Cheesman was
not a driver; he and John Baker owned the Formcar named
Petunia (now owned by Bob Cornish of Reno, Nevada). Petunia became a
highly developed Formcar and her story is told over the years in Vee
Line. More importantly Cheesman’s monthly newsletter provided the forum
for the discussion of the rules, technical tips, new car announcements,
and classified ads. The
four into one exhaust is an example.
February 1969
“Exhaust Pipes Again”
“This month’s report on exhaust pipes is
going to be almost totally negative. No one has yet come up with the
ultimate system- or even a good one- for general publication, anyhow.
Ed Zink has been experimenting, but so
far hasn’t found anything equal on a dyno to his present straight pipes,
but if he does come up with a megaphone system which shows and
advantage, he expects to be able to sell it for around $65. ……..”
The newsletters
contain correspondence with SCCA (Tracy Bird, Jim Patterson, and Frank
Schultheis) and a host of FV pioneers such as George Smith, Ray
Caldwell, Harvey Templeton, Robert Riley (Lynx), Whit Tharin, Jerry Mong
(Bobsy), etc. I recommend the interview with Ed Zink in the August 1968
issue.
Cheesman ran out of
steam in January 1973 and Formula Vee International was liquidated. In
my effort to find someone who knew Cheesman I was fortunate to find
Harriett Gittings [see
article from Oakland Tribune, Mar, 1969] whose name probably appears
more times than any other in the Vee Line. Harriett raced a Formcar and
Crusader in the San Francisco Region, served as President and Secretary
of the Association, and worked as a motor sports journalist.
Thanks to Harriett for her remembrances, to Mike Roberts for
keeping his Vee Line collection all these years, and to
John Deonarine for filling in the blanks.
![]() Harriet leads Miltner at Laguna Seca - May 1966 |
Harriet Gittings |
![]() Harriet in her Crusader at Laguna, 1969 |
The first issue is reproduced below - links to all editions (that we have) in pdf format are below page 2 for reading and printing. (The first several issues were produced on legal size paper which means we had to "play tricks" to get them scanned and loaded). Thanks to Fred Storer who acquired these issues and scanned them into "webable" copy for this site.
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