Veskanda C1

In December 1984, Australia held its first ever FIA World Championship motor racing event, a 1000 km World Endurance Championship event at Melbourne's Sandown Raceway (pre-dating the 1985 Australian Grand Prix Formula One race in Adelaide by 11 months). One of the spectators at the event was Adelaide based Australian Sports Car Championship competitor and professional photographer Bernie van Elsen who was inspired to build an Australian Group C sports car. At the time it was to be the first of three WSC races at Sandown, but the 1985 and 1986 races which van Elsen planned to enter with the car were eventually canceled.[3] I was around this car when built and early racing., mostly at K&A Marion. The crash in testing was caused through a broken rear upright. F5000 stuff was not strong enough for ground effect.. Damage was substansial but not the tub. While I cannot remember which year the car was raced at Sandown in the International race driven by Bowe and Dick Johnson and would have finished fairly well but they thought it out of fuel and put one churn in to finish. So were DQd. As it turned out they would have had enough fuel. But not enough testing as well as not enough information from the car this was the result. The car was always run on a small budget in comparison to most others. Bernie Van Elsen raced a Bollwell convertible with a 302 Ford. Built by K&A with an aluminium monocoque. He returned that car to the road when he stopped racing There is THREE Veskandas, Al Galagher owns the third that was raced once or twice. The second has been a very long time coming, it is built for the road. They were originally designed to be and this one has a Commodore 5 litre Holden engine. Yes this around 1990. I saw that car having the engine fitted and making road legal brake hoses etc at K&A at Dudley Pk. All three had all road equipent such as turn signals, hazard lights, glass windscreens, windscreen washers etc The 350 engine was I feel the same 5000 block with the 350 crank. And Brownfield [now Airflow Research] alloy cylinder heads. The original heads from the 5 litre I owned for a period and are now on a classic speedway car!! Paul Stubber, historic racer from WA owned the car for a while and took it to England. I believe the car has now gone to England to live which is very sad as it is a piece of Aussie motorsport history. Up until the end of 2000 I raced Sports Sedans [for about 20 years] and often used K&A for machining, crack testing and occasional fabrication. Very low buck operation and at times I did buy cast off Veskanda tyres to race on. As well as componentry that was sometimes cast offs from richer teams. Dale was very handy giving me information on car set up, engine set up etc. It was a 2 way street as I was used to running a car from wrecking yard parts and he could pick my brain on that stuff. They did race preperation for many competitors both national and local. Sports Sedans Porsches, Formula cars, sports cars. Even on occasion speedway parts as well. The business is still in operation though has changed quite a lot and I believe doing a lot of general repetition work. Dale Koenecke was a very hands on man and built cars on commonsense. Harry Aust was the designer of their cars and then Dale and staff had to build them from the plans and make them work. Thanks Lee Nicolle. Edwardstown South Aust.

Van Elsen commissioned Adelaide based engineering firm K&A Engineering run by Dale Koennecke (a former engineer for Garrie Cooper's Ansett Team Elfin) and Harry Aust to build a Ground effect racing sports car that not only complied to CAMS Group A rules but also to the FIA's Group C rules while also being compliant to the American IMSA GT Championship regulations. K&A were already prominent in Australian motor racing having rebuilt John Briggs' rapid Dekon Chevrolet Monza which had raced in the national Sports Sedan and GT championships during the early 1980s, and most notably the Don Elliot owned Alfa Romeo Alfetta GTV (originally powered by a Repco Holden V8 and later a 5.0 and 6.0 litre Chevrolet) that Tony Edmonson drove to win the 1980 and 1981 Australian Sports Car titles.

Van Elsen purchased an old Lola T400 F5000 car to use its suspension, transmission and 4,958 cc (302.6 cu in) Chevrolet V8 engine which produced approximately 520 bhp (388 kW; 527 PS). The Veskanda also featured an aluminum monocoque and a Porsche 956 style full width rear wing (a small front wing was also used when extra downforce was needed), and to comply with the Group C and IMSA GTP regulations featured the pedal box behind the front axle. The car was completed with a full fibreglass body.[4]

The car, named the VESKANDA (for Van Elsen Special K AND A), was the second closed top, ground effect racing sports car built in Australia following on from the Romano WE84 designed and built by Queensland based Kaditcha owner Barry Lock in 1982. The Romano, which started life named the Kaditcha K583, was powered by a, ex-McLaren Cosworth DFV Formula One V8 engine and had dominated the 1984 Australian Sports Car Championship in the hands of its owner Bap Romano (van Elsen had finished 28th in the championship driving a Bolwell Nagari). By the time the Veskanda was debuted in 1985, Romano had upgraded from the 3.0 L Cosworth engine to a 3.9 L Cosworth DFL V8 engine developed for sports car racing.

In the following years, the Veskanda remained dormant until it was purchased by former Sports Sedan racer John Briggs who restored the car. It make a welcome on-track return at the Historic Sandown meeting in 2007 (with what Briggs described as a "very tired" 5.8 L V8 engine installed). Brigg's later got the chance to run it against other historic sports cars (including the Porsche 956) at the Phillip Island Classic meeting in 2011.[8]

The Veskanda is currently owned and was driven in classic sports car events in Europe (including the very wet Le Mans Legend race in 2012 where the 6.0 litre Veskanda Chevrolet attained the top speed on the Mulsanne Straight with 259 km/h (161 mph) on its way to 8th place) by Western Australian driver/enthusiast Paul Stubber.[9][10][11] Driving in the Group C - C1 historic sports car series which raced at such tracks as Le Mans, Silverstone, Donington, Nürburgring, Imola, Paul Ricard and Spa-Francorchamps, Stubber finished in 10th place in 2012 and 5th place in 2013.[12]

The 650 hp (485 kW), 6.0 L Chevrolet V8 currently in the Veskanda was built by KRE Race Engines in Queensland. KRE are better known in Australia as engine builders for both V8 Supercars as well as a number of Australia's top Sprintcars.[13][14]