BEN EDWARDS: IT WAS A PRIVILEGE TO COMMENTATE ON GRAND PRIX RACING
Had things happened slightly differently for Ben Edwards in the formative stages of his motorsport journey, he could have been the subject of a grand prix commentator’s words, rather than being the man speaking them himself.
Edwards was an up-and-coming single-seater racer in the late 1980s, with his eyes firmly set on the upper echelons of motor racing. However, like so many, the funding ran dry at a crucial time.
So, instead of putting his foot down, he picked up a microphone. In an obvious parallel to any young hopeful driver’s career, he made the hard yards at the beginning of his broadcasting career to eventually make it to terrestrial TV talking about the sport he loves.
But the racing bug has never truly left Edwards, who is widely regarded as one of the nicest men in the paddock. He has bought a Formula Ford 1600 car and still tackles the occasional race, and has plans to be on the grid for the 50th Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch later this season.
Here, he tells Motorsport News about his plans, and why he has now decided to step away from the microphone.
Question: What and who got you into motorsport?
Ben Roebuck Via Twitter
Ben Edwards: “It wasn’t in my family, but there were some bits of a connection, I suppose. My brother was always into cars – not motorsport necessarily – but he did buy a grasstrack car, a Ford Anglia. We lived on a little small holding farm, and he would charge around the fields and I used to ride around in it. He is seven years older than me so I would just hang on as a passenger, but I thought it was enormous fun.
“That was an introduction, and I have always loved cars, from an early stage in my life. The motor racing really came from a mixture of things. My dad had a classic car, a Railton, which we took to an event at Brands Hatch. I went along with my brother and I was very attracted by the things that were happening there and the racing school was on so we both bought passenger rides in the Sports 2000 cars. I can’t remember who drove me around, but it was mind-blowing for me.
“Then, another chance thing was that a friend of my aunt, her son was running Formula Ford 1600 cars. We were put in touch and that was how I met Rob Creswell. I volunteered to be a gofer for the team when I was 15, polishing bodywork and things like that, and that is what really got me into the sport.”
MN: That must have been great fun...
“The team was called Rob Creswell Racing Services. I started in 1982 as a gofer and Andy Ackerley won the Champion of Brands title that year with Rob’s team. Then Karl Jones won it with Rob the following year and
