FORMULA HOLDEN

[marcus]

Australia's top open wheel class is Formula Holden. formed in 1989 and running under the banner of Formula Brabham for a few years the class changed its name to Formula Holden so the general public in Australia could indentify with it as not many people can recall the great effort sir Jack brabham put in while competing in F1.
so what is Formula Holden..basically it is Australian Formula 3000..they use Formula 3000 chassis carbon fibre and aluminium tubs (aluminium tubs run in the silver star class, sort of the lites class)wheelbase is 109 inches and all chassis of course have to be FIA crash tested.They use Dunlop radial tyres (a control tyre) and the fronts are 10 inch and the rears are 14 inch. the engine is a production based Holden V6 engine that pumps out an impressive 340 horsepower at 6,750 rpm making them the fastest race cars in Australia (even faster than V8 supercar) coupled to this is a 5 speed gearbox and sequential shift is allowed to be used.they weigh around 1,540 pounds (675kg)including driver and can reach a top speed in excess of 165 mph (260kph).

so as you can see these are quite potent little machines and are gaining a good following here in australia and the class is also used in New Zealand. many of australia's top drivers have come through this class including Craig lowndes,Jason Bright,Mark larkham and New Zealands Simon wills just to name a few.
so far in 2000 the points standings after 4 of 8 rounds stands as this.

overall standings (gold star award)
1.Christian Murchison 114
2.Simon wills 107
3.matthew halliday 79
4.paul Dumbrell 56
5.tim leahey 54

for the silver star
1.peter hill 110
2.Ian Peters 80
3.les Crampton 57
4.Mark Ellis 38
5.gary Haywood 35

so thats formula Holden..hope it helps some people realise what its all about and you can check out all the info on the series at http://www.fholden.asn.au



the start at Phillip Island.



championship leader Murchison locks it up.

(all picks from the formula holden website)



[Edited by marcus on 15th June 2000]

[marcus]

hope this helps Dan

[Crash Test]

I was looking for this to put the pics...obviously i need my eyes tested or something!

[Dan Friel]

Cheers for the info... it would seem that Holden is everything the British F3000 was not!! But at least we have BOSS I guess. These cars are just too expensive to run.

[Warwick]

It's only used in NZ for two races a year,which Simon Wills has dominated the last two years,Teretonga and Ruapuna make up the series,although next year it moves north to Manfield and Pukekohe.Scott Dixon and Jason Bright have both moved on to Indy Lights after competing in this class.

[marcus]

I had to look hard for it myself crash test..if ya want the old topics try moving the "show topics from last ** days section..and there you have all the old stuff.

hey warwick..i know they only use them for the tasman series thing..and i know you used to have formula pacific over there...but your post has got me thinking...what is the top level of openwheelers in NZ since these cars are only used for 2 races ????

[Crash Test]

"show topics from last ** days section.."
-I went for 100 days...i dont know what i was doing....

Well New Zealand has FFord doesn't it?

[YZ250]

Does anyone have any pictures from this series ? Preferably the 2000 series. One of our members is creating the series for rFactor Racing Simulator. He is having difficulty tracking down liveries.

Any help would be appreciated.

www.adrenalinfactor.com

[gomick]

google "2000 formula holden" & click on images - see what comes up : www.peters-racing.com , www.ralt.com.au etc

[courageous]

Is this a new record for bumping an old thread?

Anyhows - can anyone say what happened / is happening with OzBoss / Formula Holden?

Last race that I can find any info on was back in May (2 entries, which probably answers the question)

[mountainstar]

I thought it was long dead.

I know some of the old Formula Holden cars ended up in the USA racing in historics. I think the appeal was the indy lights buick engine in a F3000 chassis.

[YZ250]

Thank you for the replies fellas, yeah i did see the thread was very old, but this place with its members, has a wealth of racing knowledge, so thought I would start here.

Cheers and thanks

YZ

[Graz]

A few of these cars (approx. 6) made their way to Ireland also and race in Formula Libre over here.

[blaarg]

What happened to Formula Holden is a real shame; it certainly gained itself popularity in the mid to late 90's as a feeder class.

[gomick]

v8 suprcars became even more popular, was the pinnacle in oz & you could earn a good living.... formula holden was too expensive, lack of cars & if you went overseas you needed even more money!
was great when blokes like jason bright & scotty dixon where racing though

[Jeff 8]

Originally Posted by blaarg

What happened to Formula Holden is a real shame; it certainly gained itself popularity in the mid to late 90's as a feeder class.

I think Formula 3 has taken over, not just taking the CAMS Gold Star but becoming the premier open wheeler class in Australia. It is in line with other countries which attracts overseas drivers and local drivers aspiring to drive open wheelers overseas see it as more of a direct stepping stone to Brit F3 or Euro F3.

Australian F3 seems to have better grids and better racing than Formula Holden provided for many years. Formula Holden ended up being a class for old drivers who could spend lots of money on a race weekend rather than where young talent gained experience to go on to drives in V8 Supercars or overseas open wheelers. Also its many name changes hardly made it popular or easy to follow for the fans.

Jeff

[blaarg]

F3 was always positioned to become the better of the two categories.

I wouldn't mind seeing a national openwheeler class accomodate the same engines as V8Supercars.

[MCWB]

F5000 V2? Now that would be awesome to see.

[Mak]

Originally Posted by MCWB

F5000 V2? Now that would be awesome to see.

Maybe the old A1GP car fits the bill. lol. It would be cool but cost a fortune!

[Jeff 8]

Originally Posted by Mak

Maybe the old A1GP car fits the bill. lol. It would be cool but cost a fortune!

They may be sold at a bargain price, along with the old V8 SC engines. But we might end up with three series with tiny grids.

The OZBoss field had an old Formula Holden with a V8 Lexus engine. It was certainly quick in a straight line but was an old chassis.

Jeff

[jondownunder]

Originally Posted by YZ250

Does anyone have any pictures from this series ?

I know you were looking for 2000, but it seems very hard to find pictures of the series in general, especially the early years. The two sites gomick mentioned seem to dominate the results of any search. I did find a few interesting pics:

Mark Skaife 1990:
http://www.zenio-photographer.com/ph...p%20Island.jpg

Neil Crompton 1990:
http://www.zenio-photographer.com/ph...p%20Island.jpg

Mark Larkham 1991, 1992 and 1993:
http://www.autopics.com.au/cache/lis....html?cache=no
http://www.autopics.com.au/cache/lis....html?cache=no
http://www.autopics.com.au/cache/lis....html?cache=no