Column: Joey Foster
Iam really enjoying being back on the Formula Ford 1600 scene more regularly this year and, after the Covid-prompted delays of last season, it is great to be able to get my teeth into a proper programme. I did do a couple of races last year. I did some of the National rounds with the Firman chassis, the RFR20, which was an updated version of the original RFR16 chassis that Luke Williams used to win the National Formula Ford Championship in 2017.
I had raced a Ray in National Formula Ford for a few seasons and I just wanted a change, which is why we switched to the Ralph Firmanbuilt car. I have done lots of testing for Ralph for his F1000 cars and F2000 cars which he sells to America and all the time, I was nagging him to build a Formula Ford 1600 car again.
I tried hard to convince him and eventually he did and Luke did really well with it. At the time, I wasn’t in a position to use the chassis but when Luke’s car came up for sale, the timing was right for me. The car is run by Don Hardman and Keith Bodicoat, who have looked after my cars for ages – almost 20 years.
Ralph Firman helps a lot too and I have been to see him recently. We have been working out how to get the most from the RFR20. While it is fantastically quick –
Luke proved that by winning the title – it still needs some refinement.
We are trying to make it easier to set up when the conditions change. It is rapid in the dry and it can be sporadically quick in the wet – I was on pole in the wet at Silverstone last year in the Walter Hayes Trophy and again at Silverstone in the wet this year – there is quite a big change between the two in terms of what you have to do to the car. While the car is good, I think we can make it even better and that is why we have been just off the pace in recent rounds. We have been chasing ourselves with set-up really, and we need to stop doing that. We have probably gone the wrong way a bit.
Working with Ralph is great. We push each other along and he still has such an enthusiasm for it. He is always at the races with spares and he is always on the phone after the rounds to find out exactly what has happened. He is always there to help if we need parts made or fabricated. His passion for Formula Ford is as strong as ever.
Formula Ford is a category I simply love. I was quite wrapped up in my online furniture business Roseland and it is doing really well. It has taken off since 2010 and I got married too, which means I have been very occupied. I had to put my own driving on the back seat for a while.
I am 39 years old and I am there to enjoy my motorsport, and I love the close racing in Formula Ford. I always have. I would race wheelbarrows or lawnmowers if it was competitive.
What really draws me in to Formula Ford and what I believe motor racing should be is that it is not just driver vs driver, it is a formula for team, engineers and designers too. The category has been around for years and there are all kinds of chassis out there but there is still room to find a tweak or a set-up that can find you a couple of tenths of a second per lap. You can work away at it.
That is why I love it.
I think some people might underestimate how competitive FF1600 still is. I was speaking to [rival racer] Alex Walker’s dad recently. He had taken some karters to an FF1600 race and they turned around and said ‘why didn’t we know about this category? It looks fantastic’. They wanted to get involved.
I know young drivers come through the ranks and they want wings and flappy paddle gear changes, but there is a lot to be said for the basics of Formula Ford.
My aim this year is to become the first man to win the Formula Ford Festival three times, and to become a four-time winner of the Walter Hayes Trophy. We have some new bits coming for the car and we will try those out to see if they work and get ready for the blue riband events at the end of the year. It is a tall order given how close the pack is, but it is not going to stop me pushing as hard as I can.
“Some people underestimate how competitive FF1600 remains to this day”