In attempting to relate the history and importance of the Formula Super Vee series to road racing in America, there are hundreds of people you could name and one person you have to mention, for without him there would be no Super Vee. That man is Joe Hoppen, who as director of Special Vehicles for Volkswagen of America, invented the formula. Unlike its predecessor Formula Vee, which was designed to be an “everyman’s” formula, Super Vee was intended to showcase young driving talent in an entry level of open-wheel professional racing. During its lifetime, from 1971 through 1990, professional Super Vee racing also became a tremendously fertile training ground for professionals who graduated on to the top levels of American and international motorsport. In addition to drivers who started in Super Vee, numerous mechanics, designers, journalists and even sponsors starting in Super Vee, successfully climbed the ladder to success in big time motor racing. Essentially, Super Vee became America’s version of Formula 3.

The basis of Hoppen’s brainchild was to create a series of approximately 10 races per year, which became known as the Gold Cup Championship, with a $10,000 per race purse (not bad for the early ’70s). The cars ran at Daytona with the 24-Hours, at the Glen with the 6-Hours and again with the Formula One U.S. Grand Prix, as well as Eklhart Lake with the Can-Am. Exposure couldn’t have been better. So, over time Super Vee was the support race for all the great American series, at all the great tracks – Lime Rock to Riverside and Brainard to Sebring, even running big and small ovals like Pocono, Michigan, Milwaukee and Trenton with USAC and then CART.

The rules, in the early days, allowed a monocoque chassis, but mandated the use of VW brakes, front uprights, transmission case, halfshafts and CV joints. Some of the earliest cars utilized tube frames and were equipped with air-cooled Type III motors, standard VW transmissions and rear drum brakes – these cars were not much faster than a Formula Ford of the time. However, the class soon evolved to monocoque chassis designs, stronger, more powerful Type IV motors, Hewland gearboxes and disc brakes all around.

The first Super Vee cars were designed and constructed in 1969-1970 by Americans Gene Beach, Ray Caldwell, John Zeitler (see this month’s Interview) and John Zink, with the European manufacturers soon to follow (the Lola T-250 Super Vee was the first design effort of a fledgling designer by the name of John Barnard). A number of innovative racers also created one-off designs in those early air-cooled years. At the 1970 SCCA American Road Race of Champions, the first big field Super Vee Race, Tom Davey captured the National Championship in his Zeitler against Zink, Caldwell and Lynx competition.

Super Vee has always been known for close racing, where you can throw a blanket over the top group of finishers with tremendous battles for position throughout the field. The familiar champions of the first years were Bill Scott, in his Royale in ’71 and ’72; Bertil Roos, in the Fred Opert-entered Tui in ’73; and Elliot Forbes-Robinson, in his rebodied Lola (named a Lynn after his wife) in 1974. It wasn’t easy for any of these guys with fierce competition from others like Tom Davey, Tom Reddy and Howdy Holmes, in their Lolas; Fred Phillips, driving an Elden; Richard Mellville, in a Royale; Harry Ingle, in his Zink; Hurley Haywood, in a Tui; and a host of others.

In 1975, the next generation of Super Vees appeared. The introduction of wings and wider wheels resulted in higher cornering speeds and even tighter competition. In 1977 – the last year of this period of air-cooled cars – a major addition was made to Super Vee Racing with the introduction of the USAC Mini-Indy Championship, run on ovals in conjunction with Indy Car events. This new series gave the Super Vee driver an audience of Indy Car owners looking for new talent. Oval racing brought a whole new group of midget, sprint car and even Champ Car drivers, such as standout Rich Vogler and safety equipment mogul Bill Simpson, into the fold of Super Vee drivers. On the shorter ovals like Milwaukee, the lighter, more agile Super Vees routinely qualified at speeds, which would have comfortably put them in the Champ Car field! Champions of this period included Eddie Miller, driving a Carl Haas Lola in 1975; Tom Bagley, driving a Zink in 1976; Bob Lazier, driving a Lola in 1977; and a tie between Bagley and Herm Johnson in 1977 for the Mini Indy Championship. Of these early champions, Bagley became the first Super Vee driver to successfully graduate to the Indy cars in 1978. Other notable Super Vee drivers from this period who went on to greater heights in motorsport include, future Indy 500 winner Bobby Rahal, future Formula One Champion K.K. “Keke” Rosburg, and even 1972 Can-Am champion George Follmer.

Super Vees underwent a further evolution in 1978 with the introduction of the reliable and more powerful 1600 cc water-cooled, in-line, 4-cylinder Volkswagen Rabbit/Golf motor. Further, a relaxation of the rule requiring the use of a VW front spindle and wheel bolt pattern made it very easy for many Formula III manufacturers to convert or create Super Vees from existing designs. At 928 lb and 185 hp, these new Super Vee racecars lapped many tracks with times that rivaled Formula Atlantic cars.

In 1978, Bill Alsup driving an Argo, won both the road racing Gold Cup and the oval racing Mini-Indy Championships; and in 1979, Geoff Brabham (son of Formula One World Champion Jack Brabham) took the honors in Gold Cup with his Ralt, while Dennis Firestone was Mini-Indy champion in a March prepared by Wilbur Bunce. Throughout this period, there was no lack of front-running contenders, however, with drivers like Tim Richmond, Michael Chandler, Dave McMillan, Pete Halsmer and Johnny Parsons, Jr. among those sharing the spotlight. By the late ’70s, Super Vee was a “must do” for any aspiring driver wanting to break into the Champ Car scene. In fact, at one Indy 500 in the early ’80s, 22 of the 33 drivers starting the 500 had Super Vee experience!

The winds of change blew strong in 1980 for Super Vee. With the Indy car rebellion against USAC and the creation of CART, the Mini-Indy as a separate series evaporated, and the oval races with CART became part of the Gold Cup. But the big news was that if you weren’t driving a new ground effects Ralt RT-5, you might as well have stayed at home! Peter Kuhn drove one to a dominating championship in 1980. This amazing chassis – with a few exceptions, courtesy of Ed Pimm and his Anson in 1983 and Didier Theys and his Martini in 1986 – dominated the next 10 years of Super Vee racing.

As essentially a one chassis, one motor series which placed a real emphasis on driver skill and team ability to set up the car, the ’80s were years marked by incredible competition, with 10 cars often qualifying within one second of pole time. Al Unser, Jr. with Rick Galles in 1981, Michael Andretti with Frank Arciero in 1982, Arie Luyendyk in the Provimi Veal car in 1984, each had a championship Super Vee season on their way to successful careers in Indy cars. Chasing them were guys like, Mark Dismore, Mike Groff, Dave McMillan, future Le Mans winner Davey Jones and some guy from Pittsburgh by the name of Chip Ganassi. In the following years, Ken Johnson in ’85, Scott Atchison in ’87, Ken Murillo in ’88 and Mark Smith in ’89 all knew they had beaten the best to become Super Vee Champions.

By the late ’80s, a collection of events, such as competition from the new Indy Lights series, the resurgence of Formula Atlantic and disinterest by a new generation of Volkswagen management, caused the plug to be pulled on the series at the end of the 1990 season. In 1990, Stuart Crow became the last Super Vee Champion, ending one of the most successful open-wheel racing series ever seen in North America. But that’s not the end of the story. After the official dissolution of the series, the later ground-effects Super Vees found their way into SCCA club racing as Formula Atlantics.

In the mid-1990’s, Monoposto Racing, an organization catering to vintage single-seaters, created “Formula 70,” a series for flat-bottom (pre-ground effect) cars with wings and slicks, built up through 1979. Gaining a new lease on life, many of the ’70s cars have been lovingly restored in their original livery and compete in vintage events around the country. In more recent years, West Coast-based VARA and HSR-West have accepted both flat-bottom and ground effect Super Vees as vintage eligible cars. Perhaps the most ironic development of all is the recent introduction of international Formula 3 racing to North America in a new championship with the cars powered by, you guessed it, 4-cylinder, water-cooled VW engines. It looks like Super Vee may live again!

Zink

Most of the original American Super Vee manufacturers had their roots in Formula Vee. Ed Zink was a successful driver and builder of Formula Vee racecars.

Not surprisingly, Ed Zink and his car were present at the first Formula Super Vee race. In July 1970, at Lime Rock, Connecticut, Harry Ingle – Ed Zink’s nephew – drove a Zink Super Vee to a second place finish behind the Zeitler of John Zeitler.

The first Zink Super Vees, the Z-9’s, were completely new cars, not an updated or modified Vee or Formula Ford chassis. The cars used square and round steel tubing with stressed aluminum skin. A unique feature that remained a characteristic of the Zink cars was the use of upper rocker arms on the front suspension. The Zink Z-9 was a reasonably successful car driven by Ingle, John Finger, Steve Pieper, and Kirk Stowers.

The successor to the Z-9, the Z-11, was victorious in its debut as Harry Ingle won the 1973 Runoffs at Road Atlanta. In 1975, Harry Ingle retired and his Z-11 was sold to Tom Bagley, who changed the colors to blue and yellow and the car was subsequently known as the Kent Oil Zink. Bagley, who tops the list with the most career Pro Super Vee wins, went on to race Indy cars and was named USAC Rookie-of-the Year in 1978.

Riley Protofab

The 1979 Riley Protofab was one of the earliest full-ground effect Super Vee designs and was the result of a collaboration between famed designer Bob Riley (Indy, Trans-Am, and WSC cars) and fabricator Gary Pratt of Protofab (known for the Greenwood Corvettes).

The PR2 was the second ground effects Super Vee designed by Bob Riley. The design was completed in early 1978 and fabrication was completed by August 1979 at Protofab’s Wixiom, Michigan, shops. The intent was to manufacture the cars for sale, but only one example was completed.

The tub was a full-length aluminum monocoque with a magnesium front bulkhead. Short side pods were used on high-speed ovals and long pods for road courses.

The PR2 participated in 19 Pro Super Vee races. Drivers included Gary Pratt, Tim Coconis, Michael Rand and Chip Ganassi. The car won at Michigan in September 1980 but was later disqualified because the flexible skirts were deemed “movable aerodynamic devices.”

The Riley Protofab was one of the fastest Supervee’s ever on the high-speed ovals. It was the track record holder at MIS from 1981 until 1984 @ 161.46 mph average.