The Tasman Revival meeting is a nostalgic re-enactment of what transpired some 40 years ago. In the swinging sixties, Australia and New Zealand had their own mini Formula One type series of races for single seat racing cars called the TASMAN SERIES. Almost all the Formula One Teams and drivers came “downunder” to enjoy some fun in the sun during the northern hemisphere’s winter. The cars were the Formula One cars of the era and the engines were limited to a maximum of 2.5 litres. For the years to 1965, this was 66% larger than the maximum capacity of Formula One cars.
To put it in perspective, it would be like Ferrari, McLaren, Honda, Renault, Red Bull, Williams etc with drivers like Schumacher, Raikkonen, Alonso, Rosberg, Massa, Webber etc coming here for 10 weeks over summer to contest 8 races, 4 of which would be in Australia and 4 in NZ.
The race meetings of the 1960s Tasman Series included racing for all the current 1960s categories too, sports cars, sedans and other formula cars. The Revival meeting replicates these meetings by including all the categories current in Historic Racing.
In December 2006 the New South Wales based Historic Sports and Racing Car Association (HSRCA) presented the inaugural event. This event attracted some 400 entries, with 22 of them from the UK, USA, Hong Kong and NZ. The event scored rave reviews in the worldwide coverage by the motorsport press. Just like the swinging sixties, there was racing for all forms of motorsport and not just the single seaters.
In 2008 Formula 5000s will be added to the Tasman Formula cars, production sedan cars, production sportscars, sports-racing cars and other forms of single seaters including Formula Junior, Formula Ford and Formula Atlantic which featured in the 2006 programme. 2008 marks the 50th anniversary of the Formula Junior class.
So if you remember names like Brabham, Clark, Stewart, Hill, Moss, Gurney, Rindt , Amon and Gardner and teams like Ferrari, Lotus, BRM, McLaren, Brabham and Cooper or local names like Bartlett, Martin, Leo and Pete Geoghegan, Matich, Beechey, Jane, Moffat and Harvey, then the Tasman Revival is the place to be on the 3 days of November 28, 29 and 30, 2008 at Sydney’s International Eastern Creek Raceway.
How long does it go for?
The Revival will be held over 3 days on the last weekend in November. Why then? Simply to allow time for the cars to be brought to Australia from the UK and USA after the conclusion of their racing seasons. Most of the cars entered from overseas lead a very busy life, racing at places like Nurburgring, Monza, Monaco, Goodwood, Silverstone, Laguna Seca etc and being able to bring them to Australia means that this is pretty much the only time of the year to get access to them. Strangely, not much has changed in 40 odd years.
Activities commence on Thursday with private practice, then qualifying and some racing on Friday 28th. Saturday will see 2 races for all Historic Groups
Sunday will include each of the Historic categories racing for their annual trophies over race distances of 8 – 10 laps with a presentation of the annual trophies immediately following. At midday there will a demonstration of significant cars followed by a parade of drivers and personnel from the 1960s Tasman races. They will be driven around the circuit in open Morgan sports cars. 1.00pm will see the start of the actual Tasman Revival Race over a full 15 laps and a major trophy presentation immediately afterwards. This will be followed by more racing through to around 4 pm.
Put briefly, Sunday will see the cream of Historic Motorsport in Australia in attendance and competing for their annual trophies.
What sort of cars will be there?
The Tasman Revival meeting is not just about 1960s open wheel racing, but is designed to showcase Historic Motorsport as it is in Australia at the present time. Did you know that there is a category for all cars that raced through the ages and that the Formula 5000 and Formula Atlantic (Group R) cars actually lap Eastern Creek in under 1 minute 30 seconds, a full 4 seconds quicker than the current V8 Supercars? Elsewhere on this site is a full listing of all the Historic Categories. (go to The Cars then to View the categories)
The inaugural 2006 Tasman Revival meeting came about through the desire of the HSRCA to recognise a chapter in Australian motorsport history that it believed truly represented our “Golden Era” of motorsport.
The Tasman Revival was designed to bring about a recreation as much as possible of the “atmosphere” that was the 1960s Tasman Series and importantly to give recognition to those who contributed so much at that time.
To go back in time to the 1960s. What the Revival is based on.
The Tasman Series of races began in 1961 and was formalised in 1964 with the introduction of the Tasman Cup, competed for over a number of rounds in Australia and New Zealand. So successful was this formula that it ran until the end of the decade when overseas pressures led to the introduction in Australia of Formula 5000 from 1970.
In each of the early 60s, after the Formula One brigade had ceased competition during the northern winter, some of the drivers and the manufacturers turned their sights to the sunny antipodes. In 1961 such famous names as Brabham, Moss, Hill, Gurney, Salvadori and Ireland made their way out to New Zealand and Australia to compete in Cooper, Lotus and BRM Formula One cars from the season just past.
For the summer of January 1962, the word had really spread and from overseas Brabham, Clark, Surtees, Moss and McLaren joined the other Europe-based drivers. And for the first time there was a car called the MRD, the first racing car constructed by our own Jack Brabham and the only racing car given that name as all subsequent cars were known as Brabham BTs.
The ‘63 summer season was the same, but by now there was a realisation that a series could be formulated around what was a number of unrelated races in both New Zealand and Australia. And so for the 64 season the Tasman Championship for the Tasman Cup was launched.
The Tasman Championship became a huge success, with many thousands of spectators turning up to watch the best drivers in the world compete at our Australian venues. Every world champion driver in the 1960s raced on Australian tracks during the period.
Of course Sydney's venue was the spectacular Warwick Farm circuit, built around the Australian Jockey Club’s famous horse racing track. The internationals found this to be very challenging. Although at first glance it looked fast and sweeping, it was in fact a very difficult track to master. The larger-engined cars did not enjoy too much advantage over their smaller-engined brethren as they did at Sandown and Longford with their very long fast straights, so “the Farm” was always a very popular place for all of our local homegrown heroes. Eastern Creek International Raceway is a bit like Warwick Farm.
Between 1964 and 1969 under the 2.5 litre Formula, 22 Tasman races were contested in Australia, and 24 races conducted in New Zealand.
From January 1970 the formula was changed to F5000. Expansion of the Formula One season at that time meant the Formula One teams had no time to make the journey “downunder”. Although the Tasman races continued, the series had taken another direction.
Evolution in the Seventies
The introduction of Formula 5000 in the USA and UK in the late 1960s heralded a new generation of open-wheel racing. Powered by production-based V8 5-litre engines, the new formula attracted manufacturers such as McLaren, Lola, Chevron, Surtees and Eagle to supply chassis to meet a steady demand.
For 1970 the Tasman Series included a mixture of cars from both the old and new formulas. From 1971 the focus was on the thundering high-horsepower machines, favoured by a stream of overseas visitors (including regular competitors Frank Gardner and Chris Amon) and an increasing group of locals. Adding to the diverse fields were locally produced chassis from Matich and Elfin in Australia, and Begg in NZ.
The noise and spectacular sideways action provided by these mechanical monsters ensured popular support amongst crowds who witnessed local drivers competing on level terms with the best from overseas. Local drivers fared well with Kiwis Graham Lawrence (1970) and Graham McRae (1971-3) claiming the Championship before UK champ Peter Gethin took the Cup back overseas in 1974.
Sydney’s Warwick Brown fulfilled years of promise by securing the Tasman Cup in 1975, becoming the only Australian to be honoured on the prestigious trophy. Brown would later progress to international stardom driving for the Belgian-based VDS Racing Team.
1975 marked the final year in which the Tasman Series was contested. The series had not only highlighted the driving careers of established local stars such as Matich, Bartlett, Stewart, Allen and Lawrence but also nurtured the emerging talents of those such as Brown, McCormack, Walker, Goss, Leffler and Oxton.
Although New Zealand organised a separate series in 1976 and changed formula in 1977, F5000 continued in Australia between 1976 and 1979 with focus on the Rothmans International Series. Racing on the traditional circuits used for the Australian legs of the former Tasman Cup, the abbreviated series featured overseas-based Aussies Vern Schuppan (victor in 1976), Alan Jones, Warwick Brown (who won again in 1977-8) and the returning Larry Perkins (champion in 1979).
