UKFF Zetec grids picking up

[Bagodonuts]

Pleased to say things may be on the up for the National FF Championship, now I know most of you are loyal Kent 1600 supporters but I think this is great for FF racing and the sport in general. At Brands Hatch this past weekend there was a field of 17 cars who took the grid... definitely one of the largest grids thus far. Also rumour has it there is already 28 cars signed up for the LMES meeting at Silverstone on the GP circuit mid-August (I think). The Festival is said to be looking very strong this year with many European FF-Zetec cars to be in the mix.

Coupled with rumours of many teams being unhappy with F-BMW and BMW likely to pull out at the end of its current contract to the series... could we maybe see Formula Ford back to the best entry series for young drivers and grids of the old days? Obviously only time will tell and it will be a hard process in which things need to be done right each step of the way. I hope Ford take full advantage of these opportunities as I think a strong National FF Championship will be good for everyone in FF. Any thoughts on this?

[Ian Sowman]

The UKFF grids were up at the weekend because the Rockingham Clubmans FF1800 race was cancelled and a few switched to Brands. Likewise, the Silverstone LMES is a round of both championships.

[JohnMiller]

I sincerely hope that National FF picks up, but I'm struggling to see it right now.

[Triple J Motorsport]

"Coupled with rumours of many teams being unhappy with F-BMW and BMW likely to pull out at the end of its current contract to the series"

Can you say more?

Look at the number of drivers with C-championship or S-Scholarship by there name the rest are G-Guests who have been offered with good deals to make the grid more than a hand full of cars

[runshaw]

Originally Posted by Bagodonuts

could we maybe see Formula Ford back to the best entry series for young drivers and grids of the old days? Obviously only time will tell and it will be a hard process in which things need to be done right each step of the way. I hope Ford take full advantage of these opportunities as I think a strong National FF Championship will be good for everyone in FF. Any thoughts on this?

I sincerly hope National FF gets back to the old days, it is such a well respected ch'ship and has brought so many drivers through to the pinnacle of motorsport. The days of 2003 seem a long time ago, when the junior championship merged with the senior one, giving grids of 30 runners or thereabouts, never dropping below 22 runners if I remember correctly during that year. The racing is just so much better than in the other entry formulas, so it is the place to be to learn about race craft and running nose to tail all the way through a race. Next year the national series is getting a newer engine, 1600cc Duratec. Hope the fresh start will bolster this ch'ship back to where it belongs. On that note, does anyone know if it will be called UKFF Duratec or just UKFF? I can't see it being known as UKFF1600.

[Triple J Motorsport]

FFSigma I would think

[JohnMiller]

Originally Posted by runshaw

The days of 2003 seem a long time ago, when the junior championship merged with the senior one, giving grids of 30 runners or thereabouts

What about 2000/1 when you had two grids totalling 60 runners or so?

Also, I think RayFF is right and they are unlikely to rename it FF Duratec.

In fact, I would rather doubt they will change its name from what it is now: "Formula Ford."

[Triple J Motorsport]

2002 when I started racing FFZetec we had nearly full grid of UKFFC running with touring cars full grid of Juniors mostly racing with F3 package and nearly full gird of SFFC and less popular NFFC plus the Scottish FFZetec now effectively we have UKFFC and Avon clubman combined plus Scottish FFZetec.

[runshaw]

Originally Posted by JohnMiller

What about 2000/1 when you had two grids totalling 60 runners or so?

Well yes, I just meant that if you look at what they have now (about 10 full-time UK runners) compared to just 2 seasons ago, when FBMW wasn't on the scene.