The series ran for six years from 1958 kickstart the careers of some of the world’s most celebrated drivers
Autosport International will take place at the NEC Birmingham, from 11-14 January 2018*
The Historic Sports Car Club's feature at Autosport International will include a line-up of iconic Formula Junior cars to celebrate 60 years since the open wheel racing series’ inception at the NEC Birmingham from 11th-14th January 2018.
First adopted in October 1958, the class was intended to provide an entry level where drivers could use inexpensive mechanical components from ordinary road-going cars. In its six short years, the design span covered the major progression of racing car evolution from ladder frame front-engined cars. The cars on display at the HSCC stand will show how much race car design advanced during this short period.
The display is set to feature a Formula Junior car from each year of the championship, including a Stanguellini - representing the marque that won the very first Formula Junior race at Monza in April 1958 and a 1961 Lotus 18 from Classic Team Lotus - the car that Jim Clark drove for the team.
Although Formula Junior only existed until 1963, it continues to be one of the most popular of all historic racing categories, with huge worldwide interest in the category for 1100cc single-seater racing cars.
Jim Clark, John Surtees, Jochen Rindt, Mike Spence, Mike Hailwood, Graf Wolfgang Von Trips, Gerhard Mitter, Lorenzo Bandini, Peter Revson, Giancarlo Baghetti and Howden Ganley, were just some of the names to start their careers in the series.
The 2018 season is a particularly special year for Formula Junior, as the category’s 60th year is also the final season of an unrivalled three-year Diamond Jubilee World Tour. The Tour, which has already visited Australia and New Zealand, South Africa and North America, will finally conclude at the Silverstone Classic in July.
Further details on all of the cars on display on the HSCC stand at Autosport International will be announced in due course.
AutoClassics Global editor-in-chief, David Lillywhite, said: “We're delighted that our media partnership with Autosport International kicks off with such an incredible display of the very cars that so many great drivers started out in – and which still provide such entertaining racing 60 years on. We can't wait to see them lined up on the HSCC stand, and to be featuring them in AutoClassics during 2018.”
CEO of the Historic Sports Car Club, Grahame White, said: “I am really pleased that the HSCC stand theme will be celebrating 60 years of Formula Junior at Autosport International in January. It is a great category of historic racing providing superb grids, many different makes of cars and very close and exciting racing, not to mention being where many famous drivers started their careers.”
Duncan Rabagliati of the FJHRA, said: “2018 is also the 25th anniversary of the Formula Junior Historic Racing Association and the race at Mallory Park in 1993 when FJHRA and HSCC first came together to save the Historic Formula Junior race series. It is truly fitting that we should both be celebrating the success of this great little Formula, 25 years later.”
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