Formula Vee might be the longest-running class of road racing in the U.S. and when the entire car is a kit built using parts from an old air-cooled Volkswagen Beetle, it’s hard to scamper away from the collective lack of IQ among a whole field of adrenaline-pumping open-wheel racers. This pair of clips from a 2012 race at Gingerman Raceway seems to adequately depict the frenzy of trying to outdrive other wing-less formula cars that also have double-digit horsepower.
The race’s start sees the camera car bobbing and weaving through several thickets of lunacy through the first turn somehow without incident. Just when things seem about to settle down into line-astern racing—Formula Vees have to draft to have any chance of making ground—a whole new can of worms is opened directly in front of the camera car.
The driver soldiers on with a mere flesh wound and later in the race pulls a great draft down the longest straight before Gingerman’s final turn. He pulls out from behind the blue car and is alongside into the braking zone when a surprise visitor careens through the Turn 11 party. Apex interlopers aren’t just for Spec Miata.
Interesting pass-in-the-grass move 25 seconds into the first video, too…