MY FIRST MOTORSPORT MEMORYTISDALEFINISHING STRAIGHT22 AUGUST 2019 AUTOSPORT.COM 87A recognisable race car that’s staying in the family
ANDREW VAN LEEUWENTHE FAMILY HEIRLOOM
ing vases, Persian rugs –
classic examples of family
heirlooms. For my family,
however, our most precious
heirloom is a bunch of
welded tube metal that started life in a
factory near Snetterton four decades ago.
It’s a Van Diemen RF80 Formula
Ford 1600, it’s bright yellow, and it’s
one of the most recognisable racing
cars in Western Australia.
Its chassis number is a mystery,
simply because it arrived in Perth
without a chassis plate. Over the years
we’ve worked out that it’s (probably)
an ex-Marc Duez car, that was run by
an English team in the Benelux series.
Apparently chassis plates went missing
a fair bit back then. Something about
import taxes and border controls...
The RF80 hit Australian soil in
1983, starting its new life as a customer
car run out of my old man’s workshop.
having, to that point, been satisfied
by a 70cc Honda trike. The tired old
RF80 engine was probably making 100
horsepower coming down the hill with
the wind behind it. And it was the most
thrilling thing I’d ever done.
By 2003 I was racing the car regularly at
state-level Formula Ford events – complete
with replica Giancarlo Fisichella Bieffe
helmet – and in 2004 we splashed out on
some new shocks and I won a surprisingly
hard-fought pre-1990 state championship.
Motor racing titles don’t get much
less important, or less impressive. But
being able to add my own little piece to
the car’s remarkable history is something
that means a lot to me, even if nobody
else cares. At least nobody that I don’t
share a surname with.M
“I WAS GIVEN A
HANDFUL OF LAPS FOR
GETTING GOOD GRADES”
He started racing it himself when its
owner, a Perth-based English driver by
the name of Steve Bottomley, moved to
a new car for the 1986 season.
In the 36 years since the car arrived, you
could easily count the seasons it didn’t race
on one hand. It may have turned more race
laps at Wanneroo Raceway than any other
car. I don’t know that for an absolute fact,
but it wouldn’t be far wide of the mark. It’s
won state titles, it’s raced in support events
at the Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide,
and this year my dad – still a handy steerer
in his mid-sixties – took a class win in the
old girl at Bathurst (above), of all places.
I grew up surrounded by motorsport,
so pinpointing my earliest memory is
difficult. But one thing I’ll never forget
is the first time I drove that car. It was late
in 2000, and I was given a handful of laps
at Wanneroo on a tuning day as a reward
for getting good year 10 grades. I’d never
even driven a kart, my need for speed