Radical-prepared EcoBoost 200 to join Formula Ford Championship on BTCC support seriesNineteen-year-old BRDC Rising Star James Abbott brings race-winning expertise to the grid
The Dunlop MSA Formula Ford Championship of Great Britain will welcome a new team and driver next season in the shape of sports car maker Radical and its talented 19-year-old protg James Abbott.
Ford Racing motorsport manager Mike Norton said of the signing: We are delighted to have team such as Radical join our championship. The kudos from having such a marque join the Formula Ford championship is humbling and we are very excited to welcome it on board.
With the experience that both Radical and James have in manufacturing, preparing and racing their own Radical cars, you can bet they will get on top of Formula Ford preparation very quickly.
James Abbott is among the first raft of drivers to sign up to race the UKs fastest junior single-seater; he will race a Mygale-built example of the EcoBoost 200 chassis and will be involved himself in its preparation.
I work full time on the preparation of Radicals sports cars, said James, and I fully expect to be preparing the Formula Ford car and work on it between races. I dont expect there will be many drivers on the grid with as much knowledge of their car - particularly as I have also been involved in product testing at Radical and tyre testing with Dunlop - and I hope that it will be an advantage for me.
After only five meetings of junior karting, Abbott started circuit racing in 2010 in a Radical PR6 sports car. He claimed his first race win that season, in Abu Dhabi, and went on to claim victory in the Radical Club Cup the following season with eight race victories. This season he has raced a V8-engined Radical and took part in his first single-seater races, in the F3 Cup, scoring class podiums.
Jamess father, Phil Abbott, founder of Radical Sportscars and the MD, is excited about the season ahead: For me to be involved in Formula Ford is a big thing. I always loved the glory days of the past, particularly with drivers like Michael Vergers, who became Radicals first test driver, and Andy Wallace, who is now heading up our new RXC Coup development programme.
For 2013 the new cars are pitched exactly right and look superb. I believe they will bring back the big grids and once more become the driver training ground for up and coming driver talent. Its geared towards driver skill rather than masking it with huge levels of downforce. The aero additions are just enough to give drivers a taste of whats to come and to learn the basics of setting a car up to maximise their potential. To my mind the wings are spot on and completely proportional for a young driver in the early stages of a single-seater career, and that is why I have signed James up to the championship.
The Formula Ford EcoBoost 200, which will race for the first time next Easter, will be the quickest junior single-seater in the UK thanks to a remapped engine producing in excess of 200 PS. The chassis is equipped with a fully adjustable aerodynamic package, FIA safety compliant chassis, Formula 3-specification six-speed sequential gearbox and on-board data logging and track mapping.
Formula Ford has signed to support the UKs premier motorsport package, the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship, for the next three seasons. The deal includes live TV at each of the 10 events, broadcast on ITV4.
The first 15 drivers to sign up to contest the Dunlop MSA Formula Ford Championship of Great Britain will receive free championship registration and race entries for 2013, as well as free pre-event testing.
