Motorsport: Class is in for old-school car fans

Chris Hyde will contest the meetings in a McRae GM1. Photo / Alex Mitchell

The news just gets better and better for the many fans of the Formula 5000 racing cars that raced in the Tasman Series in the late 1970s.

Twenty of them fought it out at the first round of the 2009-10 MSC New Zealand F5000 Tasman Cup Revival Series at Feilding's Manfeild circuit in November. But the great news is as many as 47 of the crowd-pleasing V8-engined classics are set to line up for at least the next two rounds.

The bumper numbers come from two distinct sources - a healthy increase in the numbers of cars based here in New Zealand, and an unprecedented number coming from overseas for the two New Zealand Festival of Motor Racing meetings celebrating Bruce McLaren. The consecutive meetings take place at the new Hampton Downs circuit in the north Waikato on January 22-24 and Pukekohe Park Raceway on January 29-31.

The inaugural festival hosts two of the six rounds of this season's MSC series with the 30-plus strong New Zealand contingent set to be joined by as many as 20 visiting drivers, with the numbers split fairly evenly between Australia, Britain and the United States.

Further good news has come from Australia with final confirmation of the dates and places on the programme for the revival series cars - at the biennial VHRR Phillip Island Classic meeting at Phillip Island in Victoria on March 20-21 2010, and the Formula 1 ING Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park in downtown Melbourne the following weekend.

Last season the MSC series attracted 24 drivers from New Zealand, eight from Australia, four from Britain and one each from the United States and Canada. And with all the local regulars including 2008-09 MSC series winner Ken Smith, runner-up Tony Richards and third-placed Aaron Burson committed to returning, the New Zealand-based series will be one of the best supported classic or contemporary series running over the 2009-10 summer motor racing season.

Helping swell the number of local cars are several newcomers (in name only), among them former ShellSport saloon racer Peter Sundberg from Auckland, well-known classic saloon competitor Warwick Mortimer from Matakana, north of Auckland, V8 Sports Sedan racer Brett Willis from Rotorua and former Truck and SuperGT racer Calven Bonney from Auckland. Sundberg has bought the ex-Kevin Bartlett and Johnnie Walker 1979 Australian Grand Prix-winning Lola T332 from series regular Stan Redmond and will run it in its original (Bartlett) Chesterfield colours.

Mortimer, whose own career pedigree also goes back to saloon cars and the 1970s, has imported an early Surtees TS5 from Britain, Willis has just had a Lola T330 fully rebuilt by Christchurch specialist Motorsport Solutions, and Bonney has bought the last of the locally made Beggs, the 018 originally driven by Jim Murdoch, and more recently owned and raced by Christchurch's Phil Mauger and Invercargill's Noel Atley.

Also in new cars for the 2009-10 season will be Stan Redmond, who is busy preparing a late model T333CS used by Warwick Brown to win the Rothmans International Series in Australia in 1978, as well as Aucklander Aaron Burson, Dunedin man Steve Ross, young Feilding driver Tim Rush and 2007-08 MSC series champion Chris Hyde.

Burson and Ross have both bought McRae GM1s, Burson the car Canadian Jay Esterer raced in the MSC series last season, Ross the one Christchurch's Chris Hyde used to win the 2007-08 MSC title, while Rush has bought rare McLaren M22 from Aucklander Tony Roberts.

Hyde will also be behind the wheel of a McRae GM1, but this time it is the one series regular Stu Lush from Auckland has been running for the past four years.

Roberts and respected New Zealand race engineer Duncan Fox have played a key role in seeding the MSC series, having first bought, and put back on the grid, the Talon MR1A Aaron Burson has raced for the past two seasons, then the McLaren M22 Roberts himself has driven.

The sale of that car is part of a continuing process, the pair already hard at work on its replacement, a McLaren M10B. Friend and business partner Chris Watson is also playing his part, having bought another rare car, an Australian-made Gardos, for use in the MSC series.

Joining these New Zealand-based car-driver combinations at the two New Zealand Festival of Motor Racing meetings will be as many as 10 combinations from Britain, seven from Australia and at least one from the United States. From Britain are regular MSC series visitors Frank and Judy Lyons and their son Mick (Lola T332, Eagle FA74 and Lola T400 respectively), plus 2008-09 series visitor Mark Dwyer (Lola T332) and first-time New Zealand visitors Peter Dunn (March 73A), Neil Glover (Lola T330), Daryl Taylor (Chevron B28), Greg Thornton (Surtees TS11) and Michael Whatley (Surtees TS8).

Boosting the number of McLaren cars being shipped in for the two New Zealand rounds are the M10B of American driver Bruce Leeson (who contested the three Australian rounds of the MSC series last season) and the M10B of British-based Kiwi Grant Clearwater.

Finally, helping to keep the field numbers over 40 for the final two series rounds across the Tasman will be 11 Australian-based car/driver combinations; Aaron Lewis (Chevron B24/28), Andrew Robson (Lola T332), D'arcy Russell (Lola T330), Graham Smith (March 73A), Phillip Lewis (Matich A50), Ken James (Elfin MR8C), Paul Trevethan (Elfin MR6 L), Bill Hemming (Elfin MR8A-C), Bob Harborow (Lola T192), Tony Floreani (Elfin MR5) and John Bryant (Lola T140).

For more information, go to www.nzfmr.co.nz.

* Formula 5000 revival

Formula 5000 (or F5000) was a racing formula that ran different series in various regions around the world from 1968 to 1982. It was originally intended as a low-cost series aimed at open-wheel racing cars that no longer fit into any particular formula. The 5000 denomination comes from the maximum 5.0 litre engine capacity allowed. Manufacturers included McLaren, Eagle, March, Lola, Lotus and Chevron.

In Australia and New Zealand, F5000 replaced the FIA Intercontinental Formula in the Tasman Series from 1970. The Tasman Series ran during the Formula One off-season in the European winter, and in the late 1960s it had attracted the attention of the greatest names in Grand Prix racing, from locals Bruce McLaren and Jack Brabham to foreigners like Graham Hill and Jim Clark.

However, by the 1970s, the Tasman Series had become a competitive Australian/New Zealand local championship, but the more famous names were no longer taking part in the races, leaving the field to be dominated by the cream of "Downunder" drivers, racing against a few Europeans. The four Australian Formula 5000 Tasman races continued (separate from the New Zealand races) as the Rothmans International Series from 1976 until 1979.

Source: target="_blank">www.f5000.co.nz