Martin Galpin | Racing Driver | number66.net

I have made no secret of my desire to race something else at some point during this year. After I failed to secure the budget necessary to race in Formula Palmer Audi I was left wondering: what am I doing? Where I am going? I’ve thought about it since Mallory Park and what I need I need is a goal, one which is achievable.

However hard it is to believe, it is already mid-June and so finding a one-off drive in another series would be difficult, especially in a competitive car. Therefore, the only logical option is a winter series or one-off event.

And now, without further ado, I’d like to announce that it is my intention to contest the Formula Ford 1600 Festival at Brands Hatch later this year.

Of the options available to me, it makes near perfect sense and this is why.

First, I feel that it is a saleable proposition. Whilst Formula Ford may have a lower profile now than it has in the past, the Formula Ford brand remains strong. People without a particular interest in motorsport usually recognise the name, if not the cars. More often than not, the Formula Ford Festival itself is also familiar. Similarly, the festival nature (dog eat dog knockout) means that opportunities for hospitality at the event are of more interest than single race weekends. Again, despite it not being the world event it was during the eighties, there is still a noticeable amount of notoriety to be gained from winning it – even in the Duratec age.

Whilst Formula Ford 1600 is comparatively faster than a UK Formula Vee, at Brands Hatch the difference is actually relatively small. As an example, if I were to enter my GAC01 Formula Vee, I would be confident of qualifying in the upper second half of a hypothetical 1600 grid. The point being: after little testing, I feel I would be on the pace and be competitive come the Festival.

Finally, although far from insignificant, the required budget is realistically attainable. I’ll divulge more details on this in at a later date but for the time being, the ratio between cost, impact, competitiveness and achievability is about right.

So how am I going to do this? Well, I’ll be honest: I’m approaching this with nothing. I have a lot of talk, a lot of ideas but to make the grid in October, everything I do will need to be monetarised. Part of my plans is the Festival Fever series, of which this is the first entry. I hope that over the next 120 days it will provide an interesting insight into raising a commercial motorsport budget, every step of the way and to detail which I have never before seen.

It makes sense to present my next steps before I close this entry. The following is a brief critical path of what I want to achieve over the next two weeks.

Next steps: From the beginning.

This is the reality of motorsport.

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