Why is Formula Junior so popular as a series - yet neglected by the media?

[LYNX]

FJ is increasingly popular with competitors. This year there were over 70 entries for the Silverstone Classic and to be sure of an entry for a round of the the UK Millers Oil Championship one must enter early or often be disappointed. Yet it is often overlooked by the media when writing up a meeting or giving TV coverage (none at Goodwood this year). Could this be due to its name JUNIOR lacking impact on the imagination, though it is correct for the period?

[zefarelly]

first answer is because its a well run and managed series and cheating is not tolerated, therefore it attracts all the best racers ( IMO at least)

all historic motorsport attracts negligible press/media coverage so I don't think FJ is any different to any other series, even magazines sponsoring and actively concentrating on Historics are only really interested in the bling end, they rarely have more than one line, if that, on what might have been the race of the day if the grids not worth £10m

[esper]

you don't need media attention to have racing fun, do you?

[zefarelly]

no, not at all, but we all buy the magazines and hope we get a review or a smudge, and all we see is adverts for US over restored concours shows and Auction houses

some of us are tarts Esper, we need the ego massage

I myself have an interview with a journo tomorrow to remind him how fantastic I was at Spa . . . fantastic at Drinking beer on Saturday night that is!

[john ruston]

Ragbag's race series is probably one of the best and has been for the past ten years.It can be cheap,if you want it to be.It does not have blatent cheating although I am surprised at the difference in no.of tubes in some 22's compared with others.It does have lightweight bodywork and other bits but not much.I remember about five years ago people stared using titanium in engines but that seems to have gone away.Buy Historic Motor Racing News and you can read reports but there is no decent reporting of any Historic Racing anywhere else.

[rogerwills]

Originally Posted by zefarelly

no, not at all, but we all buy the magazines and hope we get a review or a smudge, and all we see is adverts for US over restored concours shows and Auction houses

some of us are tarts Esper, we need the ego massage

I myself have an interview with a journo tomorrow to remind him how fantastic I was at Spa . . . fantastic at Drinking beer on Saturday night that is!

Zef, I was a witness to your performance on the beer. Tell him to contact me to ensure he gets a properly balanced view!

[zefarelly]

It was still reasonably balanced from my angle

at least I don't remember falling over on the way back to camp

[ensign14]

Didn't the ITV Goodwood thing concentrate on sportscars only? I don't recall a single-seater race on there. I suppose it's too difficult to explain what FJ was.

[zefarelly]

too difficult to explain it to the commentator ? yes I agree, but not all the general public are idiots

just about 80% of them

[LYNX]

The commentators at Goodwood were well informed zefarelly, I listened on the radio whilst watching - the problem seems to lay with program producers and editors who only seem interested in the celeb drivers and the cars with loads of naughts on the end.

[delta]

Two words sum up why FJ is so popular, "Duncan Rabagliati". The cars are now very expensive to buy but you can run them all front and rear engined reasonably cheap "motor racing terms". You can race every weekend all over the world. Next year is the 50th anaversary of FJ. What i find incredable is the number of cars that were built as FJ only ran from 1958 to 1962. The driving standards are very good i could go on but if anyone wants to go historic racing in single seaters then FJ should be their first choice.

[HCForums]

I saw this series last year during the Historic GP at Spa. The field then was also very healthy and it looked like a fun series.

I can't really discuss the media attention. The only historic news I can find is in Autosport (if my local shop decides to sell it), as there are not many historic series around here mediia outlets don't really report anything.

[LYNX]

HCForums, HMRN is by subscription only so you will not see it on any bookstalls. FJ is a great series to race in, but then I am biased. Yes Duncan Rabagliati has built up an amazing series but it is also a family - regardless of nationality, bank balance, gender and anything else one can think of we all belong to one family and are welcomed from first contact, plus all will pitch in to help when someone has a problem regardless of that persons likelyhood of being faster in the race. The series has a policy of no contact but that does not prevent close finishes nor exciting spectator sport - we just try and avoid crashes and bent cars.

[simon drabble]

Lynx I am not sure why you are pushing so hard for more media recognition - you have full grids and sufficient media attention in HMRN which is the only specialist current historic racing mag so short of making the national papers sport pages I am not sure what you are looking for?!!

[LYNX]

I guess I am making the point that though Historic Racing has a healthy following it is not always even handed when a meeting is portrayed to the public. Goodwood was one example in question. Yes I have singled out FJ because that is the series I know most about but it does apply to all the single seater races at Goodwood which were totally ignored by the TV coverage. I want to promote the use of Classic and Historic cars as a worthwhile venure - in Germany they are having to fight hard to prevent older cars being banned on the road. How long will it be before Historic Racing/Rally/Club runs and the pure joy of driving are seen as antisocial and banned. Now is the time to raise awareness of our motoring heritage. Back on theme - if there is no publicity to the general public, however successful a series is, it will not be valued outside a small circle of enthusiasts.

[TorqueWench]

Originally Posted by simon drabble

Lynx I am not sure why you are pushing so hard for more media recognition - you have full grids and sufficient media attention in HMRN which is the only specialist current historic racing mag so short of making the national papers sport pages I am not sure what you are looking for?!!

I must say I think that maybe what she would like is a little more general recognition for Duncan's huge efforts - and in the Jubilee year next season even more so! Maybe the problem is that there is SO MUCH to cover!

Race reports in Autosport do occur, especially when Marcus has been at the meeting, which is mainly the case, and the coverage is as much as any race at a meeting gets, not noticably less.

Perhaps Motorsport News and Autosport could have some coverage of the Championships (and Series) for Juniors in the coming doldrum months when there's only rallying to cover (and RoC)

[simon drabble]

I think if you look at the success of HSCC, Goodwood and Silverstone Classic domestically and in Europe Monaco, Le Mans Classic, Spa etc it is pretty unlikely that historic racing is going to be under any threat. The only threat to the success of historic racing is actually the number of race series being established which possibly could dilute grids.

Single seater historic racing gets as much publicity as closed wheel in the mags that count. General public prefer cars that they can relate to being on the road which is why saloon and GT cars in both modern and historic race series are the best supported. Good luck on your crusade!

[John Elwin]

TorqueWench has hit the nail on the head by suggesting the problem is that there is now so much to cover. I don't have any figures to prove it but we must have reached a situation where there are at least as many cars/drivers involved in historic motorsport as there are in modern stuff. Not so long ago a purely historic meeting was relatively unusual - nowadays, as a spectator, you could go racing every week-end & never see a modern event!

The regular classic magazines tend to be monthlies, so short of filling the whole magazine with race reports can never really do it justice, & the weeklies of course have their hands full with F1 & the like. As a freelancer covering events I know how difficult it is to get coverage into magazines. For instance, a certain publication allowed me 300 words to cover the Spa Six Hours meeting a couple of years ago; with 18 races on the agenda that just about allowed me to list the race winners!

Over the years there have been one or two attempts at launching new magazines but they have usually failed due to lack of support. Is the historic sport/industry now big enough to support it's own dedicated publication? (And yes, I am aware of MNRN...).

[TorqueWench]

Originally Posted by John Elwin

I don't have any figures to prove it but we must have reached a situation where there are at least as many cars/drivers involved in historic motorsport as there are in modern stuff.

It is, of course, the only area of motorsport that is always growing...discuss!

[TorqueWench]

Originally Posted by John Elwin

Over the years there have been one or two attempts at launching new magazines but they have usually failed due to lack of support. Is the historic sport/industry now big enough to support it's own dedicated publication? (And yes, I am aware of MNRN...).

Could the "lack of coverage" also be because historic racers tend to be privately funded individuals, without sponsors (or sponsored by their own businesses) and therefore go racing despite the lack of coverage that a professional (modern-day) team would require to go racing. So teams that run in, say, Britcar or GTs can only run where there is coverage for their sponsors; racers who go classic racing are there because they can afford it?

Again...discuss

[LYNX]

Though many of us would welcome sponsorship, for the series if not the individual, it is very time consuming and nigh on impossible to achieve. FIA races cost so much to put on that without a full grid either the racers dip into their pockets again or the association, club etc takes a financial hit. Certainly the FI circus manage to take the lions share, but is that down to clever marketing rather than the spectacle itself?

[simon drabble]

I dont wont to sell the average historic racer short but the day that we come close to putting on a spectatcle like a Grand Prix meeting we will deserve the sponsorship that they get!
Historic racing is an amateur clubbie sport that gets as much media attention as it deserves in the full context of motor racing. Goodwood gets more publicity than any other historic meeting because it puts on a great show to the punters and is glamorous. The average historic (along with any other clubbie) race meeting is massive fun to race in but pretty dull to watch.

[henk4]

Originally Posted by zefarelly

first answer is because its a well run and managed series and cheating is not tolerated, therefore it attracts all the best racers ( IMO at least)

all historic motorsport attracts negligible press/media coverage so I don't think FJ is any different to any other series, even magazines sponsoring and actively concentrating on Historics are only really interested in the bling end, they rarely have more than one line, if that, on what might have been the race of the day if the grids not worth £10m

About cheating..remember the outcome of the Monaco 2006 Historic GP? Ask Denis Welch....

How much media coverage are modern support races currently getting? Do we get to see any of the junior formula championships? Only the Marlboro Masters got some coverage...People want to focus on the glorified heroes in F1, and I don't think it was different 40-50 years ago, which is reflected in the current media attention. And at many current historic events all attention goes to the celebrities rather than the cars, which are mainly "vehicles" to move them around the track.

But I am really looking forward to Monaco next year...

[zefarelly]

Originally Posted by simon drabble

short of making the national papers sport pages I am not sure what you are looking for?!!

two full pages with colour pictures in the Telegraph/Times/Guardian every Saturday AND Sunday, just to get a good spread of opinion from both sides of the fence

I don't think thats unreasonable, and probably far more informative than some of the tosh they publish.

[john ruston]

What would a sponsor get out of backing Historic Racing? Nothing or come to that any of other types of racing except F1.The only other advertising race series is NASCAR which is run and sold as a package better than F1'
Historic Racing compares to Sunday morning football and gets the same coverage and the Haymarkets of the world would give it more coverage if it sold one more mag.Goodwood is a biz that sells itself very well and uses old cars as a platform.The bit about TV coverage is a blind ally because joe public like celebs and money thats why Hallo sells so many copies.Thats why you do not get FJ coverage. it was entertainment and sold as such,not a thing for old car coggers