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R O A D

T R A C K

R A C E

S U M M E R 2 0 1 6

Unlike Damon (Hill) who raced

road bikes, I started on the mud.”

There are so many paths into

the upper echelons of motorsport

these days and most people go

down the karting route, but Blun-

dell is happy with how he got into

single seater racing. He says:

“Karting is a great feeder, but

I think bikes give you a better

understanding of competition,

especially when you’re handle-

bar-to-handlebar with 40 oth-

er guys and you come into the

first corner and all fall off! It’s a

shock, but it makes you appreci-

ate close racing.”

Blundell started in Formula Ford

1600 after seeing it at the Motor-

sport Show at Alexandra Palace.

This is where he began to under-

stand the motorsport scene below

F1. While Blundell doesn’t be-

lieve he took a generic route into

the sport, he did take the same

path as a lot of other big names.

He says: “A lot of us came from

Group C, (Michael) Schumacher

and (Alexander) Wurz, to name

just two.”

Just like the nineties, the path

to F1 still isn’t clear today, as

Blundell explains: “I don’t think

there’s a tried and tested route,

there are just too many formulas

and too much choice. There are

two levels of motorsport: clubman

level where you go racing every

weekend and enjoy yourself, and

another level where you see if you

can cut the mustard to make it to

the top.

“I think there should be more

of a clear-cut choice and if you

reduced some of the formulas

perhaps we’d have packed grids

and more competition across those

feeder series.”

You can’t deny Blundell had a

successful career and it’s for this

reason he wouldn’t change how he

moved through the ranks of mot-

orsport to Formula One. He says:

“I’d take the same route, but when

I started, Formula Ford was the en-

try level into motorsport and there

wasn’t anything below it other

than karting. Looking back, it was

still the most competitive and you

learnt so much about your own

racecraft racing wheel-to-wheel,

as well as the mechanics of the

cars and working with people.”

In Blundell’s career, he’s raced

with some of the greats and found

it so important to keep the right