{"id":490417,"date":"2008-12-01T15:00:40","date_gmt":"2008-12-01T15:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportscardigest.com\/\/?p=49379"},"modified":"2024-12-27T03:06:41","modified_gmt":"2024-12-27T03:06:41","slug":"early-days-ff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/early-days-ff\/","title":{"rendered":"The Early Days of FF"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='memberful-global-teaser-content'>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">My first exposure to Formula Ford came as a lot of us began hearing about how neat it was in Britain, and certainly in 1968 I was aware of all the car importers and the future American manufacturers getting started in the class. By 1968, my career racing sports cars had effectively stopped, so I took what I considered a step backward into Formula Ford.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">That turned out to be a good move, and I ended up being paid to race Formula Fords. All the little American formula car manufacturers saw the class as their salvation in terms of production, and all kinds of people built cars for 1969. Everyone looked at Formula Ford as a growing market into which they could sell both cars and parts, and that only fueled its growth.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<style>\n        .memberful-global-teaser-content > :last-child{\n            -webkit-mask-image: linear-gradient(180deg, #000 0%, transparent);\n            mask-image: linear-gradient(180deg, #000 0%, transparent);\n        }\n    <\/style>\n<div class='memberful-global-marketing-content'>\n<div class=\"cs-paywall\">\n<div class=\"cs-paywall__card\">\n<div class=\"cs-paywall__top\"><span class=\"cs-paywall__label\">Members only<\/span><span class=\"cs-paywall__price\">$29 <em>\/ year<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n<h2 class=\"cs-paywall__title\">Keep going. <span>This is where it gets good.<\/span><\/h2>\n<p class=\"cs-paywall__lead\">Supercars.net Membership is for people who&#x27;d rather know the spec sheet by heart than skim ten headlines. 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Cancel anytime, no hoops.<br \/>Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/?memberful_endpoint=auth\">Sign in<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"cs-paywall__trust\"><strong>BY CAR PEOPLE, NOT A NAMELESS MEDIA COMPANY.<\/strong> Your membership keeps a small independent team that celebrates the brands and cars that defined this industry doing this.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"cs-paywall__sticky\" href=\"https:\/\/supercars.memberful.com\/checkout?plan=86696\">Join &mdash; Keep Reading <em>$29\/yr<\/em><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My first exposure to Formula Ford came as a lot of us began hearing about how neat it was in Britain, and certainly in 1968 I was aware of all the car importers and the future American manufacturers getting started in the class. By 1968, my career racing sports cars had effectively stopped, so I took what I considered a step backward into Formula Ford. That turned out to be a good move, and I ended up being paid to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":172,"featured_media":563610,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[263,64,16995,11272,261,18207],"tags":[11807,18322,17152,33,65,11657,1857,20124,11324,548,13481,13347,524,604,12392,11565,17143,10475,17220],"class_list":["post-490417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-car-culture","category-ford","category-formula-3","category-members-only","category-motorsport-racing","category-special-feature","tag-scca","tag-2000s-all","tag-car-culture","tag-concept","tag-ford","tag-grand-prix","tag-lola","tag-lola-featured","tag-march","tag-motorsport","tag-bill-scott","tag-john-crossle","tag-daytona","tag-f1","tag-f3","tag-formula-ford","tag-special-feature","tag-tecno","tag-vrr-column-legends-speak"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Early Days of FF<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Skip Barber tells how he came to win the SCCA\u2019s first two Formula Ford National Championships.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/early-days-ff\/\" \/>\n<link rel=\"next\" href=\"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/early-days-ff\/2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Early Days of FF\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Skip Barber tells how he came to win the SCCA\u2019s first two Formula Ford National Championships.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/early-days-ff\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Supercars.net\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Supercars.net\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/steve.natale1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-12-01T15:00:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-12-27T03:06:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/12\/LS200812-p2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"815\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Steve Natale\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@supercars_net\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@supercars_net\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Steve Natale\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/early-days-ff\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/early-days-ff\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Steve Natale\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/e4800c9c0c7e0b3b8937fc394e9ada9a\"},\"headline\":\"The Early Days of FF\",\"datePublished\":\"2008-12-01T15:00:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-12-27T03:06:41+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/early-days-ff\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":972,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/early-days-ff\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2008\\\/12\\\/LS200812-p2.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"(SCCA) Sports Car Club of America\",\"2000s All\",\"Car Culture\",\"Concept Cars\",\"Ford\",\"Grand Prix\",\"Lola\",\"Lola (Featured)\",\"March\",\"Motorsport &amp; 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