Huge international line up set for Lotus Sydney Tasman Revival 2010

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A mammoth International contingent is again what the Tasman Revival has that no other Historic event in Australia can match. As at the time of writing there are 45 overseas entries confirmed including a swag of cars from our 1960s era. Once again Graham Adelman will be bringing both his Ferrari 246T and the most gorgeous sounding car ever, the BRM P126.

Thinking forward, the 3^rd running of the Tasman Revival will see some great competition at the front of the field. From the entries so far it looks like the winner may be any of four makes of car, Lotus, Brabham, Ferrari, or BRM, and maybe there is a dark horse in there as well.

Firstly we will have the 2006 winner, John Smith in the Dawson-Damer family’s Lotus 49. Then the 2008 winner, Rob Hall in Graham Adelman’s Ferrari 246T Dino. Add to that equation the car Sir Jack Brabham drove to many victories in 1967 to come  2^nd behind team- mate Denny Hulme, the Brabham BT24 of Brian Wilson.

And a recent addition to the sharp end of the 1960’s grids, the Brabham BT23 of Trevor Simpson will be driven by Australian racing legend, John Bowe.

The BRM of Graham Adelman may yet be a dark horse in the field; this car is definitely capable of taking a win just as it did over 40 years ago.

Finally ex Kiwi Phil Harris is bringing Sir Jack’s and later Bib Stillwell’s BT31 Repco V8 from the USA.

The BT31 in both Sir Jack’s hands and later Bib Stillwell’s  was a very competitive car. It was also the car that Bib Stillwell had a very nasty accident at Geelong Sprints some years ago.

Entries so far at the time of writing this are 40 Group M cars of which 27 are Formula Junior or Formula 3 – and 31 O cars of which 2 are F3. This is a pretty good entry, but looking at the list there are a few owners and drivers who haven’t yet entered. It looks like we will exceed total M and O cars that were present at the last two runnings of the Tasman Revival. So if you haven’t entered yet, you are going to miss out on one wow of a single seater time.

We are also very fortunate to have Sir Jack Brabham accept our invitation to be Patron at the 2010 Tasman Revival. Sir Jack and Lady Margaret will be at the event on Sunday 28^th November. Sir Jack was the 4^th highest points earner in the 1960s Tasman series of events, behind Jim Clark, Graham Hill and Frank Gardner, and shared the 4^th placing with 80 points accrued with Chris Amon.

There will be many Brabhams in attendance at the meeting of cars built by Sir Jack and Ron Tauranac, A couple of cars that Sir Jack is sure to remember will be his 1967 car which carried him to 2^nd in the World Championship that year and now belongs to Brian Wilson and another is Sir Jack’s car from the 1969 Indianapolis event. Recently brought to Australia by Aaron Lewis, it  is one of two BT25s and the first of the Brabham monocoques built by Sir Jack and Ron to run at the Indianapolis 500 in 1969. The car was to be ready for the Tasman Revival, but Aaron has found some chassis problems that he wants to put right but just to whet the appetite for the future enjoy the photo of  Sir Jack with Aaron’s car 41 years ago.

Images: Aaron Lewis, Peter Schell and Peter Ellenbogan

Group M and O entry list: Lotus Sydney Tasman Revival 2010