FRANK BRADLEY FORMULA FORD WAS PURE WARFARE
Back in the 1980s, it was always obvious when Frank Bradley was in the paddock. One of his gorgeous road cars would be parked next to a race transporter, and it was clear that here was a man who was enjoying his life.
Frank ‘the fish’, as he was known, had made his money by trading in seafood. Despite that business going at 100mph and expanding all the time, Bradley wanted to travel at breakneck speeds himself and he was a regular in Formula Ford 2000. He famously beat the up-and-coming Ayrton Senna in an FF2000 race at Snetterton in 1982.
From there, he went on to bring Swift racing cars to the UK after a disagreement with Van Diemen’s Ralph Firman. The modest car constructor would go on to multiple wins in the category and its products are still being used today, although the firm is under new ownership.
Bradley hasn’t slowed down even yet, but he took time out of his busy schedule to tackle the MN readers’ questions, and we are grateful for it. His story is a real roller coaster.
Question: What prompted you to start racing? You began in the 1960s, didn’t you?
Abi Crowther Via email
Frank Bradley: “I went to do a high-performance driving course for the public road. It was run by the British School of Motoring. The guy who was in charge of it was called John Lyons, and he also worked at the Jim Russell Racing Drivers’ School.
“At the time, I was driving a Jaguar E-type on the road. I was 25 years old. I completed the course, which was great: we were driving these Ferraris all around these roads in London.
“After I had done the course, I happened to mention to John that I would love to race at some point. But I explained that I just didn’t have the time because I was so busy working at the weekends. I was doing crazy hours.
“I did three years in a fruit wholesaler when I left school and when I was 19, dad said that I needed to go and work in the family business [selling seafood products including, notably, jellied eels]. I said I didn’t want to work for him because I didn’t like killing things. But he persuaded me in the end, and I went to join up with him.
“Dad started with a little barrow outside a pub, the Hare and Hounds in Sunbury.
Then he started to do cooked eels and because we were outside London, people started to come to us rather than go to the East End because it was more convenient. Trade built up and he had a really good business. I always put jellied eels and the business before racing cars in my list of priorities, which is why I came to [motorsport] late.
“After I had done the advanced driving course, Lyons suggested I went to the Jim Russell school. I said I couldn’t, because there was no way I could get the weekends off. He explained that I could go to the race school during the week.
“I went there and did the basic course at Snetterton. On my first race, I put it on pole position but I spun at Riches
