2010-2011 Tasman Revival Series

2010/11 MSC New Zealand F5000 Tasman Cup Revival Series
Season Preview
01-07-10

F5000 BOOST FOR LOCAL FANS THIS SUMMER

After seven seasons with rounds on both sides of the Tasman, the MSC F5000 Tasman Cup Revival Series looks set to be an almost all-New Zealand affair this summer.

Though allowance in the 2010/11 calendar has been made should the popular New Zealand-based MSC-backed group again be invited to join the support class roster at the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix meeting in Melbourne in March next year, the five rounds so far confirmed are split between local circuits Hampton Downs in the northern Waikato, Powerbuilt Tools Raceway at Christchurch's Ruapuna Park and Invercargill's Teretonga Park.

The reason?

"Really, "says NZ F5000 Association spokesman Tony Jack," there are several. And it's certainly not for want of invitations from event organisers across the Tasman who want us on their programmes again.

"What's happened is that we've seen fantastic growth both in terms of interest in the category and number of cars on the grid, particularly over the past three years, but with the economy the way it is, plus the prospect of another couple of fantastic New Zealand Festival of Motor Racing meetings over consecutive weekends in January, our members told us that they would prefer to stay a little closer to home this season."

The move will certainly be welcomed by fans of the big, brutish V8-engined 70s era F5000 single-seaters, particular those in the South Island who have only had the one chance per season - at the Lady Wigram Trophy meeting in early January - to see the cars in action since 2005.

This season they have three; at the re-scheduled season-opening Lady Wigram Trophy meeting at the end of October, and the Skope Classic meeting at Christchurch's Powerbuilt Tools Raceway at Ruapuna Park, and Southern Festival of Speed meeting at Invercargill in February.

The MSC F5000s will again be the main drawcard at the Lady Wigram Trophy meeting, the traditional early January date brought forward to October 30/31 to align the biggest event on the local motor racing calendar with the biggest one on the New Zealand horse-racing one, Christchurch's Cup Week.

For the past two seasons the MSC NZ F5000 Tasman Cup Revival Series has been dominated by evergreen veteran Ken Smith (Lola T430) and Smith is set to return - possibly in his own Lola T332 this time - to try and make it three titles in as many years.

After a sabbatical over the 2008/09 season, 2007/08 title holder Chris Hyde (McRae GM1) returned in 2009/10 to keep Smith honest and he will again be one of the drivers - along with Lady Wigram Trophy winner Roger Williams and fellow Lola T332 drivers Tony Richards, Ian Clements and Sefton Gibb - Smith will have to beat if he is to achieve his goal.

With over 30 race-ready cars now based here in New Zealand filling grids will not be a problem either. In fact interest from drivers keen to join the series is so great that five or six new car/driver combinations are expected to join the existing ones this season.

Including in that group is 70s New Zealand tin-top front-runner Peter Sundberg who has bought a Lola T332 (the ex Stan Redmond car which he intends running in Kevin Bartlett/Chesterfield colours) and historic single-seater stalwart Frank Karl who is set to debut a recently acquired McLaren M10A.

Karl's is one of three Class A (for earlier model F5000 cars) McLaren M10A models expected to join the MSC ranks this year, with UK-based Kiwi Grant Clearwater set to return with the car he ran at the two New Zealand Festival of Motor Racing - Bruce McLaren meetings last year, and MSC series regular Poul Christie's son Graham putting the finishing touches to his own M10A at the moment.

2010/11 MSC New Zealand F5000 Tasman Cup Revival Series
Calendar
Rnd 1: Oct 30/31 2010 Lady Wigram Trophy, Powerbuilt Tools Raceway @ Ruapuna Park Christchurch
Rnd 2: Jan 21-23 2011 NZ Festival of Motor Racing - Chris Amon meeting x 1 Hampton Downs Auckland
Rnd 3: Jan 28-30 2011 NZ Festival of Motor Racing - Chris Amon meeting x 2 Hampton Downs Auckland
Rnd 4: Feb 05/06 2011 Skope Classic meeting Powerbuilt Tools Raceway @ Ruapuna Park Christchurch
Rnd 5: Feb 19-20 2011 Southern Festival of Speed meeting, Teretonga Park Invercargill

Prepared by FAST COMPANY of behalf of the New Zealand Formula 5000 Association. www.F5000.co.nz For more information about the 2010/11 MSC New Zealand F5000 Tasman Cup Revival Series contact Ross MacKay on 021 677 919 or via e-mail on ross@fastcompany.co.nz

Edited by Jerry Entin, 01 July 2010 - 10:43.

Ken Smith in his Lola T-430 Leading the field at the second NZ Festival of Motor Racing at Pukekohe

This was from earlier this year.

Photo Alex Mitchell/Fast Company

[thinks] Hmmm gotta get over to Hampton Downs again!! [start saving!]

Thanks Jerry...so can I assume that the F5000s won't be making an appearance here:

Australian Festival of Motorsport
The Lotus Sydney
Tasman Revival 2010
Eastern Creek NSW
26-28 November 2010

[thinks] Hmmm gotta get over to Hampton Downs again!! [start saving!]

Thanks Jerry...so can I assume that the F5000s won't be making an appearance here:

Australian Festival of Motorsport
The Lotus Sydney
Tasman Revival 2010
Eastern Creek NSW
26-28 November 2010

The 5000's will be there as well.
Slated to be at this event is Warwick Brown's Lola 332, currently owned and driven by Dudley Cunningham from Massachusetts.

Can't wait to see those F5000's blasting into that first corner again - amazing stuff last year.

Can't wait to see those F5000's blasting into that first corner again - amazing stuff last year.

Hallelujah brother !!

Can't wait to see those F5000's blasting into that first corner again - amazing stuff last year.

Even better to watch them blasting out of a slow corner. Turn 2 or 7 - amazing.

But those corners need names. I was thinking that they could have the names of now-defunct corners they resemble.

To my mind turn 2 is a bit like CC at Oran Park and 7 (while going the other way) is like Winfield at Amaroo. But call it 'Stop Corner' or 'Lake Corner'.

And the turn 9 hairpin should be Creek. It's a hairpin and there's a creek.

This should be in its own thread, I know. But I was on a roll.




Bruce Moxon

Any corner will do Bruce - I'm just excited about actually looking forward to seeing an openwheeler event at an Australian racetrack!

Even better to watch them blasting out of a slow corner. Turn 2 or 7 - amazing.

But those corners need names. I was thinking that they could have the names of now-defunct corners they resemble.

To my mind turn 2 is a bit like CC at Oran Park and 7 (while going the other way) is like Winfield at Amaroo. But call it 'Stop Corner' or 'Lake Corner'.

And the turn 9 hairpin should be Creek. It's a hairpin and there's a creek.

This should be in its own thread, I know. But I was on a roll.




Bruce Moxon

How about "Craven-A" for turn 2?

Lola T-400 owner Glenn Richards (left) with Reg Cook

Reg Cook will drive this Lola T-400 in the MSC NZ F5000 Tasman Cup Revival Series this season.

SECOND 'ORIGINAL' TO JOIN NEW ZEALAND F5000 SERIES
A second category original - Reg Cook - is set to join New Zealand's world-leading MSC F5000 Tasman Cup Revival Series this season

Cook, now 63, raced a Lola T300 to second place in the local Gold Star Championship in 1974 and will make his F5000 return this season in a Lola T400 recently acquired from Canada by fellow Aucklander Glenn Richards.

Defending MSC champion Ken Smith was the first 'original ' (defined as a driver who raced one of the V8-powered single-seater racing cars first time around) lured back to the contemporary MSC-backed Tasman Cup Revival series. And though several others - including former Tasman Series champion Graeme Lawrence and Gold Star winner David Oxton - have enjoyed brief outings in series cars Cook is so far the only other to contemplate a serious return.

The car he will drive is one of 14 Lola T400 models produced in 1974 and 1975. It was originally owned and raced by Canadian driver Eppie Wietzes and has only had one other owner, fellow Canadian Horst Kroll.

Kroll bought and re-bodied the T400 to contest the Can-Am sportscar series and it is in this state that the car was advertised for sale.

Richards, whose Christchurch-based brother Tony races a Lola T332 in the MSC series, had been on the lookout for a car of his own to drive for a year or so and with encouragement from Ness Valley, Clevedon, neighbour Cook, and Canadian-based Kiwi Richard Paterson (who checked the car out for the pair before they made the trip to Toronto to negotiate the purchase) a deal was concluded earlier this year.

Under that deal Cook will rebuild and race the car this season with the view to handing it over to Richards when both decide the time is right.

For Cook the campaign is the latest in a long and almost continuous line which started back in 1969 in a Mini and has taken in everything from his successful if ultimately ill-fated Gold Star campaign in the T300 in 1973 and 1974 in which he finished second overall in the series (his single-seater career ended abruptly when the Lola T300 was destroyed in a road accident on the way back to Auckland from the final Gold Star round) to the rallying that has been his competitive focus for the past 15 years.

"The way I see it, " he says, " is that it is just another challenge. It will be a challenge to go back and do it and a challenge to race against guys like Glenn's brother and of course Kenny Smith."

And Richards?

"Really, " he says, " there are multiple reasons for buying the car and getting involved in the series in this way. One is the long term interest in motorsport I share with my family. Another is the goading I've been getting from my brother Tony to get a car of my own. There's also more to what Reg and I want to do with the car and the campaign than just turning up at the track and racing it. A lot of other people are involved already and our ultimate goal, if you like, is to take them on a journey, give them something to feel good about, something more than the nine-to-five."

This season's five-round MSC F5000 Tasman Cup Revival Series kicks off at the re-scheduled Lady Wigram Trophy meeting at Christchurch's Powerbuilt Tools Raceway at Ruapuna Park over the October 30/31 meeting then heads north in January for rounds at the two NZ Festival of Motor Racing - Chris Amon meetings at Hampton Downs in January before returning south for the penultimate round at the Skope Classic meeting at Powerbuilt Tools Raceway in early February and the final at the Southern Festival of Speed meeting at Invercargill's Teretonga Park a fortnight later.

2010/11 MSC New Zealand F5000 Tasman Cup Revival Series

Calendar

Rnd 1: Oct 30/31 2010 Lady Wigram Trophy, Powerbuilt Tools Raceway @ Ruapuna Park Christchurch

Rnd 2: Jan 21-23 2011 NZ Festival of Motor Racing - Chris Amon meeting x 1 Hampton Downs Auckland

Rnd 3: Jan 28-30 2011 NZ Festival of Motor Racing - Chris Amon meeting x 2 Hampton Downs Auckland

Rnd 4: Feb 05/06 2011 Skope Classic meeting Powerbuilt Tools Raceway @ Ruapuna Park Christchurch

Rnd 5: Feb 19-20 2011 Southern Festival of Speed meeting, Teretonga Park Invercargill

Prepared by FAST COMPANY on behalf of the New Zealand Formula 5000 Association. www.F5000.co.nz
Photo: Ross MacKay

Edited by Jerry Entin, 16 August 2010 - 23:47.

Reg Cook and crew in the day
This is from 1974 and Reg Cook has just won a race in his Lola T-300


Photo: Terry Marshall

Reg Cook and crew in the day
This is from 1974 and Reg Cook has just won a race in his Lola T-300
Photo: Terry Marshall

One of his mechanics, though perhaps a little earlier, was Steve Horne, of later Tasman Racing etc Indy fame

Edited by David McKinney, 17 August 2010 - 08:41.

One of his mechanics, though perhaps a little later, was Steve Horne, of later Tasman Racing etc Indy fame

David,

If that was Reg when he was happy, I would hate to see him unhappy!

JB

Reg Cook looked most unlike the contemporary image of a race driver : a balding, freckled redhead. But he sure used to press on, in a wide variety of cars. That one's at Bay Park. I'm sure he'll still acquit himself well, get stuck in Reg !

Edited by GD66, 17 August 2010 - 08:29.

Here are the Television viewing times for the F-5000 Lady Wigram races:

29/11/2010
20:30
SKY Sport 3

30/11/2010
15:00
SKY Sport 3

1/12/2010
03:00
SKY Sport 3

1/12/2010
16:00
SKY Sport 3

2/12/2010
04:00
SKY Sport 3

2/12/2010
07:00
SKY Sport 2

3/12/2010
13:00
SKY Sport 1

Information courtesy Hannah Hawes: Country 99 TV
Scanned for site: David Abbott

Edited by Jerry Entin, 29 November 2010 - 10:51.