Tasman Revival Meeting

[Torston]

One of the big historic meetings for next year will be the Tasman Revival Meeting in December at the Eastern Creek International Raceway in Sydney. It will cover that marvellous era of the 1960s with the 2.5 litre Ferraris, Lotus, Brabhams, McLarens and Coopers etc. Details are now available (with a registration of interest form) on the HSRCA club web site at: www.hsrca.org.au

[275 GTB-4]

I don't think Mr Holly would mind me reproducing what he said recently:

'Planning for this event is now well underway.'

The steering committee consists of:- Peter Addison, Paul Hamilton, Brian Caldersmith, Stephen Knox, Bruce Richardson, Barry Carr, John Murn, Geoff Piggott, Wes Dayton, Ed Holly.

For further information please look at the Historic Sports and Racing Car Association's (HSRCA) at www.hsrca.org.au and go to the Tasman Revival section.
Emails can be sent to members@hsrca.org.au

Sorry, I'm sure you are right about Ed Holly, but there are nevertheless copywrite issues here, so I have deleted the main body of the text. If you can paste a direct link to the quotation, that would be fine, thanks. - John Turner

[Raglanparade]

Why Eastern Creek though ?? It was never a Tasman circuit.

I would have thought Lakeside, Sandown or Bathurst would be more 'historic' venues.

[Torston]

In fact Warwick Farm would be the most appropriate, but that's long gone.
The HSRCA doesn't run meetings outside NSW and Bathurst was never a Tasman circuit - even if you could afford to run a meeting there.

[275 GTB-4]

Originally Posted by Torston

In fact Warwick Farm would be the most appropriate, but that's long gone.
The HSRCA doesn't run meetings outside NSW and Bathurst was never a Tasman circuit - even if you could afford to run a meeting there.

I believe the HSRCA are strongly associated with the HRCC (QLD) [http://www.hrcc.org.au/] so..... maybe a return to Lakeside would be appropriate??

Thinking selfishly though, the main population base of Australia is centred around SYD and MEL, therefore, to give the event the best chance maybe EC isn't such a bad option

[johnh875]

What would be fantastic is if there was a true Tasman Series revival - rather than just the one meeting, have one in Vic & Qld as well. At least a feature could be made of the Tasman cars at the existing Sandown historic race meeting in Nov. Surely the opportunity to do a few races would be more enticing for overseas owners to bring their cars?

[spook]

Unfortunately, Lakeside is not an option for 2006.

The circuit is now in the hands of the local council who wish to limit motoring activity at the venue. It no longer has a track licence, promoter, or planning permission to conduct motor sport.

As an aside, Lakeside hosted a Tasman Round in 1964, 1966, 1967 and 1969. Surfers Paradise International Raceway (now destroyed by urban development) hosted Tasman Rounds in 1968, 1970, 71, 72, 73, 74, and in 1975. Only 3 Australian Circuits that hosted Tasman Rounds from 1964 to 1975 still exist - Sandown Park, Adelaide International Raceway and Oran Park - the rest have all gone - Warwick Farm, Surfers, Lakeside, and Longford. Sad but true.

[edholly]

It has been a while since the last update of the 1960s Tasman Revival planning, so I thought I would address that with this brief update.

Can I ask you to keep an eye on our Website www.hsrca.org.au as in the remaining weeks it will list all our press releases and other info there.

The HSRCA has been loaned the Tasman Cup by Motor Sport New Zealand.

This magnificent trophy has engraved on it the winners, Bruce McLaren 1964, Jim Clark 65, Jackie Stewart 66, Jim Clark 67, Jim Clark 68, Chris Amon 69, from the period the 1960s Tasman Revival is representing. The cup will take pride of place in the memorabilia marquee “The Tasman Experience” over the weekend

From 1970, the Tasman Formula was expanded to include F5000 cars and lost a lot of the overseas Formula one teams, who had made the trip for the previous 6 years and consequently lost some of the stature of the period we are presenting.

We are very luck in that Clive Chapman will be here, as well as 3 of Classic Team Lotus car’s. It is planned that Clive will drive the 1963 Formula 1 ex Jim Clark Lotus 25 from the John Dawson-Damer collection, in the demonstration on the Sunday.

Sir John Whitmore will be here also, and Sir John will be competing in both a Lotus Elite and a Lotus Cortina decked out in the Alan Mann colours.

It has been suggested that the 1960s Tasman Revival meeting should have been at a traditional Tasman circuit. Unfortunately Lakeside, Surfers, Warwick Farm and Longford no longer exist for Motor sport as it is now. Sandown exists, but it is a long way from NSW where the HSRCA is based, and for us could not be a consideration. There really was no alternative to Eastern Creek, despite the sentimentalities; it really has to be considered as replacing Warwick Farm. It lacks the Farm’s character for us old guys, but it is an International class circuit and does have good facilities with a tarmac pits, clean toilets, good garaging. It lacks good spectator appeal, but we always figured that a lot of spectators would spend a lot of time perving on the cars.

Presently there are 15 cars on the water, these are listed in a separate post immediately following this one.

Cars for the Tasman Revival race itself will run without wings. In the planning stages this was discussed robustly and the conclusion was that these cars would have an unfair advantage over their earlier brethren. And almost without exception, cars that ran wings, did run without them in previous years, so historically they could be there without them, representing that earlier time. And again to be historically correct, the wings would have to be suspension mounted, and that was banned for safety reasons many years ago.


The meeting itself is a 3 day meeting. The mix of cars will be as per the Historic CAMS Groupings and we may even have the luxury of running a separate Group M races from a Group O races, which would be a first to my knowledge. We already have 26 M racing cars and 40 O racing cars, not including the 25 sports racing cars from these 2 categories. However the Tasman Revival race itself, will naturally call on all genuine Tasman history cars first and then be made up of similar cars up to 2.5 litre, with an allowance for those genuine 2.5 cars that ran in the Tasman races that have now been fitted with a 3 litre engine. All this and entries still have another 8 days before close, and everyone knows there’s usually a late flurry of entries.

And the JKL and Q & R boys are really supporting us too with 36 open wheelers from the latter’s ranks and fabulous 28 from the former’s already entered and again entries still being accepted for 8 days yet.

Friday and Saturday will see racing for all Historic Groups with the exception of Groups C and Group A historic touring cars. Sunday will see only those categories that have the majority of their heritage finishing at the end of 1969, with Nc being the only category to have a few model run-ons in the very early 70s.

There will be a very large memorabilia display housed in a 20 x 20 metre marquee at the eastern end of the pits and a trade marquee in keeping with the 1960s feel at the opposite end of the pits. Most of the tarmac area will have marquees erected for the pre-70s cars and the post 70s cars will be housed in the garages. Upstairs, the Horsely room will have a photographic display with some wonderful period photos being loaned to us.

But this meeting is not just about the cars. There were some wonderful characters and drivers from that period of 36 plus years ago, and we are hopeful that many friendships from back then will be rekindled as some our invitees see each other again after who knows how long.

Most of us on the committee have grey hair (if any) and most of us were at Tasman meetings at the time as spectators, scrutineers etc. Our Patron Frank Gardner has given us every encouragement as has Leo Geoghegan, and KB and John Stranger and many other wonderful people from back then.

So that about completes this little update, don’t forget to check out our website from time to time, and tell your friends to come, tickets can be purchased from ticketmaster.

Oh one last thing, have you seen the recent edition of Vintage Racecar, with emblazoned on the front cover Tasman Revival Special Edition.

Ed Holly for the 1960s Tasman Revival Steering committee

[

[edholly]

B]From USA[/B]

Tyrrell 004 Cosworth DFV owner/driver : John Dimmer - Tacoma, Washington, USA
1971 F1 car driven by Jackie Stewart, Francois Cevert and Patrick Depailer in 1972 world championship GP events.

Lotus 35 Climax 2.5 driver : Carolyn Dimmer (John’s sister)
1965 Tasman formula car originally built as a works F2 car with 1 litre Cosworth engine for Ron Harris Team Lotus. Rebuilt 1966/67 to Tasman specification and driven in the US by Ed Marshall and Vernon Shields.

Brabham BT4 Climax 2.5 owner/driver : David Jacobs – Boulder, Colorado USA
1963 Tasman formula car used by Jack Brabham to win the 1963 AGP at Warwick Farm and driven in the 1964 Tasman series by Denny Hulme and subsequently by Australian Lex Davison.

Brabham BT23C Cosworth FVA 1.6 owner/driver : Phil Harris – Hilliard, Ohio, USA
1968 Formula 2 car identical to cars driven in the Tasman series by Denny Hulme and others.

Old Yeller II owner/driver : Ernie Nagamatsu – Los Angeles, California, USA
Old Yeller is a 1958 6.5 litre Buick V8 powered sports car which was something of an icon in sports car racing in the USA in the late 1950’s when driven by its constructor Max Balchowsky and, on occasion, by Dan Gurney. Balchowsky delighted in ‘stirring’ the owners of more sophisticated factory built cars by highlighting the car’s simple specification and always used ‘whitewall’ tyres as part of that image.

New Zealand cars ex-Monterey (return to NZ)

McLaren M23 Cosworth DFV owner / driver : Phil Mauger – Christchurch NZ
1973 F1 car driven in world championship GP events by Denny Hulme who took it home to NZ with him after his retirement.

McLaren M4A Cosworth FVA 1.6 owner / driver : Lindsay O’Donnell – Christchurch NZ
1967 F2 car driven in the European F2 championship by Jo Schlesser and identical to cars driven in the Tasman series in 1968/69 by Piers Courage, Neil Allen, Jim Palmer and Graeme Lawrence.

From UK

Lotus 32B Climax 2.5 Classic Team Lotus / driver : Malcolm Ricketts (UK)
1964 Tasman formula car used by Jim Clark to win the 1965 Tasman Series and subsequently driven by Jim Palmer (NZ) and Greg Cusack (Aust.)

Lotus 49B Cosworth DFV Classic Team Lotus / driver : Dan Collins (UK)
1968 F1/Tasman formula car driven by Jochen Rindt in the 1969 Tasman series including a notable win in a very wet race at Warwick Farm. Used in 1969 world championship GPs by Graham Hill and in 1970 by Emerson Fittipaldi.

Lotus 58 Cosworth FVA 1.6 Classic Team Lotus / driver : Denis Welch (UK)
An experimental F2 car built to test De Dion suspension systems. The car was prepared for use by Graham Hill in the 1969 Tasman series but was not used.

Brabham BT7 Climax 1.5 V8 owner / driver : James King – Belleville, Illinois USA
1963 F1 car driven by Dan Gurney to win the French and Mexican GPs in 1964. The first Brabham to win a grand prix. Subsequently driven by Denny Hulme and Giancarlo Baghetti.

Brabham BT14 Lotus TC 1.6 owner / driver Rodger Newman (UK)
1965 F2 car driven by Rodney Bloor in several European F1 races and identical to cars of this type which were used in Tasman series events.

Cooper T79 Climax 2.5 owner / driver : Bob Woodward – Dubuque, Iowa USA
1964 Tasman formula car driven by Bruce McLaren to finish 2nd in the 1965 Tasman series. Although built at the Cooper factory Bruce McLaren was largely responsible for the design and construction of this car which is therefore sometimes regarded as the first McLaren car.

Kieft GP Climax 2.5 Godiva V8 owner : Bill Morris (UK) driver : Greg Snape (Aust)
This car was intended for use in the new 2.5 litre world championship F1 in 1954/55 but was not completed when Coventry Climax withdrew its 2.5 litre V8 engine from use because of concerns that its power output was inadequate. The car was completed in recent years by Bill Morris for use in historic events and it now appears likely that it would in fact have been competitive if raced when initially built.

Lotus 18 Climax 1.5 owner / driver : John Elliot (UK)
1961 F1 car driven by Wolfgang Seidel and Kurt Kuhnke in European GP events. Cars of this type were driven in early Tasman style events by Stirling Moss, Ron Flockhart and others.

From New Zealand

Brabham BT22 Climax 2.5 owner / driver : Roger Munns – Auckland NZ
1966 Tasman formula car driven in the 1967 Tasman series by Jim Palmer (NZ).

Brabham BT18 Lotus TC 1.6 owner / driver : Rodin Wootton – Auckland NZ
1966 F2 car driven in Tasman series events by Roly Levis (NZ)

Brabham BT18 Lotus TC 1.6 owner / driver : Eli Solomon – Hong Kong
1966 F2/F3 car now in the same specification as cars driven in the Tasman series by Roly Levis, Graeme Lawrence and others.

Lago Talbot 26C GP owner / driver : Peter Giddings – Alamo, California USA
1946 Grand Prix car used extensively in European GP events during 1946/51 and similar to that used by Doug Whiteford to win the AGP in 1952 and 1953.

Begg Daimler 2.5 owner / driver : Brian Wilson Grant – Auckland NZ
Built by NZ constructor George Begg in 1967 for use in Tasman events although the car did not ever race in the series.

BBM Mk.2 Mercedes owner / driver : Ken Williams – Auckland NZ
Built and raced in 1964 in South Australia by Dud Dansie using a supercharged Holden engine.

[Chatters]

There is a God!

[cavvy]

What about the Brabham BT11a that won on debut, with Graham Hill at the NZGP in 1965 later to win the Gold Star driven by Spencer Martin sponsored by Shell & owned by Bob Jane.
It is still a part of the Jane collection - will it be there?

[edholly]

The Sydney Motor Show starts today.

Check out the Shannon's stand where we have Peter Simm's Brabham and Ian Ross's Elfin both looking magnificent on display to promote the Tasman Revival meeting.

The HSRCA will be manning the stand there throughout the 10 days of the show and will be handing out a flyer based on the A1 size poster. So if you get a chance to get there, come and say hello.

By the way, these posters, which will become a collector's item in their own right, are available from our Promotion's man

Ian McKenzie
E-mail Address
ian_gap@optusnet.com.au

they measure a whopping 850 x 600 mm, have a gloss finish and come posted in a cardboard tube all for $15.

[edholly]

I seen the BT11a mentioned by cavvy at the Bathurst Museum a while back. It had very wide wheels and looked beautifully presented. It is still owned by Bob Jane who had loaned it to the Museum.

We are hopeful of having the car at the Tasman Revival meeting, however it will only be for display, and maybe run in the demonstration which will be for significant cars that the owners do not wish to race.

[Chatters]

Ed, will you yourself be at the Motor show, and if so what days will you be there, I'd love to say hi and have a chat about the meeting (and the Tasman Series in general if you have the time!)?

[edholly]

My stint will be Thursday night from 1700hrs till close.

We have Peter Simm's BT23A and Ian Ross's Elfin 600B on display there. These 2 cars are very beautifully presented and attract a lot of attention. Peter's car was Sir Jack's in 1967 for the Tasman Championship that year.

I was there with Barry Carr and Mark Alchin from 1500 to around 1830 yesterday. It was very busy with thousands of people at the show, and our little display, courtesy of Shannon's was extremely poplular. Most of the guys over about 40 could remember Warwick Farm and that was the cue to tell them what we were doing at Eastern Creek. 99% then took a flyer.

[edholly]

We have uploaded the latest entry list on the website. How does 29 M Racing, 44 O racing and 32 M & O SportsRacing cars sound ?

Add to this great support from both JKL and Q and R Racing with 33 and 37 entries resp.

http://www.hsrca.org.au/media/Tasman_Entries.pdf

Should put a on everyones dial.

[Slippy Diff]

What group will the Lotus 58 driven by Denis Welch be in?

Thanks

[edholly]

You have picked an interesting car. Others may be able to expand on my limited knowledge of it.

I believe it was built specifically for the Tasman Series in 68 for Graham Hill. However when he found out others were bringing 49Bs then he demanded one of them too and did in fact come out with one.

The car is interesting in that it is built with beam axles both ends. Now Chapman may have had a pretty good crystal ball, because as we know now, the ERAs are certainly no slower than the independent sprung one. So who knows how it would have gone, maybe we will find out !!

It will be in group O and is scheduled to be in the Tasman race.

[Chatters]

Do you have a schedule of events I can base my weekend around Ed? Cheers.

[edholly]

We are currently working on that. Will try to post when it is set, won't be for a few days yet.

[Chatters]

OK, thanks.

[Slippy Diff]

Originally Posted by edholly

You have picked an interesting car. Others may be able to expand on my limited knowledge of it.

I believe it was built specifically for the Tasman Series in 68 for Graham Hill. However when he found out others were bringing 49Bs then he demanded one of them too and did in fact come out with one.

The car is interesting in that it is built with beam axles both ends. Now Chapman may have had a pretty good crystal ball, because as we know now, the ERAs are certainly no slower than the independent sprung one. So who knows how it would have gone, maybe we will find out !!

It will be in group O and is scheduled to be in the Tasman race.

Cheers.

[Andrew Fellowes]

Originally Posted by edholly

I believe it was built specifically for the Tasman Series in 68 for Graham Hill. However when he found out others were bringing 49Bs then he demanded one of them too and did in fact come out with one.

I think that was the same year Warwick Banks came over, he told me he & Graham had a great time together in Sydney where they hired, of all things, 'cause both were tall, a mini to drive around in!!

My thanks to the HSRCA for listing the new Group QA for Eastern Creek, the very first time this new group has run, even if there will only be 2 cars in the group! (shortly to be renamed Group P). Wings & treaded.

-yeah, yeah, yeah, I know real racing cars don't have mud guards, but only fairies have wings!

[edholly]

The programme has been set and is posted on our website, or use this link

http://www.hsrca.org.au/media/Tasman...%20Program.pdf

Ed

[Shoey]

Is this going to become an annual event?