Aussie racing legend, John Bowe, recalls racing Formula Vee's
This is my first race car. The signage on it was my dad's little car yard in Devonport. My first sponsor!! My second sponsor was the Dunlop tyre service in Devonport who gave me a set of Formula Vee Dunlop racing tires that were the tyre to have at the time!
It's an Elfin Formula Vee that my dad and I purchased from the late Lyn Archer who at the time was one of Tasmania's leading open wheel drivers in an Elfin Catalina. From memory he was the Tasmanian agent for Elfin Racing and sports cars.
I was only a teenage kid at the time so was very much guided by my dad Brian and his friendship with John McCormack, who went on to become one of Australia's best racing drivers of the seventies. Both those blokes are still with us and were very influential about how I thought as a racing person, as was the late Garrie Cooper later on.
My Elfin Vee allowed me to win the Tasmanian Formula Vee championship in my first season of racing after some great racing against Alan Simpson, the late Dave Powell, the late Pat Stride and Mike Bessant, all who were quite a bit older and more experienced than me.
Formula Vee was and still is a very cost effective racing category and a fantastic class to learn race craft.
Memories of another era!
