Formula Vee in South Africa
Few racing Formulas have succeeded for as long and been as successful, as this low cost single seater Formula. Over the years it has provided hundreds of young men and some young women, in South Africa, the opportunity to compete in Motor Sport at National Championship level. The Formula has always been run by a band of true Motor Sport enthusiasts. This has ensured that it never deviated from its original objective. To provide close competitive racing, at an affordable cost, in real racing cars. The tremendous support for the Formula today, shows that the need for such a class of racing still exists and has in fact done so throughout the existence of Formula Vee racing in this country. 

The idea behind Formula Vee racing was born in the United States of America. It all began when Hurbert Brundage conceived the idea of a single seater racing car, powered by a Volkswagen Beetle engine and using a number of other Volkswagen components. The first prototype, was built for Hurbert Brundage, by Enrico Nardi in 1959 and has been lovingly restored by Paul Schiemer, for Herbert's son Jan Brundage.

Photo by: Paul Schiemer
From the Brundage Archive

 Based on this idea, other cars were built and this eventually led to the formation of a Formula Vee Racing Association in America, on the 18th January 1963. The category, is still well supported in that country today. From these humble beginnings, the Formula spread across the United States and the rest of the World, arriving in South Africa in 1965.

At a meeting of interested persons, the Formula Vee Association of South Africa was formed and on the 15th May 1965, three Formula Vee cars competed at a Club Race Meeting at Kyalami. Six weeks later the first Formula Vee race in South Africa was run, at the same venue.

One of the first South African Formula Vees

In it's first year, the Formula was restricted to 1200cc air cooled Volkswagen Beetle engines. Then for the 1966 season, Formula Vee was granted Transvaal Championship status. This first Championship was won by Dave Charlton, driving a Peco Vee. With assistance from Volkswagen S A, he was sent to represent South Africa in a Formula Vee race at the Nurburgring in Germany. Unfortunately he crashed early in the race. The following year, 1300cc engines were introduced and run with the 1200cc cars in two separate classes. Once again a Transvaal Championship was run. This time it was Tony Jeffries in a Capital Vee, who took the honours at the end of the season. Again the Champion was given the opportunity to represent South Africa overseas. Tony was sent to compete in an International Vee race, in the Bahamas. Ninety six cars from fourteen countries entered the event, which the Americans declared a Formula Vee World Championship race. Not only did Tony qualify for the 200 mile final but led for most of the race, in his Pretoria built Capital Vee. In the end he won the race by 13,2 seconds, from the Austrian Champion Dieter Quester, with Jochen Rindt finishing third and Dr Helmut Marko fourth. These were all top class drivers. Dieter Quester went on to win the European Touring Car Championship four times. Jochen Rindt won the World Championship, driving for Lotus, while Dr Helmut Marko also became a Grand Prix driver.

In 1968, Formula Vee attained South African National Championship status for the first time. That year it was Meyer Botha's turn to represent South Africa overseas. He was sent to Daytona, in the United States of America. In the final he worked his way up to sixth place, after starting near the back of the grid. Then he made contact with another competitor and was flipped out of the race. Fortunately he escaped with no more than a broken nose but that put paid to any chance of repeating Tony Jeffries' success, of the previous year. The last of the overseas trips, saw Terry Townsend represent South Africa at the Nurburgring in Germany.

A number of top South African drivers competed in Formula Vee, during it's early days. These included Cooper works Grand Prix driver Tony Maggs, six times South African National Driving Champion John Love and top Formula One and Sports Car driver Peter De Klerk. Many ex Vee drivers have also competed successfully in other categories in this country. They include National Driving Champions like Dave Charlton and Tony Martin. Formula Ford Champions like Desire Wilson (Randall), Roly Nofke, Braam Smith, Basil Mann and Heinrich Lategan and Formula GTi Champions like Basil Mann, Marco Dos Santos, Etienne Van Der Linde and Johan Smith, while ex Vee drivers Malcolm Cochrane and Tony Scott have also won the Formula GTi Class B Championship. Judy Charlton (Witter), the first woman to win an SA National Championship, when she took the Formula Vee title in 1973, went on to share the 1977 Group 1 Championship, with Sarel Van Der Merwe. More recently, Marco Dos Santos and Heinrich Lategan have also distinguished themselves, as privateer entries in the South African Touring Car series, while George Ferreira won the 2001 SA Vodacom Sports Prototype Championship and Darren Murphy has claimed the 2003 SA Junior Production Car Championship.




There are also a number of our ex Formula Vee drivers who went on to compete successfully overseas. Tony Martin won the Daytona 24 Hour Sports Car Race. Basil Mann won various European Formula Ford 2000 Championships and Rad Dougall won both British Formula Ford 2000 Championships in 1977. He then moved on to compete in the European Formula Two Championship, finishing fifth in the Championship in 1979. Dave Charlton had a few Grand Prix drives overseas and Desire Wilson became the first woman to win a Formula One race, in the British Formula One series. She also won Formula Ford 2000 races in England, as well as some Sports Car World Endurance Championship races and once drove a works Tyrrell in the South African Grand Prix. She then moved to the United States of America, where she also drove Indy cars for a while. Toby Scheckter also competed overseas and after finishing second in the 1997 British Formula Renault Championship, our youngest National Formula Vee Champion Etienne Van Der Linde, went on to win the 1998 Formula Opel Euroseries Championship.

Over the years South Africa's Formula Vee drivers have produced thousands of spins, hundreds of crashes and been involved in more close multi car battles than you could possibly imagine. Eventually the long reign of the trusty Volkswagen Beetle Air Cooled motor came to an end. In 1990 the Water Cooled Volkswagen Golf 1300cc motor was introduced into the Formula in South Africa This move has proved to be a resounding success and a new chapter in the history of Formula Vee racing has been opened. For the first year the new motor was run alongside the old Beetle motor, for a one year transitional period. The first race with the new motor was at Kyalami on the 27th January 1990, were ex Moto Cross rider Iain Pepper became the first driver to score National Championship points, with the new motor. A week later Alan Kernick became the first driver to win a race, with the new motor, when he won the second round of the 1990 National Formula Vee Championship, at Welkom's Goldfields Raceway. Then the young Free State driver Heinrich Lategan, set the first lap record with the new power unit at Midvaal. By the end of the year he was to become the first driver to win a South African National Formula Vee Championship, in a car powered by a Volkswagen water cooled engine. He also has the distinction of becoming the first competitor from the Orange Free State, to win the title. More recent changes, to the regulations, have seen the introduction of a new Cam Shaft and Twin Carburetors,  the introduction of disc brakes, while in 2004, the category upgraded the motor to 1400cc, after Volkswagen SA stopped production of the 1300cc motor. 2005 has seen the category move away from road tyres, for the first time in it's history, in South Africa, with the introduction of the Dunlop Formula R Semi Slick 




Anniversary events were organised for the 21st and 25th Anniversaries, of the the category in South Africa. Then in 1995, the 30th Anniversary event wrote another chapter in the long and distinguished history of Formula Vee racing in South Africa. A number of overseas competitors came over to South Africa, to compete in the event, including five times American Champion Bill Noble, German double Champion Urwin Gasser, the 1997 German Champion Joachim Lutz, the 1995 British Champion Andres Serrano, and an Australian Champion Daniel Orr. In addition to them, another American driver, another British driver, three more Germans and a Swiss driver, made the trip to South Africa for our 30th Anniversary.

A couple of years earlier four South Africa drivers had competed in the American 30th Anniversary, at their own expense, including the only person to win the South African National Formula Vee Championship three times, Gawie Gouws. 

Then in 1996, no less than nine South African drivers, more than likely, the biggest contingent of South African drivers to have raced in an overseas event, went to Germany for their 30th Anniversary, on the new Nurburgring Circuit. The South African contingent distinguished themselves, with Victor Marcon, Symm Grobler, Peter Hills and Jack Tocknell finishing second, third, fourth and fifth, in their race and Gawie Gouws being the second of the British spec cars to finish, in his second heat.

Rob Opeka competed at the American 35th Anniversary event, in 1998 and in 2000, a small contingent of German drivers came to South Africa, for the South African 35th Anniversary. The following year, six South Africans competed at the German 35th Anniversary event, the last event to be run at Hockenheim, before the circuit was changed dramatically for the 2002 German Grand Prix. 

This year marks the 40th Anniversary of the category, in South Africa, with an international event planned for Kyalami, in November, along with the annual Two Hour Endurance event, at Zwartkops, as part of the celebrations. 

 After so many years in South Africa, the Formula still continues to fill the roll of a low cost, entry level, National Championship Formula, providing close, exciting, action packed racing. The ideal platform from which to launch South Africa's motor racing stars of the future.