When New Zealand’s Graham McRae took out the 1973 Tasman Series he become the first – and only – driver to win the Series three years in a row.

His winning mount for 1973 was the hot pink McRae GM1 Chevrolet, powered by British developed Alan Smith engines. McRae was running hot, having just returned from winning the rich L&M Formula 5000 series in the United States.

Graham is pictured in this ad for Australian petroleum company Ampol at Adelaide International Raceway. Interestingly the image is from the 1972 series, as the following McLaren M10B is driven by Kevin Bartlett, Kevin entered a Lola T300 in the 1973 Tasman. Despite his success, Adelaide proved to be unkind to McRae as he failed to finish at this round in both 1972 and 1973.

With the introduction of Formula 5000 to the Tasman Series the stars of Formula One no longer made the long haul down under each summer. However for 1973, there was an intensely competitive field of New Zealanders, Australians and some well credentialed internationals.

The man most pundits expected to be McRae’s strongest opposition was Frank Matich, fresh from his dominant victory in the Australian Drivers Championship – or Gold Star. Ultimately Matich endured a patchy run, winning only once at Surfers Paradise.

Local hopes also rested with big name Formula 5000 heroes like Max Stewart, Kevin Bartlett, David Oxton, Johnnie Walker, Warwick Brown and John McCormack in the Ansett Team Elfin MR5 Repco.

The US contingent was led by Sam Posey. Sam came to the Tasman Series with a big reputation and experience in American Formula 5000, Indianapolis and Le Mans. From England came Alan Rollinson, one of the name drivers of British and European Formula 5000 racing, along with his 24 year old cousin, and relative new comer, Steve Thompson. The cousins would score a win a piece during the series.

McRae opened his account with a troubled run to fourth at Round 1 at Pukekohe, where a pit stop to replace two damaged wheels dropped him well off the leaders. Victory a week later at Levin and another at the Wigram Airfield Circuit near Christchurch made for a strong New Zealand leg. A consistent run in the early Australian rounds kept McRae well in the hunt, and his third victory of the series at Sandown’s penultimate round in Melbourne sealed his third consecutive Tasman crown.

Tragically the days of the Tasman Series were numbered, costs and a shift in popularity towards sedan racing sealed its fate. What had once been the pinnacle series of the southern hemisphere ended with the last race held at Sandown Raceway in February 1975.

James Meale

Via: Motorsport Retro

Vern Schuppan won the Rothmans International Series Formula 5000 series, driving a Lola T332 and placed second in the 1976 Australian Grand Prix driving an Elfin MR8. In 1978 he was runner up in the Rothmans International Series.

Originally from from Whyalla, South Australia. He drove in various categories, but arguably most of his success was as a sports car driver and was heavily associated with Porsche till the end of his career.

His sports car career, particularly at the Le Mans 24 Hours flourished, firstly as a long term member of the Mirage team and later as a member of Porsche’s official factory squad. After coming close to victory many times, a win finally arrived in 1983.

Schuppan participated in 13 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, mostly for Ensign and Surtees, making his debut on May 12, 1974. He failed to score any championship points during his sporadic six year career.

In 1971 Schuppan won the British Formula Atlantic Championship and this led to a test drive with BRM.

In 1972 whilst BRM’s test driver he tried unsuccessfully to qualify for the 1972 Belgian Grand Prix. However Schuppan had some good non-championship race finishes with a fourth in the Victory Race and a fifth in the International Gold Cup. In 1973 he finished ninth in the BRDC International Trophy in a BRM.

Schuppan competed in three Indianapolis 500 races (1976, 1979, 1981), with a best result of third in 1981 driving a McLaren-Ford. He won the 1974 and 1976 Macau Grand Prix races, dominating the 1974 by four laps.

He was the 1983 Japanese Sports-Prototype Champion, and followed his 1976 5th place finish, 1975 3rd place finish and 1977 & 1982 2nd place finishes of the 24 hours of Le Mans by winning in 1983 driving a Porsche 956 with Al Holbert and Hurley Haywood. In 1984 he finished 6th at Le Mans with former Formula One World Champion Alan Jones. He had a number of other podium finishes in the World Sports Car Championship. These include a second in the 1973 & 1982 Spa 1000km, third in the 1983 & 1984 Fuji 1000km and a third in the 1985 Selangor 800km races. Schuppan also placed third in the All Japan Sports Prototype Championship in 1984, 1985 and 1986.

With Japanese backing, he also produced a road going evolution of the Porsche 962 called the Schuppan 962CR. At the then price of 195 million yen (1.5 million USD) only six were built.

Via : Wikipedia

Frank Gardner was a regular Tasman competitor throughout both the 2.5 litre and Formula 5000 Tasman Championships. He drove various cars for the Alec Mildren team in the ’60s and had the best overall Tasman record for “local” drivers. Mainly competed in Europe where he was regarded as one of the best test drivers and carried out these duties for the Lola factory.

He was best known as a Touring car racing and Sports car racing driver, but he also participated in nine World Championship Formula One Grands Prix, debuting on 11 July 1964. He scored no championship points. Gardner also participated in numerous non-Championship Formula One races, including a third placing at the 1965 Mediterranean Grand Prix, fourth in the 1965 Race of Champions and third in the 1971 International Gold Cup.

In 1966 Gardner finished second in the 1000 km Spa round of the World Sportscar Championship. In 1967 he also finished second in the European Formula Two Championship and second in the British Autocar Formula 2 Championship. In 1970 he was third in the British Formula 5000 Championship and in 1971 was Champion.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s Gardner had podium finishes in the Australian Grand Prix – second in 1966 and 1972 and a third in 1967. He finished third in the 1967 and 1972 Tasman Series. He won the British Touring Car Championship title on three occasions in 1967 (Ford Falcon Sprint), 1968 (Ford Escort) and 1973 (Chevrolet Camaro), and was runner-up in the BTCC in 1970. In 1975 he finished second at Bathurst in the Hardie-Ferodo 1000.

When the race team was shifted in 1998 Gardner became involved in driver training. Gardner passed away in August 2009.

Via: Wikipedia and 2008 Tasman programme.

Images: Autosport Forums

Always a very quick driver who often outqualified the overseas competitors in the ’60s , especially at Warwick Farm. He also competed in Formula 5000s, first in a McLaren and then in a Matich, a car he built and designed himself. A winner of the Australian Drivers Gold Star and twice winner of the Australian Grand Prix.

Here is a story about Matich by Ray Bell

“Anyone who followed racing in the sixties and early seventies knew the name of the best driver in Australia. Frank Matich. Undisputed, even though at times he was restricted to sports cars. Everyone knew that if he had an open wheeler he’d better everyone else.

It wasn’t always so, of course. Matich started out in an MG TC that was also his road car. He spent many a race day and other days at Mount Druitt’s airstrip circuit with wife to be Joan in this car, but just as they eventually got married, so the MG was replaced by an Austin Healey 100/4.

His racing successes in this weren’t notable, but he was able to use it as a springboard to get into a D-type Jaguar owned by Leaton Motors. This took him to fourth place in the Australian Tourist Trophy at Bathurst in 1958 and gradually closer to the pointy end of the field.

Leatons were a big help to Matich. In 1960 they bought a Lotus 15 for him and he was on his way to the top. Despite the frailty of this car, which matched a 2.5-litre Coventry Climax engine with an Austin A35 differential. It introduced Frank to the lightweight specialty cars that were becoming the winners in that era and led the way to the Lotus 19.

In this car he leapt to prominence. While he didn’t always win with the 19, he only ever lost to the Cooper Monaco of Bib Stillwell when it came to a straight fight. Despite this, he never won the Australian title in the car.

But he won backing for advancement that led to the top of the tree in Australian racing. Two backers were to take over from Leaton Motors – Total Oil’s Australian branch and Laurie O’Neill, a wealthy businessman who became a major patron over many years.

In addition to this, the fledgling Elfin Sports Cars put cars into his hands as ‘works’ entries in no fewer than three classes, enhancing his experience and adding greatly to his CV in 1962.

The Lotus 19 was written off by mechanic Bruce Richardson while Frank was testing one of the Elfins, Bruce being assigned the job of bedding in the Lotus’ brakes at the Warwick Farm short circuit. A new car was built, the 19B, and alongside it there was a new Brabham 2.5 for Gold Star and International series participation. Total owned the Brabham, Laurie O’Neill funded the Lotus, while Total had representation on all five cars in the stable.

Racing was bursting out everywhere at the time. 1960 had seen Warwick Farm open, then came Catalina Park and the rough and ready first edition of Oran Park. All in or around Sydney, they were Matich’s playground, Mt Druitt having died in 1957 and Bathurst being restricted to two meetings a year – and just one from 1963.

Similarly, new circuits were coming on stream in other states. Lakeside in Brisbane, Sandown Park in Melbourne, then Calder, while Longford was being improved all the time in Tasmania.

One Catalina Park meeting saw Frank dominate proceedings, winning the Formula Junior championship in an Elfin 1100, taking his class win in an Elfin Clubman, then the 1500cc openwheeler had its wins and the 19 still more. The outright lap record at this circuit was his for most of its life.

But it was Warwick Farm which saw his greatest efforts come to fruition. I first saw him in the 19 and the 1500 Elfin there in October, 1962. He won easily in the Lotus and then filled third place in the Elfin after a battle with Chris Amon in a 2.5 Cooper. Clearly it was time for his graduation to the Brabham, but that was still a year away.

At the Warwick Farm International meeting he stunned many by qualifying the Elfin 1500 (this was powered by a pushrod Ford engine) fifth on the grid alongside David McKay’s Brabham 2.5 and ahead of Chris Amon in the McKay’s 2.5 Cooper, Graham Hill in the 2.5 Ferguson, Lex Davison’s 2.7 Cooper many others. There were three 1.5 cars in the field, thirteen 2.5 and over.

When the Brabham arrived it was to stun even more. Despite a run of mechanical outs, the car grabbed early leads in races, in both New Zealand and Australia in the inaugural Tasman Cup series, beat many international drivers in practice sessions and showed Frank was a front line driver in any company.

While Tasman placings were an object of the exercise, Total were keen to wrest the Australian Drivers’ Championship away from BP. Bib Stillwell was the leading contender and a BP driver, Frank was to take the battle to him. Unfortunately, the reliability he and his men had found in the Lotus couldn’t be transferred to the Brabham.

1965 saw more of the same – Tasman flashes of brilliance and disappointment. All along, however, the Lotus was performing well. It had taken the Tourist Trophy at Longford in 1964 and thus put the Matich name on the serious Australian Championship winners for the first time.

But the 19B was to meet its end prematurely in June, 1965. Practising for a minor race at Lakeside, the throttle stuck open and Frank rode it into the fence behind the paddock area. Fire broke out and he was burned. Total then abandoned him, selling off the Brabham.

But Laurie O’Neill was still behind Frank and funded the building of the prototype Elfin 400 with an Oldsmobile 4.5-litre engine. Australia thus got its first ‘big’ sports car in the sixties style and spectators flocked to see it perform. Even if it was only tearing away into the distance with no opposition.

Lap records fell by the dozen – for the short time this car ran. It was sold to Niel Allen within a year and Frank got cracking on building his own car with construction done by Bob Britton of Rennmax fame. The Matich SR3 came first with the same Oldsmobile power, a later car had a Repco 4.4 V8. Lap records continued falling to Matich, Allen provided competition, then came the quad-cam Repco 5-litre powered Matich SR4, which continued the domination.

The ‘Gold Star’ series had languished without Matich since 1964. Lesser drivers, if one could call Kevin Bartlett and Leo Geoghegan drivers in any way ‘lesser,’ were battling that out in the 2.5 cars that were in vogue as the sixties closed. But 1969 saw a new type of car on the horizon of the seventies.

The coming of F5000 – five litre V8-powered racing cars – seemed made to suit Matich. His connections with McLaren rapidly led to a car coming to Australia for him to drive, followed by another when the M10B came on stream. In this Frank was to win the Australian Grand Prix at his beloved Warwick Farm in 1970. By the same time the following year he’d built the Matich A50, construction this time entrusted largely to John Joyce at Bowin Designs, and it won him his second AGP, again at the Farm.

Competition intensified too, but still the Matich/Matich combination were difficult to match. Though Niel Allen beat him for the NZGP win of 1971, when the A50 finished it was most often in front. The Gold Star finally fell to Frank in 1972, but the Tasman Cup was to elude him.

He also took cars to America, running in Can-Am and F5000 races there, winning one round of the L&M Series in the McLaren M10.

Early in 1973 he took the A50 to New Zealand and put it on pole position for the NZ GP. A clipped kerb early in the race damaged the suspension and the Matich was retired. Levin brought a second place, Wigram fourth, Teretonga brought a retirement. Back in Australia he took a win at Surfers Paradise but in the rain at Warwick Farm he only managed second – despite a stirring drive and rounding up Graham McRae round the outside of Paddock Bend. Sandown brought two spins after leading from the start and Adelaide saw another failure after taking pole position.

This series had seen a number of driving errors for Frank. But then he had been facing challenges from drivers two racing generations on from himself. Bartlett was there, and McRae, while young chargers like Warwick Brown and John Walker were mixing it with Max Stewarts and Bob Muirs. Niel Allen had already retired from the sport.

Was it time for Frank to hang up his helmet?

With the Goodyear Racing Tyre agency, he was doing enormous mileages testing tyres for the Akron company. His lap times were among the very best, but there were chinks appearing in his racing. But this didn’t dissuade him.

In fact, he went to America again with an A51 for the L&M series. But he was not a force in a series that saw Brian Redman leap to prominence. Back in Australia for the Gold Star he took pole at Surfers Paradise and was leading by half a lap when the battery collapsed. An illness in the family kept him from the second round at Adelaide, then kept him from returning to Phillip Island for the first time since he’d set the outright sports car record there in 1960.

Joan was in hospital and Frank put her first, but was still developing the car and the A52 and A53 were still to come. Despite announcing that he’d be contesting the Tasman Cup of 1974, the A53 was present only for the final three rounds, a third at Surfers being the best result.
That was the end of the Matich story, however. Joan’s health was no doubt a major contributor to his retirement, along with Repco’s withdrawal from racing and other pressures. Suddenly the Matich saga ended.”

Ray Bell Via: Tasman-Series.com

Images: AussieRoadRacing, AutosportForums, MyFormula5000

Round Six: WARWICK FARM:  36th Australian Grand Prix

Date: November 21 1971

Distance: 45 laps, 162.945 km (101.25 mi)

Coming into the sixth round of the Tasman Series, Frank Matich was favourite to take back to back Australian Grand Prix wins on home soil. He didn’t disappoint starting the race from pole and setting fastest lap to lead home Kevin Bartlett and Alan Hamilton in their McLaren M10B Chevys.

Pos	No.	Driver	Car	Laps	Time
1	1	Frank Matich	Matich A50 / Holden 5.0L V8	45	1h 05m 09.5s
2	5	Kevin Bartlett	McLaren M10B / Chevrolet 5.0L V8	45	1h 06m 08.2s
3	9	Alan Hamilton	McLaren M10B / Chevrolet 5.0L V8	45	1h 06m 09.3s
4	14	Graeme Lawrence	Brabham BT30 / Cosworth FVC 1.8L 4cyl	45	1h 06m 09.7s
5	6	Max Stewart	Mildren / Waggott 2.0L 4cyl	45	1h 06m 10.2s
6	11	John McCormack	Elfin MR5 / Holden 5.0L V8	44
7	12	Warwick Brown	McLaren M4A / Cosworth FVC 1.9L 4cyl	43
8	17	Gary Campbell	Elfin 600B / Cosworth FVA 1.6L 4cyl	43
9	16	Henk Woelders	Elfin 600C / Waggott 1.6L 4cyl	43
10	26	Jack Bono	Elfin 600B / Cosworth FVA 1.6L 4cyl	43
11	25	Ian Fergusson	Bowin P3A / Cosworth FVA 1.6L 4cyl	42
12	21	Ian Cook	Devione LC2 / Cosworth FVA 1.6L 4cyl	42
13	18	Clive Mills	Elfin 600B / Cosworth FVA 1.6L 4cyl	42
Ret	3	John Surtees	Surtees TS8 / Chevrolet 5.0L V8	39	puncture
Ret	18	Terry Quartly	Lotus 32 / Cosworth FVA 1.6L 4cyl	35
Ret	2	Colin Bond	McLaren M10B / Holden 5.0L V8
Ret	7	John Harvey	Brabham BT36 / Waggott 2.0L 4cyl
Ret	15	Dan O’Sullivan	McLaren M18 / Holden 5.0L V8
Ret	20	Alfredo Costanzo	Elfin AC1 / Cosworth FVA 1.6L 4cyl
Ret	10	Colin Hyams	Lola T192 / Chevrolet 5.0L V8
Ret	24	Ross Ambrose	Elfin 600B / Cosworth FVA 1.6L 4cyl
DNP	23	Chris Farrell	Brabham BT6 / BRM Cosworth FVA 1.6L 4cyl