Picture courtesy of Reilly Studios


The F4 championship is run by the 750 Motor Club and typically has 12-14 rounds per season held at well know circuits such as Silverstone & Brands Hatch etc.
F4 is an exciting series for single seater type racing cars, and has 4 main classes:

Class A – Cars built within F4 regulations after 1st January 1995 (Using Ford Pinto and Zetec, Renault 2L 8V and production 4 stroke motorcycle engines), all Vauxhall Lotus and F3 derived cars.

Class A2 – Motorcycle engine powered ‘Revelation’ type cars running to original spec.

Class B – Essentially as Class A, but built before 1st January 1995

Class C – Formula Ford Zetec cars (my class)



2009
With the finish of the 2008 Locost Championship, Paulio Racing began a new chapter by entering the National F4 Championship.
This began with a few preliminary runs at airfields/ circuits in winter 2008 to acclimatize to the new car, before full preparations for the 2009 season began.
Due to a lack of funding, we only had a quick shakedown, then had to launch straight into the season, learning the car as we went on.
Thankfully, we got to grips with the thoroughbred car quickly enough to lead the Class C Championship from the first meeting onwards.
After a very busy year with a steep learning curve, (having set 3 lap records in the process) we finally sealed the Class C Championship title at Oulton Park with 2 rounds still left to go at Snetterton.




Picture courtesy of Steve Prior





2010
After the 2009 season, the RF98 had a through stripdown & re-build over winter as we looked to maintain excellent reliability whilst making a few performance improvements.

We entered the 2010 season with high expectations & a title to defend.
Thankfully, we remained competitive & had climbed to the top of Class C standings after round 4.

The season nearly ended early for us at Brands Hatch, with a big crash sending the car briefly airborne and finishing up in the pitwall, resulting in a spinal board trip to A&E.
Luckily there was no serious personal injury & we managed to re-build the damaged car ready just in time for the following meeting at Cadwell Park where we took 2 Class victories.

This success continued with several class wins and resulted in us winning the F4 Class C Championship for the second year running with 2 races in hand.