TASMAN REVIVAL 2010 Ð RAIN STOPS PLAY

29 May 2013

In a result reminiscent of the period John Smith won the Tasman Revival feature race driving the very same Lotus 49 that Graham Hill campaigned here in the 1969 Tasman Series. He led home Rob Hall in the ex-Chris Amon Ferrari 246T by just over one and a half seconds with the Brabham BT30 of Chris Farrell in third place. Unfortunately for the organisers and an enthusiastic crowd the rain then arrived spoiling the races for the Sports cars and the thundering Formula 5000s.

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Mind you, some injudicious driving in Saturday mornings Formula 5000 race had already thinned out the field but with the track conditions getting worse by the minute only five of the fourteen entrants gridded up and just four would make the finish of the 12 lap race. Bryan Sala took pole on Friday in the lovely Ansett Elfin MR8 but it was Stan Redmond in his Tropicana liveried Lola T332C that took home the Kevin Bartlett Trophy. Andrew Robson took out all three preliminary races in his Lola T332 but as with most of the field, he didn’t take the start of the final race.

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Fortunately the main Tasman Revival race was run in the dry although the first hints of rain were starting to fall as Smith took the flag in the beautiful Gold Leaf liveried Lotus 49. Smith had taken pole by over a second from John Bowe in a Brabham BT23B and Rob Hall in the Ferrari. Sadly Graham Adelman’s melodic V12 BRM P126 was not on the pace and only managed nineteenth on the grid. There was a certain consistency in the results as in all three preliminary races and the final, the top four were the same with Smith taking the flag from Hall, Farrell and Bowe.

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Once again the HSRCA put on a splendid event and managed to attract some stunning overseas entrants to add to the packed fields of locals. Some, like Peter Greenfields Scuderia Ferrari Alfa Romeo 8C-3800 had never been seen on these shores before while others, like Ernie Nagamatsu and his Old Yeller were popular returnees. Ernie also had a Shelby Cobra Le Mans on hand to play with but that had an engine failure on Saturday afternoon. At least Old Yeller finally finished a race at this meeting, having suffered all sorts of problems in the last two Revival meetings, so the ever friendly Californian could go home happy and will be looking forward to running both cars in New Zealand in January. Another American, Peter Giddings arrived with a superb Maserati 250F that had large crowds of fanciers gazing at it’s beautiful form.

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On the subject of beauty, there was also some drool-worthy equipment on hand for the post-Tasman era open wheel race which was won by Guido Belgiorno-Nettis in the ex-Stefan Johansson Ferrari 156/85 turbo F1 car. Guido had both of his 1985 Ferraris on hand with the Michele Alboreto car available as a spare if needed. Not a bad pair of toys to play with. Ian Ross returned with his ex-Alan Jones Lola THL-1 and John Gale turned up with Tim Schenken’s 1972 Surtees TS9B. The turbos sound nice but there is nothing quite like the wail of a Cosworth V8.

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A huge field of forty six entered for the touring car race which was taken out by Vince Macri in a Holden Torana GTR XU-1 but again due to the rain, and some bingles in earlier races, a reduced field of twenty two ran in the final race of the meeting. The sight of Mustangs, Toranas and Falcon GTOs battling it out with Minis always makes for fun for the crowd and that is what they provided over the three days.

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Toss in equally large grids of sports cars, Formula Juniors, Formula Fords etc and you ended up with another highly enjoyable and action packed stroll down memory lane. It’s not quite Goodwood – nothing is – but the Tasman Revival is a damned fine alternative for lovers of historic Motorsport and much cheaper to get to from this part of the world. I, for one, am already looking forward to the next one in a couple of years time.

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Sam Snape

30-11-2010