Formula Vee article
Posted: Wed Sep 22, 2010 12:48 pm
http://www.topcar.co.za/classic-cars/ar ... mes?page=3
Sign of the times By: Adrian Burford
Wed, 2010/09/22 - 8:48am
By: Adrian Burford THE FIRST THING Judy Charlton did when she pitted after being reunited with her Formula Vee, was to give car builder AJ Kernick feedback: ‘When you downshift it is tricky to simultaneously blip the throttle. The clutch takes a little high. It isn’t very stable under braking – I think it’s because of the tyres – what pressures are you running?’
IMAGE GALLERY
It was a seminal moment which proved that once a racer, always a racer. And Kernick (having missed out on the Vee title by half-a-point in 1989) appreciated the input.
Judy last raced a single-seater in 1994 when she deputised for her stepson Michael in Formula GTi, who was unable to drive due to National Service (remember that?) obligations. Since then she has been low key in terms of motorsport, selling the family car dealerships in Vanderbijlpark and going back to her training as a dental technician, setting up a business with her husband Arnold – brother of 60s and 70s racing legend, Dave – in the early 1990s. They retired to Parys a few years back, where they live a quiet and happy life.
A low-key race meeting at Midvaal earlier this year gave AJ the chance to introduce himself to the Charltons, and tell them about the project, and from there it has slowly gathered momentum. Getting her into the championship-winning car which she built with her late father, Joseph, took a little coaxing, and it at first seemed that she was happy for her exploits in a Vee to remain a closed chapter of a book which had been gathering dust for decades.
Kernick has owned the car for about four years, but had become aware of its existence and significance some years earlier. When he got his hands on it was a rusty mess: ‘It stood under a lot of trees, but I knew that some good would come of it...’
Being the McGyver type (if you need welding, fibreglass work or need an old-style dizzy fixed he’s your man) Kernick set about the restoration, throwing money at something which invariably turned out to be bigger than it seemed. Having first verified that it was indeed Witter Chassis #2 which Judy drove (the Sasol turquoise overspray on the tubework was one clue), Kernick then used period pictures to return the car to its original form.
Michael Charlton, somewhat serendipitously, has collated a mountain of information on Judy with a view to writing a book and his chronological digitised record comprises nearly 400 separate magazine and newspaper articles, reminding us that not only did she finish third in the 1975 Formula Ford championship, but she had an impressive career in saloons. That culminated in her sharing the 1977 Group One title with a certain Sarel van der Merwe, though for many years the record books overlooked this fact and only listed his name. After that, and still only in her mid-20s, she campaigned a brawny Datsun Laurel 280L in the Star Modified series against the likes of Ben Morgenrood and Paddy Driver.
Judy was still a teenager when she drove this car to victory in the 1973 South African Formula Vee championship, setting what may still be a worldwide precedent. Though impossible to confirm, it may have been the first time a woman won a national single-seater championship – it is definitely the only time it has happened here.
In the early 1970s it made the front page of major newspapers. Shy and unassuming yet clearly capable of driving very briskly, she was a novelty in a male-dominated world. Sasol, is a very shrewd marketing move, threw their weight behind a two-car team, for Judy and her cousin Gawie Gouws.
Records show that she dominated the championship almost from the first race, but they leave out the unhappiness that came with the Witters and their Sasol cars raising the bar: they were too fast, they were too professional and Judy was too determined, it seemed. They also had imported Kaimann engines from Austria, and the inference was that they had more power than the rest of the field.
With this a looming issue, her father put his money where his mouth was and swopped the Kaimann for a local engine – and Judy went around Kyalami less than one second slower than she had before. With the perceived power advantage put to bed it was on with the racing, but the drama wasn’t over. The engines of the Witter Vees were deemed to be illegal at a Kyalami meeting in August (resulting in exclusion for her and Gouws) but soon afterwards at Brandkop outside Bloemfontein the first six cars were impounded (including the Witters which finished one/two) and stripped. Ironically, this time round the Witters were found to be the only ones which were legal.
The upshot of all this skulduggery is that the sport’s controlling body unilaterally decided not to elect a Formula Vee champion for 1973 – a bitter blow for Judy who had effectively driven the pants off a large and experienced group of men for most of the season. She appealed and it was only well into 1974 that her name was finally inscribed on the trophy, just in time for the national awards banquet at the Carlton Hotel. Maybe it is no wonder she wants to see the Vee era as a closed book.
But when the moment arrived, and Judy (togged-up in a suitable period race overall once used by Kernick’s late father) was ready to get behind the wheel of her old warhorse, a palpable change came over her. Suddenly she was all businesslike, deftly sliding her legs under the steering wheel and dropping down into the seat. As Kernick buckled her in, she snicked the gearshift to and fro with her right hand, while simultaneously trying the pedals.
Blam! Without more ado she hit the starter button and with a generous dollop of revs set off down the pit lane. She was, she said, only going to do a couple of laps and after a few laps jinking around behind the camera car, Judy was waved past. Within a few corners it was clear that she hadn’t forgotten how to hit an apex, and with her head tilted sideways in her trademark style, she steadily upped her pace.
On a couple of occasions the car looked decidedly leery on the brakes at the end of the pit straight, but each time she got it slowed down and straightened up, and tipped it into the left-hander with a deft touch and a clean downshift. Two laps turned into three, then four, then five, before she slowed and cruised round, no doubt eyeing the gauges (engine temperature and oil pressure) as she cooled everything down
Michael’s affection for his step-mom (he was barely out of nappies when she came into his life) is obvious and he has approached the project with amazing zeal. His records will prove invaluable in cleaning up a couple of details like the size of the cooling ducts on the side panels, but the consensus is that, once the aluminium and fibreglass bodywork is resprayed in a paler blue closer to the Sasol livery of the time, it’ll be just about spot on.
A small audience had gathered by now, the likes of the circuit’s new owner Nino Venturi (who served South African Formula Ford for decades) and Colin Clay (of Powerking Golf fame) obviously well aware of her pedigree, others just curious about this little old lady (though she’s a mere 56) at the wheel of a spindly little car with a crackly, flat-four exhaust thrum.
The broad smile was obvious long before she removed her helmet, but there was a lot of emotion there too: a look of relief tinged with a hint of nostalgia, no doubt much of it to do with her father, who designed and built the car, and turned his tomboyish daughter into a champion racing driver
Sign of the times By: Adrian Burford
Wed, 2010/09/22 - 8:48am
By: Adrian Burford THE FIRST THING Judy Charlton did when she pitted after being reunited with her Formula Vee, was to give car builder AJ Kernick feedback: ‘When you downshift it is tricky to simultaneously blip the throttle. The clutch takes a little high. It isn’t very stable under braking – I think it’s because of the tyres – what pressures are you running?’
IMAGE GALLERY
It was a seminal moment which proved that once a racer, always a racer. And Kernick (having missed out on the Vee title by half-a-point in 1989) appreciated the input.
Judy last raced a single-seater in 1994 when she deputised for her stepson Michael in Formula GTi, who was unable to drive due to National Service (remember that?) obligations. Since then she has been low key in terms of motorsport, selling the family car dealerships in Vanderbijlpark and going back to her training as a dental technician, setting up a business with her husband Arnold – brother of 60s and 70s racing legend, Dave – in the early 1990s. They retired to Parys a few years back, where they live a quiet and happy life.
A low-key race meeting at Midvaal earlier this year gave AJ the chance to introduce himself to the Charltons, and tell them about the project, and from there it has slowly gathered momentum. Getting her into the championship-winning car which she built with her late father, Joseph, took a little coaxing, and it at first seemed that she was happy for her exploits in a Vee to remain a closed chapter of a book which had been gathering dust for decades.
Kernick has owned the car for about four years, but had become aware of its existence and significance some years earlier. When he got his hands on it was a rusty mess: ‘It stood under a lot of trees, but I knew that some good would come of it...’
Being the McGyver type (if you need welding, fibreglass work or need an old-style dizzy fixed he’s your man) Kernick set about the restoration, throwing money at something which invariably turned out to be bigger than it seemed. Having first verified that it was indeed Witter Chassis #2 which Judy drove (the Sasol turquoise overspray on the tubework was one clue), Kernick then used period pictures to return the car to its original form.
Michael Charlton, somewhat serendipitously, has collated a mountain of information on Judy with a view to writing a book and his chronological digitised record comprises nearly 400 separate magazine and newspaper articles, reminding us that not only did she finish third in the 1975 Formula Ford championship, but she had an impressive career in saloons. That culminated in her sharing the 1977 Group One title with a certain Sarel van der Merwe, though for many years the record books overlooked this fact and only listed his name. After that, and still only in her mid-20s, she campaigned a brawny Datsun Laurel 280L in the Star Modified series against the likes of Ben Morgenrood and Paddy Driver.
Judy was still a teenager when she drove this car to victory in the 1973 South African Formula Vee championship, setting what may still be a worldwide precedent. Though impossible to confirm, it may have been the first time a woman won a national single-seater championship – it is definitely the only time it has happened here.
In the early 1970s it made the front page of major newspapers. Shy and unassuming yet clearly capable of driving very briskly, she was a novelty in a male-dominated world. Sasol, is a very shrewd marketing move, threw their weight behind a two-car team, for Judy and her cousin Gawie Gouws.
Records show that she dominated the championship almost from the first race, but they leave out the unhappiness that came with the Witters and their Sasol cars raising the bar: they were too fast, they were too professional and Judy was too determined, it seemed. They also had imported Kaimann engines from Austria, and the inference was that they had more power than the rest of the field.
With this a looming issue, her father put his money where his mouth was and swopped the Kaimann for a local engine – and Judy went around Kyalami less than one second slower than she had before. With the perceived power advantage put to bed it was on with the racing, but the drama wasn’t over. The engines of the Witter Vees were deemed to be illegal at a Kyalami meeting in August (resulting in exclusion for her and Gouws) but soon afterwards at Brandkop outside Bloemfontein the first six cars were impounded (including the Witters which finished one/two) and stripped. Ironically, this time round the Witters were found to be the only ones which were legal.
The upshot of all this skulduggery is that the sport’s controlling body unilaterally decided not to elect a Formula Vee champion for 1973 – a bitter blow for Judy who had effectively driven the pants off a large and experienced group of men for most of the season. She appealed and it was only well into 1974 that her name was finally inscribed on the trophy, just in time for the national awards banquet at the Carlton Hotel. Maybe it is no wonder she wants to see the Vee era as a closed book.
But when the moment arrived, and Judy (togged-up in a suitable period race overall once used by Kernick’s late father) was ready to get behind the wheel of her old warhorse, a palpable change came over her. Suddenly she was all businesslike, deftly sliding her legs under the steering wheel and dropping down into the seat. As Kernick buckled her in, she snicked the gearshift to and fro with her right hand, while simultaneously trying the pedals.
Blam! Without more ado she hit the starter button and with a generous dollop of revs set off down the pit lane. She was, she said, only going to do a couple of laps and after a few laps jinking around behind the camera car, Judy was waved past. Within a few corners it was clear that she hadn’t forgotten how to hit an apex, and with her head tilted sideways in her trademark style, she steadily upped her pace.
On a couple of occasions the car looked decidedly leery on the brakes at the end of the pit straight, but each time she got it slowed down and straightened up, and tipped it into the left-hander with a deft touch and a clean downshift. Two laps turned into three, then four, then five, before she slowed and cruised round, no doubt eyeing the gauges (engine temperature and oil pressure) as she cooled everything down
Michael’s affection for his step-mom (he was barely out of nappies when she came into his life) is obvious and he has approached the project with amazing zeal. His records will prove invaluable in cleaning up a couple of details like the size of the cooling ducts on the side panels, but the consensus is that, once the aluminium and fibreglass bodywork is resprayed in a paler blue closer to the Sasol livery of the time, it’ll be just about spot on.
A small audience had gathered by now, the likes of the circuit’s new owner Nino Venturi (who served South African Formula Ford for decades) and Colin Clay (of Powerking Golf fame) obviously well aware of her pedigree, others just curious about this little old lady (though she’s a mere 56) at the wheel of a spindly little car with a crackly, flat-four exhaust thrum.
The broad smile was obvious long before she removed her helmet, but there was a lot of emotion there too: a look of relief tinged with a hint of nostalgia, no doubt much of it to do with her father, who designed and built the car, and turned his tomboyish daughter into a champion racing driver