The programme is headed by sports car driver David Brabham (son of three-times World Champion Jack Brabham) and aims to develop drivers with the skills they need to progress throughout their careers,  such as physical training, mind coaching, career management, sponsorship generation, promotion and media presentation.

A second tier to the programme was added for 2008 and the MSA British Race Academy give six other drivers access to similar facilities but whom are at earlier stages of their careers (this arguably, is more appropriate to me). The chosen Academy drivers were Jack Clarke (finishing 4th in Formula Palmer Audi), James Cole (finishing 10th in British Formula Ford),  Ollie Millroy (finishing 21st in Formula BMW Europe) and Rupert Svendsen-Cook (finishing 13th in Formula BMW Europe).

In the name of transparency, I thought this year that I would post my MSA British Race Elite application online (well in advance of the 28/02 deadline).

I would like to think my application will be considered with optimism. In 2008, I didn’t really have much of a confirmed racing calendar, however this year is different. What’s more, I’d like to think that there are not many drivers applying who have won a national single seater championship, been Autosport Number 1 Club Driver of the Year and were part of major university’s Sports Bursary scheme for three years.

The Application

Personal Information

Name, Date of Birth, MSA License Number.

Statistics

Height: 179cm
Weight: 68kg
Do you smoke? No
Do you drink? No

Achievements

Academic Qualifications

University of Essex (2005-2008)
BSc Computer Science (First class)
2005, 2006 and 2007 University of Essex Sports Bursary Student

Colchester Institute (2003-2005)
BTEC National Diploma IT Practitioner

Gilberd School, Colchester (1998-2003)
GCSEs ommitted.

Racing Achievements

2007 Autosport Number One Club Driver of the Year
2007 UK Formula Vee Champion:

Formula Ford 1600 Festival:

Teams Driven For

• UK Formula Vee: AHS, GAC and Mark Dunham Racing
• British Formula Ford: Remita Racing
• Porsche 996 GT3 (Testing): Team Park Racing / Quaife / Racecar Engineering
• Formula Palmer Audi

Committed 2009 racing programme

• National Formula Ford 1600 Championship
• Midland South Formula Ford 1600 Championship
• Trophy Events:
  • BRDC Golden Helmet (Knockhill)
  • Castle Combe Carnival
  • Formula Ford 1600 Festival
  • Walter Hayes Trophy

Your Ambitions

I believe I have demonstrated my potential and I am keen now to prove myself against other talented drivers in more high profile series. I am sure that given the opportunity I could win at the highest level in single-seaters, touring cars or sports cars. In addition to this, I believe I work harder than any of young racing driver in the country both in order to fund my racing and in preparing myself physically for the year ahead.

Formula Vee has spawned champions at the highest levels before and I have prepared an appendix demonstrating how competitive Vee really is today. The data also demonstrates how successful I was in 2007 and why I believe I deserve the opportunity to take part in the MSA Race Elite scheme.

Related posts:

1. MSA announces new addition to its elite programme
2. 2009 Dunlop Race Academy – Good News for British Motorsport
3. Racing Steps Foundation: 2008 season review

When I first saw the calendar for the National Formula Ford 1600 championship, that was the impression I got. It is a true championship of the British Isles with two rounds in Wales (Anglesey, Pembrey), one round in Scotland (Knockhill), one round in Ireland (Mondello Park) and the other five in England (Snetterton, Silverstone and Castle Combe).

And for me at least, that means a lot of travel.

Nobody really wants to race at the same circuit every weekend and in having a diverse calendar not only gives a championship more credibility but in theory, it also gives itself the widest possible audience of competitors (the likely case in National Formula Ford 1600). But the question is this: does there come a point in which the sheer amount of traveling involved in a championship undermines the motivation to compete?

I decided I’d take a look at the other single seater championships in Britain and see how they compare.

Calculate your own season travel costs using this tool

To collect this data I have created a simple tool that given a post code and a calendar of races, gives an estimate to the likely travel costs. You can find this tool (and try it for yourself) here: Link to Calculate Season Travel Cost Tool.

Comparing the Data

So, from the six main single seater championships this year, National Formula Ford 1600, for me at least, involves the most significant amount of travel, from the second smallest number of meetings. In fact, if I was to substitute my home address for say, Manchester, there would be no difference in outcome (4169 miles).

What’s more, in National Formula Ford 1600, trips to Ireland, Scotland and Wales generally mean three day weekends and therefore, hotels. And so the real figure is actually likely to be much higher indeed.

You might be thinking that £751.79 doesn’t seem that much money, especially considering how much it costs to compete in motorsport in the first place. But it isn’t the amount itself that is important, it is the number relative to other series.

In a year in which the UK economy is officially in recession, is it sensible that the National Formula Ford 1600 championship has 35% more travel than its British Formula Ford counterpart (bearing in mind that National Formula Ford is supposedly an affordable “club” championship)?

Either way: right or wrong, smart or dumb, that’s how it is and as I’d like to challenge for the title, I will have to find a way. But it does make you wonder, doesn’t it?

Related posts:

1. Tools
2. Formula Ford: About Pembrey
3. Who is the most successful country in motorsport and F1?

Motor racing is a rich man’s sport. Remember that. That isn’t derogatory, it’s fact. It always has been and probably always will be. It just is not feasible any other way. Racing cars are expensive and even in the junior series of Formula Three or GP2 the cars are at the forefront of aerodynamic, composite and tyre technology. It cannot be inexpensive, there is no way.

Let’s throw down a marker. Just how expensive am I talking? Well, as you would expect there are no exact figures and a budget in any championship varies depending on whether it is with an established team or not. For argument’s sake we’ll assume you want to win. A season within the Lloyds TSB British Formula Three International Series, with an established front running team, you realistically should be expecting to raise no less than £300,000. That’s not just difficult, it’s damn near impossible.

So how is it that in Formula Three, year after year, grids are so near their capacity? I recall a conversation with Formula Two star of the past, Peter Wardle, in which he suggested that not a single driver on the current British Formula Three grid had genuinely raised their budget through sponsorship. That doesn’t mean that businesses or brands aren’t involved in their racing, because they are; what it means is that those businesses did not genuinely expect a return on their commercial investment. Usually a family member or friend has a business relationship in which this expenditure can be authorised and this expenditure justified.

Am I saying that genuine sponsorship at this level doesn’t exist? Of course not. However, what it does do is raise serious doubts as to whether even a series with as much pedigree as British Formula Three, sponsorship can achieve the sort of brand exposure necessary to justify an entire budget.

How else do young drivers raise money to race? Let’s look at Justin Wilson – star of the Champ Car World Series but a former a Grand Prix driver, International Formula 3000 champion and in 1998, he was Formula Palmer Audi champion. His career path doesn’t exactly scream wealth.

In 1998 Formula Palmer Audi was a new concept. The brainchild of Jonathan Palmer, a former Grand Prix driver himself, Formula Palmer Audi is unique in the world of motorsport. All cars are owned and maintained by the series owners and every car is prepared to an identical standard . As a result it creates as much of a level playing field as is ever possible. More importantly to us, it helps to control costs. In 1998 for just £70,000 Justin was assured a season’s racing in cars more powerful than Formula Three, for a fraction of the cost. In motorsport, that’s as good as it gets.

Then in 2001 Justin dominated International Formula 3000, the then feeder series to Formula One. How could he have raised that sort of money? Well, simple. It was his prize for winning the Formula Palmer Audi championship. There is no similar prize that exists in any series today.

Fast-forward to 2002 and Justin makes his Formula One debut with Minardi. Again, it’s another monumental change in budget because even in Formula One, generally speaking, if you’re not with a manufacturer, you have to bring money to the team – and a lot of it. However, after his success in Formula Palmer Audi and International Formula 3000, Justin was now under the management of Jonathan Palmer himself and together they had a concept which was to be revolutionary.

Justin Wilson PLC was launched in 2003 in attempt to raise £1.2 million pounds for his race seat at Minardi. The scheme offered shares in Justin, or more to the point, his future earnings and in response received huge amounts of media attention. As a result, nearly 900 shareholders each invested a minimum of £500.

Shares can no longer be purchased and after being unable to raise the finance for a race seat at Jaguar in 2004, Justin focused on the premier open-wheel championship in the US – the Champ Car World Series. After two years and three race wins he is now quite handsomely paid by his team Rusport and at the end of each year, every single one of those 900 shareholders will receive their dividend in appreciation of their faith.

So that’s two quite different approaches to raising serious budgets. The first relies almost entirely on your network of contacts and more often than not, your families. The second is ingenious – taking advantage of the free market economy which makes racing possible in the first place. However, its sustainability is limited and is therefore only effective when a racing career is relatively mature – Justin Wilson was a proven racer, he was a winner and this would see him in the pinnacle of the sport. It was fairly unlikely, for instance, that he’d fail to earn a living racing something and so it was a an investment that was not entirely without merit.

This means, unfortunately, that neither is a viable means of raising money for a young, unfunded racing driver. It’s unlikely you’ll have a friend who’s able to organise corporate patronage and it’s far too risky to start selling shares in your future earnings – as a student you may not have any significant earnings for years! Although it has been tried, albeit on a different scale and without the overwhelming success. Earlier in the year, ex-Formula BMW racer Aaron Steele sold shares in his future earnings on eBay and raised enough cash for the first half of the Formula Palmer Audi championship in 2006.

It’s easy to become cynical but in a lot of ways, the lessons it teaches you are important. Can the merits of a junior race series still be sold as commercial sponsorship? And if they can, is it enough to fulfil an entire budget or have the increases in cost finally surpassed value?

Show me another sport in which talent is useless without money. Show me another sport in which just making the entry list of a series is overcoming the greatest of hurdles. There just isn’t and this is a cruel, cruel sport but for some reason, despite all of its faults, I still love it.

Related posts:

1. The end of Formula BMW in the UK
2. Time to talk about me
3. 5 things not to ask a race driver