Tasman Revival Meeting

[Torston]

Cars from the 1960s Tasman Series races in New Zealand and Australia will be the centrepiece of a three-day race meeting to be held on the 3.9km Eastern Creek circuit near Sydney on December 1-3, 2006.

Timing of the meeting has been chosen to allow time for former Tasman cars to be shipped to Australia after the end of the northern hemisphere historic season. As well, the December date will echo the Tasman tradition of being held during the northern winter.


The Tasman Series officially started with the introduction from 1964 of an FIA-recognised Tasman Formula for 2 ½-itre cars running on Avgas. The series evolved from international participation in off-season races in New Zealand in the late 1950s, linked from 1961 with similar races in Australia.

In the two countries, these races were the high point of the motor sport year. They brought overseas greats – including world champions Brabham, Clark, Stewart, Hulme, Graham Hill and Phil Hill – to race against the best local drivers, such as Palmer, Stillwell, Matich, Geoghegan, Bartlett and Martin.

The December 2006 meeting is being organised by Historic Sports & Racing Car Association, which was formed in 1981, and which now organises four Historic meetings each year.

HSRCA is seeking to contact owners of cars with Tasman history, and also to contact drivers and behind-the-scenes personnel from the New Zealand and Australian races of the 1960s. The club can be reached either at members@hsrca.org.au or via www.hsrca.org.au

[johnh875]

Sounds interesting Torston, it should also hopefully entice some to enter the historic races at Sandown in Melbourne in November, a track that was used by the cars originally (not to disparage the Creek)

[edholly]

As part of the research for the 1960's Tasman Revival Meeting the following list of drivers and points earned was constructed from contempory magazine articles. This list also includes the yearly points earned, the car and engine and the rank of each driver that year, however when it is transposed into this window the fields run into each other and become very difficult to interpret, if anyone wants a copy of the original file, I can pass via an e-mail.

I don't know whether anyone has ever put these points earned into context before, but they do make for interesting reading, and really show how good the F1 guys were.

There were 38 points earners according to this research....

Total Driver Car

149 Jim Clark

89 Graham Hill

85 Frank Gardiner

80 Chris Amon

80 Jack Brabham

74 Bruce McLaren

60 Jackie Stewart

56 Piers Courage

55 Jim Palmer

38 Denny Hulme

30 Jochen Rindt

29 Richard Attwood


25 Leo Geoghegan

23 Tim Mayer

21 Derek Bell

21 John Youl

16 Kevin Bartlett

15 Bib Stillwell

15 Phil Hill

11 Spencer Martin

8 Frank Matich

8 Pedro Rodriguez

8 Roly Levis

8 Tony Shelly

7 Chris Irwin

7 D.Marwood

7 Graham Lawrence

5 K.Grant

3 J.Riley

3 John Harvey

3 Ian Dawson

2 A.Thomasen

2 Andy Buchanon

2 Glyn Scott

2 K.Sager

2 Paul Boulton

2 Rex Flowers

1 D.Hollier

1 Graham McRae

1 Les Howard

1 Lex Davison

1 Max Stewart

1 W.Stone Brabham

Ranking 1st to 38th finishes here….

[David McKinney]

No Graham Lawrence, Ian Dawson, A Thomasen, Andy Buchanon, Paul Boulton or W Stone ever raced in the Tasman series
(Yes, I am a nit-picker)

[edholly]

Dear David

Your nits are picked

Graham Lawrence drove in the series 66, 67, 68, 69 ..... 66 in a Brabham and 68/9 in an M4a McLaren. for instance in 69 he competed at Sandown, Warwick Farm, Teretonga, Levin and Pukekohe... Points earned for these years were 0, 2, 2, 3

Ian Dawson raced 66,67,68,69 earning points in 67 and 69 in which year he competed at Teretonga, Levin, Pukekehe and Wigram

A Thomasen competed in 1964 earning 2 points in a Cooper at Teretonga

Andy Buchanon earnt 2 points in 1966 at Wigram

Paul Boulton competed in 66,67,68 earning points in 68 and competed that year at Levin and Wigram

W Stone competed in 68 earning a point at Levin

Hope this adds to your Tasman knowledge

regards

Ed

[David McKinney]

Sorry Ed
It was Graeme Lawrence, Red (real name Irvine) Dawson, W J (Bill) Thomasen, Andy Buchanan and Paul Bolton. Stone was known as Bill but in this case it didn't stand for William. He was (and is) A G Stone
I did say we're picking nits

[edholly]

David

After Bryan Miller rang me to say that you were trying to correct my spelling I did end up a little red faced. I had hoped to hop in here and post another reply to that affect but you've beaten me to it.

In looking at the Australian driver's I can see at least one spelt incorrectly there too.

I have tabulated all the known entrants race by race where I found a mention of them, 1961 - 1969 inclusive and you are welcome to have those files. They are taken from the Australian SCW, RCN, and AMS magazines of the period. I am pretty sure I've captured all the Australian drivers, but may have missed some of the early rounds of the NZ side of the Tasman.

Have you ever seen the results for the 2.5 lt Tasman Championship tabulated in this form before ?

Ed