Foster Sells Shares in Him Self

[darcym]

Read in the Sun today (ok probably lies) That Joey Foster has got 50K secured for his FRenault drive next year and is close to getting the rest. He turned down various F3 offers because of Budget problems. He has decided to go the Justin Wilson route and start selling shares in himself know to get a head start in getting the money for F3...then F(X) assuming all goes well.

Does anyone know how true this is ?

Is it a good idea (it looks quite risky as it could go really well, or crash really bad - no inbetween) but has a few drawbacks.

I suppose a lot will ride on how well he goes in FRenault next year.

Good luck to him !

[big ears]

I have read in autosport today that he is going to do this. It should be interesting to see if he get enough takers. I hope he does

[Russfeld]

Even if he won every single race next year, how could you justify to investors that he'd get a paying F1 ride, with enough salary for you to at least break even on your investment.

[bella]

couldn't think of anything original, eh?

surely there's an easier way to appeal to mr average on the street.

[kickstart]

Fair play to the lad, if he has managed to raise £50K towards his season next year in the present economic climate then I wish him the very best.

[Bobie]

Regardless of whether he has raised the money or not, is it really a good idea to do a Justin Wilson as it has not helped really now has it! Plus the investors won't see a return on there money in my opinion.

[Fred]

Originally posted by Bobie
Regardless of whether he has raised the money or not, is it really a good idea to do a Justin Wilson as it has not helped really now has it! Plus the investors won't see a return on there money in my opinion.

I would hazard a guess here and say that most of Wilsons 'investors' were buying the dream rather than expecting a return. I didn't have the money but I wonder if the 'investment' still pays out if JW goes on to make a succesful career in other categories than F1 ?

If he was as succesful as, say, Steve Soper or one of the other BMW elite, ( let alone NASCAR )he might be dissappointed but not unhappy ? If the same applied to JF would that constitute a return on investment ?

Notable that in todays Autospit, Luke Hines was being mentioned in connection with a works drive in the BTCC so his single seater aspirations have evidentally taken a back seat ( groan ). Do you have to be in open wheel cars to be a success ?

[littleman]

This concept isn't new,I know of several drivers who've tried the same idea before.Justin Wilson just happened to get alot of press, courtesy of JP, but made the mistake of not seeking substantially more money.Red Bull made his resources look like peanuts.Foster needs to get his proposal right or it could be a disaster.Firstly he'll need to form a limited company,decide how many shares to issue and at what price,and give some indication of potential revenue flows over a given period.It's virtually impossible to supply that information when you are 'only' racing at FR level.In my view he needs a substantially stronger CV before attempting this route.Also,if he gets the share issue wrong he could find he places his career in the hands of someone else.

[bella]

i can think of other people i'd rather invest a nights worth of my wages on, to be completely honest. it's the sort of thing you'd look at after renaults really, not before. unless you have some really rich relatives who need some sort of gimmick to open their wallets i suppose.

i think littleman's right though.

and back to what fred said, you need to do saloon cars and sports cars to have a career and earn some money, but if you actually want to be famous you have to do single seaters. depends what your definition of success is really. someone paying you to drive for them or someone knowing who you are in the street...

[Mackmot]

I heard he was asking for 1000, £500 shares

[GTRMagic]

Wont the British stock exchanges get sick of these proposals?

The first few will be ok, but when they dont deliver the financial performance in their prospectuses, surely there will be some kind of rules put into place to prevent people from selling themselves this way.

For example, if Justin Wilson gets no other paying gig next season, how will the investors ever receive a dividend?

The causes may be noble, the execution no better than selling tea trees for a tax writeoff...

[pmaster]

There are many types of ways to do this, the details will be available in the New Year. Foster has his 2004 budget sorted, fair do's, and his management are looking for his 2005 F3 A class budget through this offer now.

[Fred]

and back to what fred said, you need to do saloon cars and sports cars to have a career and earn some money, but if you actually want to be famous you have to do single seaters. depends what your definition of success is really. someone paying you to drive for them or someone knowing who you are in the street... [/B][/QUOTE]

Interesting to remember a quote from Sir FW when he said that the NASCAR drivers earned too much money for him to consider employing one in F1 ( thats a paraphrase ). Amusing when you consider the money in F! ?

I think the aim has to be to make a living from driving and continue healthily afterwards. If you are fortunate and skillfull you do it in single seaters.

[Scott Moyse]

seems like bella has a thorn in his side! shouldn't the veteran's be supporting the young guns? not subduing them!! It's old news anyway now as he's made it into Formula 3 next year from what i hear! Good luck to the man! He should be whooping some butt next year. His performance in the formula renault winter series and F3 testing this winter was v encouraging

[GTRMagic]

Bella, being a she not a he, would likely be right on this occassion. I think the publicity around the Justin Wilson float will lead to all sorts of people being touted around for money in a share float.

[Mathias]

darcym, my old sparring partner, you thinking of selling yourself then? What have you got planned for this season? If I buy enough shares, will you stop moaning about the-website-that-cannot-be-named?!

[pmaster]

Scotty youre a bit out of touch, Foster is doing Renault with MotaWorld according to the press. Anyway how is the weather in New Zealand at this time of year? By the way, the shares booked before his offer goes public already amount to a substantial figure if the rumours are to be believed, so F3 may still be an option for 2004.

[Instructor]

It just shows how good racers are having to prostitute themselves just to take the next step in a career path.
It has I am told, always been thus.

We have so many really good racers on the way up.
Joey is cetainly at the forefront.

I am one of many who wish him the best.

Best regs
Steve L

[RyanSharpFan]

Although the Justin Wilson share scheme sold out, and joeys probably will, the bubble will have to burst, there is only a limited number of people willing to invest and some unlucky driver is going to find this out the hard way when they rely on a share scheme to get funding and it fails miserably

[Fred]

Originally posted by Instructor
It just shows how good racers are having to prostitute themselves just to take the next step in a career path.
It has I am told, always been thus.

Why is it prostituting yourself ? Is it not a duty of a driver to be able to sell himself and his abilities ?

Perhaps the biggest irony in motorsport is that essentially it is a rich mans sport that is sold to ( relatively ) poor people. To get on in that sport you have to have the funding, or connections to people who can supply funding.
Ability ( or talent, if you prefer )can take you so far but funding, of whatever sort, is the most important ingredient. The rest is just romantic dreaming used to sell the 'sport' to a wider audience.