Where on earth do you start with Bryan Herta? One of the most humble and calm racing driver-team owners you will ever meet. Yet give him a microphone and a stage, and Anarchy in the UK by the Sex Pistols won’t be far away…
Going further back, in 1991, he was the second recipient of the Team USA Scholarship and made it to the final of the Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch, a memory he treasures, and a dream of racing in Europe. Formula Ford is, in his mind, still the best training ground.
He’s also the dad of Colton Herta, who was in a gnat’s whisker of moving to Formula 1 next year, if he wasn’t a few superlicence points short.
Unusually for an American racer, that was Bryan’s dream too, and he got closer than most people know, as you will read with his test at Minardi in 2002. He’s known as a master of Laguna Seca, won the Sebring 12 Hours with Tony Kanaan and Dario Franchitti, and did a lot of the test work for Honda’s successful IndyCar programme.
Since he hung up his racing boots he’s won two Indy 500s with calm – and brave – strategy from the pitwall, and runs a championship-winning TCR team with Hyundai.
“The Ford Festival was a huge adventure for me”
Bryan Herta
Question: What are your memories of your Formula Ford Festival run in 1991 at Brands Hatch?
Gary Smith
Via Twitter
Bryan Herta: “It’s funny. The thing I remember most was just the adventure of leaving the United States to go and race. I’d never been out of the country before. I had to get a passport and go to London on my own! I got to Heathrow Airport and had to find a train to Leicester, and I couldn’t find Leicester on the board because nobody told me it’s not spelled L-E-S-T-E-R. I ended up taking a ride with some dodgy guy who just offered me a lift. I didn’t know those were cab drivers. I managed to not get murdered in the process, so that was good. For me, it was just a big growing-up experience.
“It was the first time I felt like I was a race car driver travelling overseas, going to a race, not with my parents, not through a clubby fun thing. This was for real.
