Oh please Ray tell us about the Tasman Series, please, please! ;-)
------------------
Regards,
Dennis David
Yahoo = dennis_a_david
Life is racing, the rest is waiting
Grand Prix History
www.ddavid.com/formula1/
"Uncle Ray"
Started by
Dennis David
, Dec 28 1999 12:46
5 replies to this topic
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#2
Ray Bell
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Posted 30 December 1999 - 08:08
What manner of request is this?
Should I not just tell you to go to a website with some nice reports about the NZ part of the series. The site is still being developed, but has some nice pictures of Bruce and Jim and Phil and Tim and Jack and Frank and the other Frank. And there was Pedro and Chris and another Chris, Mike and John (that's Fearless John, but only once).
The Tasman Series, to me, was a series of hot weekends in February, with overnight trips the 560 miles to Melbourne and back, or the 658 miles to Brisbane and back to watch the overseas drivers.
They came with their Lotuses, Coopers and BRMs, carted them around on rented trailers behind rented utilities (you would call them pickups) and parked them in tents on the lawns of Lakeside, Warwick Farm or Longford, or in the gravel of Sandown Park.
The locals were there to greet them, of course, particularly Frank Matich and his Brabham, leading some races, usually destroying his engine, but on one occasion simply getting cement dust in the Heim joints that made it difficult to steer at Warwick Farm.
Some hung out of trees to watch, the clamour was tremendous, the unique drives memorable, the sidelights enjoyable. I've mentioned before the party Graham Hill threw at the Chermside Caravilla after winning the Australian Grand Prix, but I was also at the one Bruce threw at the GP the year before at Longford...
That was a race! You'll read about it one day, I'm going to get that into a form that will be a classic, which the race was.
And Jochen Rindt in the rain at Warwick Farm in the 49 with wings (I didn't mention him above, or Derek Bell, did I?). Photos abound of this drive, a tremendously wet event.
I could say more, much more, but go to www.sergent.com.au/tas65l.html and look at that and associated sites (it's based on a site about NZ racing in general), work your way through it and come back for specifics..
Should I not just tell you to go to a website with some nice reports about the NZ part of the series. The site is still being developed, but has some nice pictures of Bruce and Jim and Phil and Tim and Jack and Frank and the other Frank. And there was Pedro and Chris and another Chris, Mike and John (that's Fearless John, but only once).
The Tasman Series, to me, was a series of hot weekends in February, with overnight trips the 560 miles to Melbourne and back, or the 658 miles to Brisbane and back to watch the overseas drivers.
They came with their Lotuses, Coopers and BRMs, carted them around on rented trailers behind rented utilities (you would call them pickups) and parked them in tents on the lawns of Lakeside, Warwick Farm or Longford, or in the gravel of Sandown Park.
The locals were there to greet them, of course, particularly Frank Matich and his Brabham, leading some races, usually destroying his engine, but on one occasion simply getting cement dust in the Heim joints that made it difficult to steer at Warwick Farm.
Some hung out of trees to watch, the clamour was tremendous, the unique drives memorable, the sidelights enjoyable. I've mentioned before the party Graham Hill threw at the Chermside Caravilla after winning the Australian Grand Prix, but I was also at the one Bruce threw at the GP the year before at Longford...
That was a race! You'll read about it one day, I'm going to get that into a form that will be a classic, which the race was.
And Jochen Rindt in the rain at Warwick Farm in the 49 with wings (I didn't mention him above, or Derek Bell, did I?). Photos abound of this drive, a tremendously wet event.
I could say more, much more, but go to www.sergent.com.au/tas65l.html and look at that and associated sites (it's based on a site about NZ racing in general), work your way through it and come back for specifics..
#3
Dennis David
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- 2,483 posts
- Joined: March 99
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Posted 30 December 1999 - 14:50
Nothing specific just if you had any personal anecdotes of the drivers themselves off the track that you would like to share with the BB.
I wish they were still running the series in its past form.
------------------
Regards,
Dennis David
Yahoo = dennis_a_david
Life is racing, the rest is waiting
Grand Prix History
www.ddavid.com/formula1/
I wish they were still running the series in its past form.
------------------
Regards,
Dennis David
Yahoo = dennis_a_david
Life is racing, the rest is waiting
Grand Prix History
www.ddavid.com/formula1/
#4
Ray Bell
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- 81,469 posts
- Joined: December 99
Member
Posted 30 December 1999 - 19:22
We could never afford it in today's racing climate.
I'll try to think of some nice memories, but did you look at that website?
There was a big deal about going through the kink at the end of the straight at Lakeside flat out. It was somewhat bumpy, and these cars were doing about 160mph there - Clark had done it in 1965 (I was at Oran Park that day, suffering lesser racing)in a 2.5 Climax powered Lotus 25/33 cobble-up while racing with Frank Matich.
When Stewart, driving the 2-litre BRM V8, did it in practice we asked Graham Hill how come he didn't get through there flat. There was a long explanation that Jackie was 'rolling off the throttle,' so it just didn't sound like he backed off. Jackie led the race until his gearbox broke, Graham won his Australian Grand Prix (it was Queensland's turn that year to host the major race). As mentioned, it was a pretty good party at the Chermside Caravilla, I just don't know how I got to be there.
Perhaps a story I should tell is nothing to do with the Tasman. Fangio and demonstration laps at Sandown in 1978, in supporting events for the Australian Grand Prix meeting.
Sandown has a long uphill straight, and at the crest of the hill one is looking down into some very fast esses with a tight corner at the bottom. I was walking along from the esses taking photos and I thought little of what I saw as the W196 came by time after time . . . until . . .
As I got to the crest I could hear a chattering, cheeping sound from the hard old tyres as the old man (he was in his seventies then) was braking very hard. Right on the limit. Fantastic!
Brabham said to me: "It gives you heart to see him driving like that at his age - I hope I can."
The appropriate number of years later, Black Jack was invited to a meeting in his honour at a pommy circuit - Thruxton, I think - and given a few laps in a BT36 or similar. They flagged him in after he'd gone about three seconds quicker than the owner, but he just wouldn't get off the circuit.
All of that's far removed from the Tasman.
What you need is to come and pay us a visit. I can show you around and tell you a thing or two. They just don't come to mind right now.
I well remember talking to Timmy Mayer at Lakeside the Friday before the 1964 Tasman event there, I spent an hour with him. It was his last race, he died at Longford exactly a week later.
In the F5000 (FA to you) era there was a confrontation between Matich and officials at Surfers. He got pole, then parked in the centre of the front row of the grid after the warm-up lap. And wouldn't budge. Reckoned he had the right to choose where he started since he was quickest in practice. Another time he had a brake caliper lock up on a warm up lap, drove to pole position and sat there while the mechanics changed the upright and all, and everyone else had to wait. The Clerk of the Course got fined for letting it happen!
When Greg Cusack inverted the Scuderia Veloce Brabham Repco at Longford in 1968 in practice, all without much damage to himself, it was said (Greg is a Catholic) that St Christopher wears a Cusack badge.
I've mentioned before the Matich/Amon Sports Car clashes of 1968 (in 'big bangers') - these were unbelieveable, at the Farm and at Sandown. Sandown was where Clark beat Amon by a poofteenth for the Grand Prix win - and Leo Geoghegan was third on the grid just two tenths slower than pole and ahead of Graham Hill in the 49. Leo had the 39 - the 33 chassis modified to take the Climax flat 16 that never appeared, but fitted with the Repco V8.
There's more, but I don't know where. Get to it later.
I'll try to think of some nice memories, but did you look at that website?
There was a big deal about going through the kink at the end of the straight at Lakeside flat out. It was somewhat bumpy, and these cars were doing about 160mph there - Clark had done it in 1965 (I was at Oran Park that day, suffering lesser racing)in a 2.5 Climax powered Lotus 25/33 cobble-up while racing with Frank Matich.
When Stewart, driving the 2-litre BRM V8, did it in practice we asked Graham Hill how come he didn't get through there flat. There was a long explanation that Jackie was 'rolling off the throttle,' so it just didn't sound like he backed off. Jackie led the race until his gearbox broke, Graham won his Australian Grand Prix (it was Queensland's turn that year to host the major race). As mentioned, it was a pretty good party at the Chermside Caravilla, I just don't know how I got to be there.
Perhaps a story I should tell is nothing to do with the Tasman. Fangio and demonstration laps at Sandown in 1978, in supporting events for the Australian Grand Prix meeting.
Sandown has a long uphill straight, and at the crest of the hill one is looking down into some very fast esses with a tight corner at the bottom. I was walking along from the esses taking photos and I thought little of what I saw as the W196 came by time after time . . . until . . .
As I got to the crest I could hear a chattering, cheeping sound from the hard old tyres as the old man (he was in his seventies then) was braking very hard. Right on the limit. Fantastic!
Brabham said to me: "It gives you heart to see him driving like that at his age - I hope I can."
The appropriate number of years later, Black Jack was invited to a meeting in his honour at a pommy circuit - Thruxton, I think - and given a few laps in a BT36 or similar. They flagged him in after he'd gone about three seconds quicker than the owner, but he just wouldn't get off the circuit.
All of that's far removed from the Tasman.
What you need is to come and pay us a visit. I can show you around and tell you a thing or two. They just don't come to mind right now.
I well remember talking to Timmy Mayer at Lakeside the Friday before the 1964 Tasman event there, I spent an hour with him. It was his last race, he died at Longford exactly a week later.
In the F5000 (FA to you) era there was a confrontation between Matich and officials at Surfers. He got pole, then parked in the centre of the front row of the grid after the warm-up lap. And wouldn't budge. Reckoned he had the right to choose where he started since he was quickest in practice. Another time he had a brake caliper lock up on a warm up lap, drove to pole position and sat there while the mechanics changed the upright and all, and everyone else had to wait. The Clerk of the Course got fined for letting it happen!
When Greg Cusack inverted the Scuderia Veloce Brabham Repco at Longford in 1968 in practice, all without much damage to himself, it was said (Greg is a Catholic) that St Christopher wears a Cusack badge.
I've mentioned before the Matich/Amon Sports Car clashes of 1968 (in 'big bangers') - these were unbelieveable, at the Farm and at Sandown. Sandown was where Clark beat Amon by a poofteenth for the Grand Prix win - and Leo Geoghegan was third on the grid just two tenths slower than pole and ahead of Graham Hill in the 49. Leo had the 39 - the 33 chassis modified to take the Climax flat 16 that never appeared, but fitted with the Repco V8.
There's more, but I don't know where. Get to it later.
#5
charles r
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Posted 01 February 2018 - 09:13
Lovely stories Ray.
#6
Ray Bell
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- Joined: December 99
Member
Posted 01 February 2018 - 12:58
And there are lots more...
I finally got to write the story of the 1965 Australian Grand Prix and it's in the Tasman Cup book which was launched about two years ago.
And there are many stories I've put on this forum. Try to find the thread 'On This Day' (or similar).
I finally got to write the story of the 1965 Australian Grand Prix and it's in the Tasman Cup book which was launched about two years ago.
And there are many stories I've put on this forum. Try to find the thread 'On This Day' (or similar).
