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Chris Keller Heads To Formula Ford's 40th Anniversary Race At Road America As Defending Champion
Chris Keller, last year’s Formula Ford Festival champion, will defend his place on the podium this weekend as he heads to one of the country’s most legendary road courses, Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisc., for Formula Ford’s 40th Anniversary celebration.
Along with a first-place finish in last year’s event, Keller also garnered top honors as the SCCA Formula Ford Runoffs Champion as well as winning that club’s “Rookie of the Year” Award, along with being bestowed the prestigious “Mark Donohue Award” given to Keller for outstanding performance, sportsmanship and competitiveness at the Runoffs. Driving once again for Neil Porter in this year’s Formula Ford Festival, Keller hopes to repeat his success from 2008.
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“I’m happy to be back on Neil Porter’s crew for Formula Ford’s 40th Anniversary,” stated Keller of this exciting opportunity. “It will allow me to help keep the competition level up as the defending champion, but will also give me some great seat time as I prepare for a jump to the IRL Firestone Indy Lights Series in 2010. I have worked really hard to get this program together, and want to thank Goodyear for providing tires for this event.”
One of the finest small formula car categories ever invented, and long recognized as the training ground of choice for future F1, IndyCar, and prototype sports car drivers, Formula Ford has produced more stars than any other entry-level class.
World Driving Champions Ayrton Senna, Emerson Fittipaldi, James Hunt, Nigel Mansell, Damon Hill, Jody Scheckter, Mika Hakkinen and Michael Schumacher all drove Formula Fords. IndyCar drivers Michael Andretti, Danny Sullivan, Jimmy Vasser, John Paul Jr., Eddie Cheever Jr., Paul Tracy and Dan Weldon all learned their race craft in Formula Fords. Sports Car Champions James Weaver, Andy Wallace, JJ Lehto, Stefan Johansson, Jan Lammers, Geoff Brabham and Didier Theys all raced Formula Fords. Designers like Ferrari’s Rory Byrne, Williams’ Patrick Head, Reynard’s Adrian Reynard, and Swift’s David Bruns all penned Formula Fords early in their careers. The list is virtually endless and the one common denominator is Formula Ford.
Three generations of Formula Fords will be racing at Road America. The burgeoning Monoposto Racing group will host an event for Historic Formula Fords (1969 – 1974). Second generation cars (1975 – 1981) will be featured in the always well-supported East vs. West Challenge series race for Club Fords. The feature event for current generation Formula Fords will be in conjunction with a Central Division SCCA National Points Championship race. Marques represented include Crossle, Lola, Titan, Reynard, Van Diemen, Swift, Citation, Tiga, and Piper, all powered by the Ford 1600cc Kent Bold engine.
The Festival will also include opportunities to mingle with past National Champions, engine builders, chassis manufacturers and more. Vintage Formula Ford feature races will run on Saturday and Sunday.
The three-day event is tentatively scheduled to begin on Friday July 24 with test sessions for all cars entered for the weekend. The weekend’s event schedule will include practice, qualifying and races for all three generations of Formula Fords, as well as a full slate of SCCA national classes with the Milwaukee Region's Cat National event.
So whatever else your race plans are for 2009, whether driver, crew, spectator, or race worker, be sure to put the date July 24-26 at Road America on your calendar. It will be one great 40th birthday celebration of the Champions Class, Formula Ford.
PaddockTalk Perspective
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