KENNY ACHESON: I NEVER REGARDED MYSELF AS A FORMULA 1 DRIVER
Sitting proudly at Kenny Acheson’s home is a copy of his multiple title-winning Formula Ford car, a Royale RP24.
Acheson had driven a very similar model to a hat-trick of 1600cc championships in 1978, marking himself out as a star of the future.
His path to the top took him briefly into the RAM Formula 1 team in 1983 and then another cameo at the end of 1985, but the grand prix world passed him by.
He made a big impact in sportscar racing, however, and drove some of the era’s most memorable machines, including a Sauber C9, the Jaguar XJR-12 and Toyota’s TS010 .
But, at the end of 1996, he walked away from the sport to set up a hugely successful business in the beauty world with his wife Fiona.
Rarely doesAcheson walk down memory lane and remember his on-track achievements. He says he doesn’t like to dwell on what has gone before, so the lockdown purchase of the Royale might seem a little out of character.
He has no plans to return to the cockpit, but just wants to have a glimpse into his personal history parked in his garage.
“There are some cars that you have an emotional attachment to,” he explains.
“My kids don’t remember me racing, and buying the car was one of those things: it doesn’t makes sense, but I could do it and it is nice to have.”
Acheson gave his time to Motorsport News to allow us to pose the readers’questions, and the results are intriguing.
Question: Your dad, Harry, raced in Formula Ford too, so how early did you get the motorsport bug?
John Charles Via email
Kenny Acheson: “My first real love was actually motorbikes. Dad used to race bikes for fun in Ireland in the 1950s and his big brothers did too. He only did it for a year or two but, in the early 1960s, I grew up by getting taken along to road races. The Cookstown 100 is one of the races and I grew up there. I went to the North West 200. My first Ulster Grand Prix was in 1964 at Dundrod. I loved it. My parents knew quite a lot of the riders. The problem was that people got killed doing it, so I was never enthused to go down that route myself. My parents would never have wanted me to race motorbikes anyway because of the danger.
“My father, when he was 40, bought a Formula Ford car – a Lotus 51, and that was in 1969, not long after Formula Ford had started. He raced quite successfully in Ireland. That was proper club racing. [Future F1 star] John Watson was doing Formula Libre and the scene was good, that is what took me down the racing route.
“I had learned to drive on tractors and things like that but, in 1975, I drove the car and the trailer to Kirkistown and when we got there, Dad asked me if I would like to have a go. I think I got within a couple of seconds of the lap record on my first go. Dad obviously thought that I wasn’t bad and so, for 1976, we shared the car and then, after that, he was there supporting me racing in Ireland. I won the Northern Ireland
