AUTOSPORT begins its Formula Ford journey

Break-ups are never easy, but they are sometimes necessary. I raced in Formula Vee for five years and we had some good times together, but it was finally time to move on.

It's been three months since we said farewell to each other, and Formula Vee seems to be doing quite well without me. After all, it has plenty of other friends to fall back on.

I'm not doing too badly either. I've moved on to Formula Ford 1600 - a great contemporary rival to Formula Vee in the late 1960s and early '70s, and for some the best junior single-seater racing category ever created.

It's early days, and we're still getting to know each other. We haven't gone all the way to an actual race yet (we're taking things slowly!), but our first couple of dates (tests at Silverstone and Brands Hatch) have been interesting and fun. I think we're going to get along just fine.

We rolled our little red rocket (a Ray GRS07 previously raced by 2009 Champion of Oulton Park Stuart Gough) off the truck for the first time at Silverstone at the beginning of August.

Typically of the British summer, that meant my first exploratory laps were in the rain.

Despite the difficult conditions, I came away seriously impressed by the car. The Ray offers fantastic traction on a slippery circuit, and I can already see why they do so well in the bad weather that is typical of November's Walter Hayes Trophy showpiece event at Silverstone.

As the weather improved I worked down to low 1m4s on a damp track, but struggled to improve further in the afternoon as car (and driver!) grew increasingly tired.

I was lapping roughly one second slower than another Kent car that was rolling around at the same time. But I was on some very old tyres... The frontrunning pace on the National Circuit is 1m2s-1m3s.

I was fortunate to spend some time reviewing my onboard footage with works Porsche ace Nick Tandy during the subsequent British GT round at Brands Hatch. It became clear that I'm not yet making the most of the brakes on my car.

Disc brakes front and rear took some time getting used to © Gary Hawkins

I've got used to discs on the front and drums on the rear in Vee, whereas my Ford enjoys the luxury of discs all-round (and better tyres).

I headed to my most recent test at Brands Hatch on September 20, emboldened to try harder.

I worked down to a 52.5s lap on a damp track in the first session, but by rights my day should have already been over by that point.

Driving out of Graham Hill Bend midway through the session, I attempted to shift up from second to third gear and found first instead!

I heard the engine scream, immediately shifted back out, and pootled back to the pits.

I switched off the engine then switched back on again. Unbelievably, it ticked over without a misfire. The valves were unblemished. I had dodged a bullet.

The Gods of Kent Formula Ford must have been smiling on me that day...

Engine miraculously intact, we decided to spend the second session 'blind' testing some set-up changes on the car. My dad, Phill, would alter something without telling me; I would then drive for a few laps and offer feedback on the car's behaviour.

This was inspired by a recent conversation (featured in the first edition of AUTOSPORT Performance) with 2012 World Touring Car Champion Rob Huff, who learned all about car set-up by this method when he first drove for the factory SEAT team in the 2004 British Touring Car Championship.

Fortunately, my feedback was accurate, and this exercise did help me better understand how certain alterations affected the car's handling.

I pushed harder as we further refined our set-up in the afternoon, but a significant improvement in lap time was not forthcoming. The target was low 51s, but I couldn't escape the 52s (though I would have done had I not missed a gear on my 52.1s best lap).

Being the only Formula Ford 1600 out that day made it difficult to know where we stood. Camren Kaminsky's JTR Formula Ford Ecoboost car was lapping one second off the best he has done on new tyres, while Pietro Fittipaldi's Formula Renault BARC car was around 0.8s slower in the warmer, higher-pressure atmospherics of the afternoon compared to his own best in the morning (though Jamun team boss James Mundy said they had also altered their set-up).

So I think it's fair to say there was some time in the circuit. I think it's also fair to say there's definitely more were I to forsake my 14-month-old used tyres, and not run the car more than 10kg overweight (something we found out at the end of the day when we visited the circuit's scales).

Then there's the all-important aspect of my driving. Having reviewed it carefully, I'm pretty sure there's at least another half a second in me - in making a bit more of those braking zones (particularly at Clearways) and positioning my car better for the downhill run through Graham Hill Bend. Not to mention smoothing out those rough gearchanges...

I need to completely leave behind the Vee mentality, and the reference points it's given me over the years, to make the next step. But when you've been in the same relationship for so long it can be difficult to let go straightaway.

My new car has a successful track record so there's nowhere for me to hide. I guess old habits die hard, but they will need to if my new relationship with Formula Ford 1600 is to blossom.

KARUN'S KARTING CARNIVAL

In between these two Formula Ford exploits, I was privileged to head up AUTOSPORT's entry into ex-F1 driver Karun Chandhok's third annual charity karting event at Whilton Mill in Northamptonshire.

This was an opportunity for a mix of motorsport professionals and members of the public (invited to compete by Karun through Twitter) to race against each other while raising money for Chandhok's family-run educational programme - the Vishnu Devananda Charitable Trust - which financially supports Indian children through their schooling.

AUTOSPORT's podium hopes were dashed in a wild final

The event included teams from F1 outfits Red Bull, Lotus, Mercedes, Williams, Caterham and Marussia, plus engine builder Illmor, and junior single-seater squads iSport, Carlin and T-Sport.

The competition was broken up into two 60-minute endurance heats (each team of three drivers contested one heat) and a 40-minute grand final, for which the top 11 finishers in each heat qualified.

Three quick lads from the Titan Motorsport team went away with prize watches put up by Tag Heuer, while AUTOSPORT managed to finish ninth in the final, with yours truly joined on the driving strength by my sister Jenny (a bike racer who works as a data engineer for Carlin), and AUTOSPORT junior writer Scott Mitchell.

We thought we were in with a shout of the podium when we qualified third and finished fourth in our heat (despite a half-spin in traffic by me, and Scott getting taken off by a backmarker!), but we got battered by some crazy drivers in the early midfield melee of the final and couldn't recover the ground in an ill-handling kart.

That's our excuse anyway - and we're sticking to it!

Thanks to Karun for putting on a fun day out for a worthy cause.