Monday 17th September 2018

Brit Chris Froggatt wins Ferrari Challenge

Amateur Brit racer takes two wins at Barcelona, heads into Monza final as 2018 Challenge champ

---

We all know one-make racing is tough. Same car, same spec, same components. There isn’t an advantage to be gained by spending more money, or being part of the right team; sure, some gains are there to be made through set up, but nothing really proves a driver’s speed like success in one-make racing. It’s good for isolating those not quite as good as they think they are, too...

Chris Froggatt certainly qualifies as one of the very rapid one-make racers. You may not have heard his name before, but over the weekend he won the Amateur side of the 2018 Ferrari Challenge in his H.R. Owen supported 488. Quite some achievement already, but to have done it with a round to spare in a seven event calendar is remarkable. Since Mugello in March, Froggatt has won eight races, and is now more than 100 points clear with just Monza left to run in November. Must be quite a nice feeling, going to Monza as a British Ferrari Challenge champ...

Froggatt secured his championship with two victories at Barcelona over the weekend, having qualified on pole for race one and inherited the lead of race two when pole sitter Jack Brown was involved in an accident. Froggatt’s team mate John Sawbridge had a DNF and a sixth, which still makes a third place championship finish possible – it all hangs on those Monza races.

Sadly Ferrari’s edits of the race highlights feature some terrible rock music, but you can at least see Froggatt’s #93 car on the odd occasion. Far better, in fact, to watch this interview with him, or just a 488 Challenge onboard lap. What a way to spend your summer weekends...

 

 

[designndrive62]

Without meaning to come across as negative - which i fully admit this probably will - but I wish the motorsport coverage here was a bit more consistent. Occasional updates of various series are a bit random. I appreciate that the other publications such as autosport and motorsport.com sweep up most of the major news, but maybe rather than the occasional random article pistonheads could put some real time into club level national motorsport, with regular updates from competitors throughout the season etc? Its a bit like the btcc updates that were meant to be regular a couple of years ago but dried up without a trace? though i assume this was due to changing media rights or something as i know autocar and pistonheads used to appear on cars, not sure if they still do?

There are plenty of pistonheaders on the forums that i am sure would love to give stories for the front page, and may help the community spirit which in my recent observations seems to be dissappearing on here, particularly in the general and uk motorsport forums.

[Matt Bird]

designndrive62 said:

Without meaning to come across as negative - which i fully admit this probably will - but I wish the motorsport coverage here was a bit more consistent. Occasional updates of various series are a bit random. I appreciate that the other publications such as autosport and motorsport.com sweep up most of the major news, but maybe rather than the occasional random article pistonheads could put some real time into club level national motorsport, with regular updates from competitors throughout the season etc? Its a bit like the btcc updates that were meant to be regular a couple of years ago but dried up without a trace? though i assume this was due to changing media rights or something as i know autocar and pistonheads used to appear on cars, not sure if they still do?

There are plenty of pistonheaders on the forums that i am sure would love to give stories for the front page, and may help the community spirit which in my recent observations seems to be dissappearing on here, particularly in the general and uk motorsport forums.

Hi!

I see you point, it is inconsistent. To be honest it's less regular because when we did consistent stuff - Moto GP reports, Motorsport on Monday, Caterham Academy - there wasn't the response we kind of wanted. This story came about because of H.R. Owen's PR people. BTCC went because the media rights changed, yes.

That said, if anyone is involved in something interesting at club level for 2019 and would like to write about it for PH, we're all ears.

Cheers,


Matt

[designndrive62]

Thanks for the information, it’s a shame that interest isn’t necessarily there, I often find the less covered international and national series more interesting than the ’headliners’, but can’t get out to the circuits at weekends to watch them, so having a place to read full reports and stories on them, rather than just looking at results sheets, would be great.

Also congratulations to Chris, to win a championship must be a great feeling.

[SpudLink]

I like having motorsport stories on PH and always read them, even if I don’t always leave a comment. But the number of responses does suggest they are not the most popular articles.

[RacerMike]

SpudLink said:

I like having motorsport stories on PH and always read them, even if I don’t always leave a comment. But the number of responses does suggest they are not the most popular articles.

I think perhaps because the PH forum is fairly clued up on how motorsport works. It's kind of difficult to comment on an article like this that's out of the blue and purely a way for HR Owen to get some mileage out of their sponsorship. Ultimately, the AM part of the Ferrari Challenge is typically fairly average (mainly because it's basically invite only), and as great an achievement as it is, Chris is a good 1-2s a lap quicker than any of his other AM competitors (although still 1-2s off the fastest Pro drivers).

For me at least, it would be interesting to see some inside articles that are a bit more about the actual state of motorsport at the moment. Some behind the scenes stuff and maybe a bit of support for those who have talent but lack sponsorship. There's quite a few around trying to make it in GT Racing and single seaters....