provide quite a bit of downforce, it sticks to the road. It’s nice to work on and people can run it themselves and be competitive. When we’re testing with F3 cars or F4 cars [also on track] and their engine covers are off, it just looks so complex and you need a team of people to run it.”
And Styles describes the car as being “unbelievably quick” for its small size. “The feeling when you come off the line is brilliant because it absolutely takes off!” he says. “The first corner at Silverstone is just great and you can feel it pulling you in. You feel comfortable going round that corner as fast as you can – you feel completely in control.”
But the speed, affordability – Corbyn estimates it costs from just £10,000 for a season running the car yourself, or from £20,000 with a full arrive-and-drive package – and simplicity of the car are far from the only reasons why the series attracts drivers back year after year. Also playing a part is a stable ruleset. Butcher describes an “arms race” when he first joined the series as the bike engine manufacturers continually brought out new motors, but the regulations now specify which powerplants can be used to negate the need for the latest version.
“We don’t bring a raft of updates out every year that people have got to have, it’s about keeping the rules stable so people know what they’re getting,” explains Corbyn. “When people buy a new or second-hand car, it protects that investment because it’s still going to be relevant. We have to look after the drivers on the grid and, if I was to say that next year everyone’s got to have five grand’s worth of new parts, you’re going to alienate a section of the grid. It’s about keeping it stable and solid so people know the score.”
Clearly keeping the drivers happy is at the forefront of organisers’ minds and that also extends to creating a friendly atmosphere within the paddock. “There are a lot of series where people disappear into their motorhomes after a race and that’s not what F1000 is like at all,” says Butcher. “If someone has a problem, the paddock will rally around and help them. At the end of a race, when we do our presentations, if someone new wins or has a particularly good weekend, there’s genuine happiness.”
Butcher notes the example of Booth’s instant success in 2019 here. In some series, when a new driver enters and is immediately putting established frontrunners in the shade, there can be animosity. But not with F1000. “All the people within the class were lovely [when he joined] and there’s a great atmosphere,” says Booth. “It’s great to now welcome new people in and it’s good to be racing with such a nice group of people – it makes the whole weekend more enjoyable. When things are too competitive, and not so nice people are about, it sours the weekend.”
Similarly, poor driving standards are another area that could cause trouble – but Butcher highlights how this is not the case and that he instead enjoys F1000’s competitive nature. “Pretty much all the way through, it’s been a really friendly series and with really high driving standards,” he says. “That means you can be reasonably confident that no one is going to do something stupid and cost you a huge amount of money. There’s also a group of really fast and competitive drivers pushing each other. It makes a win really matter – you know you’ve earned it.”
To receive such glowing reviews from drivers shows organisers are doing something right – and the packed grids with a diverse range of racers are also testament to that. It may not have always been plain sailing over the past 25 seasons, but F1000 and its
Jedi battlers are a force to be reckoned with once more.
“THERE’S A GROUP OF COMPETITIVE DRIVERS PUSHING EACH OTHER – IT MAKES A WIN REALLY MATTER”