Written by Kerryn Caulfield, Executive Director, Composites Australia Inc.
Forty years after building its first Formula Ford, Borland Racing Developments still custom-builds every chassis in its Braeside, Melbourne factory. Its Spectrum design has become the most successful Australian marque in Australian Formula Ford racing and, over more than three decades, has also found customers in New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada. From its Australian manufacturing base, Borland supplies cars to racers at home and across three continents.
Formula Ford began in England in 1967 and reached Sandown Raceway by 1969, sending drivers from Ayrton Senna to Lando Norris towards the top of world motorsport ever since. More than fifty years on, the category remains a national-level pathway in Australia, with around 250 drivers racing across the country each season. For Borland, Formula Ford began with the Cheetah racing cars built by Michael Borland’s uncle, Brian Shead.
A diesel mechanic by trade, Borland began racing his uncle’s Cheetah Formula Two cars in 1984, before turning his attention to building Formula Ford chassis.
His own team took several championships with those cars before Borland decided to focus on building Formula Ford chassis. After several development years, Steve Richards raced the Spectrum 04 in 1991, followed by a Victorian state series win for Darren Hossack the next year. The first customer car went to Jason Bright in 1993, after which Borland Racing Developments turned to producing the Spectrum Formula Ford outright. The chassis took second place in the 1996 national series for Jason Bargwanna, then a 1-2 finish in 1998 for Adam Macrow and Christian Jones marked its arrival as a serious contender. Chaz Mostert’s 2010 championship, won in a Spectrum 012, added another national title to the marque’s record and helped establish the competition pedigree that would underpin its overseas expansion.
New Zealand came first, with a national title for Phil Hellebrekers in 2000. The UK followed in 2006, when a Spectrum 011 built for the British championship took victory on debut at Brands Hatch in the hands of John Martin. The win led Borland to appoint Mark Bailey Racing as UK agent, and by 2008 leading UK team Kevin Mills Racing had switched to the Spectrum chassis, taking pole positions and race wins over the two seasons that followed.
North America became a key market. In 2013, Canadian businessman Michael Duncalfe began importing and distributing Spectrum in Canada. A second North American distribution agreement was established in 2018 with Greenvale FCP and Mike Scanlan. Spectrum chassis are now distributed and serviced across the US. Market-specific variants include the Spectrum F2000 for the FRP F2000 Championship Series category and the Spectrum F1600 for the F1600 Championship Series and Toyo Tires F1600 Championship racing. Notably, the Spectrum F1600 secured the 2015 USA F1600 Formula F Championship title with Australian driver Scott Andrews.
Every one of these cars is custom-built at the Braeside factory, where Borland Racing Developments has produced its chassis, bodywork and running gear in-house for four decades. Alongside that manufacturing operation, for the same period, has been a collaborative relationship with Bayswater-based King’s Fibreglass, which supplies all fibreglass components for the Spectrum Formula Ford and Sabre Formula Vee. That relationship has extended beyond component supply, with King’s Fibreglass also sponsoring the Borland Racing Developments State Team for several years. The lightweight components contribute to the low weight and responsive handling that are central to the cars’ appeal. The Spectrum continues to attract newcomers with a combination of speed, nimble handling and precise balance, delivering raw, unfiltered racing without downforce or driver aids. Its straightforward design also allows independent and family teams to compete on equal terms with professional outfits.
The Spectrum 015, the current chassis, has been supplied to customers in Australia and overseas since its 2017 debut. Forty years after the first Borland Formula Ford left Braeside, the marque ships parts and complete cars to three continents from the same address.
