RADICAL MOVES FOR NEW SINTER FORMULA FORD
James Abbott will pilot the Sinter Formula Ford for the new Radical team. Photo: www.jakobebrey.com
Formula Ford’s newest team, Radical, has opted to race the new Sinter chassis in the forthcoming season of the Dunlop MSA Formula Ford Championship of Great Britain. Nineteen-year-old James Abbott will drive the new contender, as well as playing a key role in its development and preparation.
Radical boss Phil Abbott says the decision to opt for the Norfolk-built chassis was an easy one: “We visited Lindsay Allen’s workshops and were impressed by the detail of the engineering of the Sinter, and by his team’s attitude and will to win.
“We feel the Sinter offers us scope to help with the development and, of course, it is a British product – anyone who bemoans the decline in British racing car design and manufacture needs to put their money where their mouth is, and we are happy to do so.”
Radical has also announced that former British F3 Champion Robbie Kerr has joined the team as driver coach. “The most important thing with a driver coach is their relationship with the driver, and Robbie and James get along exceptionally well. Robbie is a very focused individual, keen on winning, and that fits in very well with the Radical way of doing things.”
The team hopes to take delivery of the first customer Sinter by the end of January and to start its testing programme shortly after.
Sinter boss Lindsay Allen says he could not be more pleased to have Radical as a customer: “It will be valuable to have a team of Radical’s calibre helping us to develop the new chassis. I have known members of the team for many years, and I know their capabilities – it is a strong package.”
Allen says interest in the Sinter is running high and he hopes to be in a position to announce further customer deals soon.
James 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. Last year he drove a V8-engined Radical and took part in his first single-seater races, in the F3 Cup, scoring class podiums.
The opening rounds of the 2013 Dunlop MSA Formula Ford Championship take place at Brands Hatch over the Easter weekend (30/31 March), supporting the exciting Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship. Each of the season’s 10 race weekends will be televised live on ITV4.
The three Brands Hatch races will be the first for the new EcoBoost 200, the world’s most technically advanced junior single-seater car. Increased power from the turbocharged engine allied to the introduction of aerodynamic front and rear wings, one of the biggest technical advances in the championship’s history, will transform the car into the UK’s fastest junior single-seater.
