Formula Junior

Our third character is Cosworth.

They are an engine maker specializing in Formula Junior and Formula 2 racing at the time.

Those are both feeder series for Formula 1.

You, uh, driver would race in those before they got their big boy Formula 1 seat.

They're still pals.

So naturally, when these new regulations show up, and Lotus needs a new engine, they reach out to Cosworth to see what's possible.

Cosworth is already building engines for Formula Junior, using an inline four engine called the Ford Kent.

They're very successful in it.

Yeah.

This is a driver who, in his first car race, the first car race he's ever attended, he's in, in a Formula Junior race in the Goodwood members' meeting, and he's there at the front of the grid, and he's dicing with, admittedly, a young Jim Clark, who is not yet the Jim Clark we know, but...

This driver who's basically racing on his spare time when he's not racing for MV Augusta on bikes is right there at the front.

Yeah,

And I think it's something that's funny.

The historic racing has been instrumental in my transition to GT3s because the first time I sat in, this was at Alton Park a few years ago, I was racing a car, a Lotus 22 Formula Junior for the owner and the owner hadn't driven the car.

And I was explaining to him how fantastic it was to drive, how special the noise is, the way it moved around.

And he wasn't there.

And then beneath that, I would say Goodwood and a historic racing car for sure, because the walls are very close.

The grass is there.

You go into Formula Junior around Goodwood.

If I only had two or three more laps, that would be where I would like to drive.