Bio on Ralph Firman curtsey of RFRCARS.COM

Ralph Firman began his career in motor racing running Formula 3 cars for a series of drivers, amongst whom the most successful was Emerson Fittipaldi, later to become F1 World Champion.

After a period of years, Ralph committed to building his own car, and in 1972 Van Diemen was created, the history of which is well documented. During his tenure, some 5000 single seater and sports racing cars were produced and his Duckhams/Van Diemen Formula Ford team was the starting point for many successful drivers - amongst the most notable being Ayrton Senna and Eddie Irvine. (There was a period when 7 drivers in F1 had started their racing in a Van Diemen chassis.)

Elan Motorsports purchased Van Diemen in 1999 together with G-Force (manufacturers of Indy cars), and Ralph took over as C.E.O. of the Elan Group resulting in the winning of the Indy 500 in year 2000.

Stepping down in 2004, he pursued other interests until 2008 when he decided to return to the sport he loved, forming a new company, RFR, and building a new state-of-the-art F1000 car for the US market.