Photo Gallery: Tom Taylor
This gallery from the Tasman Revival, by Tom Taylor, is all about the little things.
It gets up close and personal to study the details of the magic machines that competed over the weekend and find the luscious lines, compelling curves and alluring angles that make these cars such a delight to behold.
Tasman Revival Wrap-Up and Photo Galleries
We’re back once again from an absolutely immense and unquestionably tremendous weekend of historic motorsport, and have had a week to catch up with every day life and put together a neat collection of awesome coverage of the Tasman Revival. So let’s take a look at how it all played out.
Sydney Motorsport Park greeted us with open arms on Wednesday, as an incredibly diverse and storied collection of historic racing and sports cars began arriving at the track from around the world. Containers were unpacked, trailers unloaded, road-registerable racers rolled in and people got down to the details of preparing for four full days of racing historic cars.
Sydney Motorsport Park’s upgraded facilities were a joy to settle into for the weekend for all involved, and the Garage Cafe, corporate boxes and media centre only got more wonderful as the weather began to heat up over the course of the event.
The historic action got under way for private practice on Thursday, and had the track singing until early on Sunday evening. The tight but fair and considerate racing was a joy to spectate and with cars mostly pointed in the right direction on the black stuff, the events rolled on remarkably smoothly.
The feature Tasman Revival event was a sight to behold on Sunday, with the massive grid filling the main straight of Sydney Motorsport Park with a particularly alluring sparkle in the sunshine. Wonderful performances of the Australian and New Zealand national anthems were an inspiring way to kick off the race, which, after a bit of delay, fulfilled its promise in an exciting and beautifully-driven manner.
The Formula 5000s were, as always, as spectacular to watch as they are wonderful to listen to, and the brave drivers who flung them around the track put on a tremendous display.
As did the entirety of drivers who took to the track over the weekend in all historic classes. Sports cars, racing cars and vintage cars all weree immaculately prepared, raced to match and made an irreplaceable contribution to this very special event. We thank you all for getting involved, and especially for braving the particularly fierce sun over the weekend!
We’d also like to thank you all for making the pits, paddock and dummy grids a magical place to explore; full of stunning machines, good friends and all the tinkering and socialising that goes along with them.
Most importantly, we, and I’m sure everyone involved in the event, would like to extend our most immense and heartfelt ‘THANK YOU!’ to all of the organisers, entrants, spectators and especially the volunteers who dedicate such energy and passion to making these events possible. We are extremely grateful for your tireless and selfless support of historic racing and the HSRCA.
As we so often say, it’s the good friends, great people and camaraderie that make these events so wonderful. We’d like to thank everyone for coming along and getting involved. We may put together the framework, but it’s all of you who make the event!
We’ve had an absolute smorgasbord of photo galleries come through this week, and you can check ’em all out below or on the HSRCA gallery page here. Thanks to all of the photographers who were so diligent in their coverage and quick to share it with everyone here! Make sure to check out their individual news posts, which have directions and contact details for their official websites and full galleries.
Photo Gallery: Jeremy Braithwaite
Photo Gallery: Christopher Dobie of Southern Drive
Photo Gallery: Roderick Mackenzie
Photo Gallery: Brent Murray of At Speed Images
Photo Gallery: Seth Reinhardt of the HSRCA
We love to promote the work of our many talented mates, so if you have photos, video, or stories from the weekend and would like to share them on the club website, send an email to seth@hsrca.com, or drop by the club Facebook page and say hi.
Up next? A relaxing holiday season! Then it’s all on again for 2013 at Wakefield Park in February. And we can’t wait to catch up with everyone there!
Photo Gallery: Matt Hart
Our latest gallery from the Tasman Revival, by Matt Hart, captures the feel and atmosphere of the event masterfully.
Photo Gallery: Jeremy Braithwaite
One of the fun moments of Sunday at the Tasman Revival is the drivers’ parade, which brings together a group of Australia’s motor racing icons for a few laps of honour around Sydney Motorsport Park.
Photo Gallery: Seth Reinhardt of the HSRCA
Historic racing, for me, is about people, friendships and camaraderie.
When we get together around a group of beautiful old racers, we create a wonderful energy and atmosphere, and when I pick up my camera to cover an event, that’s what I try to capture.
This gallery, then, takes an extended wander around the 2012 Tasman Revival and looks for the many moments that made it special.
Photo Gallery: Rob Scheeren
A huge field of historic sports and racing cars makes up the Tasman Revival; each as special, storied and wonderful as the next. This gallery from Rob Scheeren takes an in-depth look at the wonderful Porsches and the Porsche community that made Sydney Motorsport Park their home over the weekend.
Photo Gallery: Richard Taylor
This excellent photo gallery from Richard Taylor heads out to the track to check out the historic motorsport action at the Tasman Revival, and features some stunning portraits of drivers.
Photo Gallery: Brent Murray of At Speed Images
This gallery of historic racing action from the Tasman Revival comes from Brent Murray, and features a good mix of the action at the event.
Photo Gallery: Roderick Mackenzie
For this gallery, from Roderick Mackenzie, we take to the dummy grid, pits and paddock in a little more depth.
Photo Gallery: Christopher Dobie of Southern Drive
This spectacular gallery of the track action at the Tasman Revival comes from Christopher Dobie.
Photo Gallery: Peter Schell
Our first photo gallery from the 2012 Tasman Revival comes from long time HSRCA photographer extraordinaire – Peter Schell.
Tasman Revival Photos: A Smattering from Sunday
It’s been a massive weekend of historic racing at the Tasman Revival, topped off with a sunny Sunday of feature races.
We’d like to thank everyone involved; all the organisers, entrants, spectators and, most importantly, the volunteers who make all of this possible.
Keep an eye on the site over the coming days as we’ll have full photo galleries coming online soon, along with video and race wrap-ups. We just need a quick nap before we get to work again!
Thanks to everyone for joining us for a magnificent Tasman Revival!
Tasman Revival Photos: A Sampling from Saturday
It’s been an action-packed day of historic racing at Sydney Motorsport Park, and things are going to get even hotter tomorrow for Tasman Sunday!
Sunday’s racing will include feature races for all categories, and there’ll be plenty going on in the pits and paddock too. We’ll see you out there!
Tasman Revival Photos: A Few from Friday
After a big day of historic motorsport at Sydney Motorsport Park, we’ve wrapped up Friday’s qualifying and racing and are ready for a full day of racing tomorrow.
Today we enjoyed Channel 9’s TODAY show joining us for the weather, fashion photo shoots roaming the pits and paddock and, of course, plenty of historic motorsport and all the fun that goes along with it. We can’t wait for tomorrow!
Check out these photos from the day and make sure to keep checking in at the site over the coming days as we’ll have more photos and video going up as the event progresses along with full photo galleries in the days following.
If you’re heading out to the track this weekend and there’s anything you’d like to know we’ve compiled all the basics into a post here on the site, so hit this link!
Huge Grid Set for Tasman Revival Feature Event
A grid of over 40 1960s racing cars is set to contest the Tasman Revival race at Sydney Motor Sport Park on the Sunday of the three day meeting.
Stephen Knox OAM, chairman of the HSRCA’s Tasman Revival committee said this year’s Tasman Revival race over 15 laps will be the most fiercely contested race for single seat racing cars seen in this part of the world for more than 30 years. Looking at the grid make-up, there is any one of around 15 car and driver combinations capable of winning the event. With over 40 cars to make up the grid, not since the heady days of the 1960s and ‘70s were so many purpose built racing cars competing in the one race, it will make an incredible spectacle. Mr. Knox went on to say that Australian champion Frank Matich who is the Patron of the Meeting will be watching closely as many of the cars he competed against will be in the race.
Unfortunately, twice winner of the event John Smith is unable to attend and as a result the Lotus 49 will not be competing. John is slowly recovering from serious spinal injuries, the result of a recent motorbike accident in the US.
Amongst the estimated 15 cars capable of top rung on the podium, is the Brabham BT31 of Peter Strauss. This very quick car was (Sir) Jack Brabham’s for the Tasman Series in 1969, powered by a Repco Brabham 2.5 litre V8, a close relative to the engine that carried Jack in 1966 and Denny Hulme in 1967 to F1 World Championships. From NZ comes Murray Sinclair with a Brabham BT29 powered by a Cosworth FVC, a larger variant of the FVA which is a 4-valve engine producing over 235bhp from 1600cc. At least one FVA engined car is expected to be on the podium and with such a diversity of marques including Brabham, McLaren, Chevron, and Elfin it will be very difficult to pick a winner. Amongst the drivers competing will be Bob Cracknell, the Chairman of the CAMS Historic Commission, in an Elfin 600. Chris Farrell will be hard to beat, his Brabham BT30 is a very quick as is Chris himself. Debutant Tasman Revival competitor, Damon Hancock in the family’s Brabham BT23 has shown tremendous form in recent times and will definitely be close to the front. Ray Stubber from WA drives a variety of cars, and has shown he is a real force to be reckoned with in the Brabham BT29. Dark horse for the event is Richard Carter who was the 1976 TAA Formula Ford Driver toEuropewinner, and has never been quicker in his Elfin Mono twin-cam.
Concurrently with these very quick cars will be the pre-1965 category of around a dozen cars. Again the winner here could come from any one of 6 cars. Ed Holly’s Brabham BT6 has dominated this category in recent times, but Peter Studer in his Lotus 32 all the way from Switzerland, Adam Berryman with Bruce McLaren’s Cooper T70, Scotty Taylor’s Cooper T53 and Don Thallon’s Cooper T53 will all make for a spirited early category race within the main event, especially as the last three cars are powered by 2.5 Coventry Climax engines.
The Tasman Revival race is an incredible spectacle. These cars all lap theS ydney Motor Sport Park complex in about the same time as a V8 supercar. They do this with no aero aids, relying on mechanical grip from the tyres and suspension set-up alone. They accelerate to 100mph in around 7 seconds from a standing start and will attain speeds of around 165 miles per hour (265 kph) down the main straight. They invariably weigh under 450 Kg and the more powerful have around 300bhp on tap.
More information can be found at www.tasmanrevival.com and you can join in the discussions on Facebook at www.facebook.com/hsrca and Twitter at www.twitter.com/hsrca.
Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the first Australian Formula Junior Championship at the Tasman Revival
The Formula Junior International Challenge at the Tasman Revival at Sydney Motorsport Park (SMP) on the 25th November 2012 will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first Australian Formula Junior Championship.
The 1962 event, held at Katoomba’s Catalina Park circuit, was won by Frank Matich who, incidentally, is the official patron of the Tasman Revival meeting. And, what’s more, the very car that Matich drove on that day, an Elfin built in South Australia, will also be here to compete in this special event.
Now owned in West Australia by Charlie Mitchell, the Elfin will line up with more than 40 Formula Juniors coming from the United Kingdom, Belgium, Japan, New Zealand and local Australian entries. In taking out the 1962 title, Matich and the Elfin beat the best Brabham and Lotus machines imported from the previously dominant overseas manufacturers.
The Brabham BT2 which Tasmanian Gavin Youl drove to second place behind Matich will also be racing at SMP, now driven by Queenslander Graham Brown. Youl was the first driver to compete in cars built by the Jack Brabham/Ron Tauranac organisation, their Formula Juniors being precursors to the later successful Formula One machines.
The Formula Junior category has tremendous support worldwide and offers a great spectacle of the evolutionary development of the diminutive racers between 1958 and 1963. While the earlier cars were front-engined, restricted to 1000cc and fitted with drum brakes, later examples had 1100cc engines in the rear and carried disc brakes.
Sponsor of the International Challenge is the multinational financial services company Credit Suisse, a renowned supporter of some of the world’s best motoring events such as the Goodwood Revival, Monaco Grand Prix Historique and the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.
As a further tribute to the meeting patron, a number of cars raced and constructed by Frank Matich will be competing and others displayed in a Memorabilia Marquee. Foremost amongst those on display will be the SR3 and SR4 sports cars which Frank used to dominate the 1967-1969 championships, and the McLaren M10B he drove to win the 1970 Australian Grand Prix.
The Memorabilia Marquee has become a regular feature of the biennial Tasman events hosted by the Historic Racing and Sports Car Association and the Australian Racing Drivers Club.
More information can be found at www.tasmanrevival.com and you can join in the discussions on Facebook at www.facebook.com/hsrca and Twitter at www.twitter.com/hsrca.
Photographs (by Noel Conlon) of the 1962 Australian Formula Junior Championship and the victorious Frank Matich.
FORMULA JUNIOR TO RACE AT TASMAN REVIVAL
The famous Formula Junior category of the 1950s and 60s will make a return at the 2012 Tasman Revival, with a field of nearly 50 vehicles coming from all over the globe.
In the era, Formula Junior served as an introduction to open-wheel racing for novice drivers, and was the only international single-seater category below Formula One.
Drivers the likes of Formula One World Champions Jim Clark, John Surtees and Denny Hulme honed their craft in the small capacity Formula Junior cars.
Almost 50 years since the demise of the category in 1963, Formula Junior is proving to be one of the biggest and most popular categories in international historic racing with race held for these little formula cars most weekends across Europe.
Across November 23, 24 and 25 these beautiful cars will descend on Sydney Motorsport Park for the Tasman Revival to put on a display of open wheel racing as it was across three action packed days.
Included on the grid at the Tasman Revival will be UK based international convener of the Formula Junior category Duncan Rabagliati with his BMC-powered 1959 Alexis, which he has been racing since the late 1980s.
Other internationals in the field come from Belgium, the USA, Japan and New Zealand, which along with the Australian entrants will make up a grid of almost 50 cars.
Event partners The Historic Sports and Racing Car Association (HSRCA) and the Australian Racing Drivers’ Club (ARDC) are also pleased to announce that the Formula Junior series of races will be sponsored by multinational financial services company Credit Suisse.
ARDC CEO Glenn Matthews said that Credit Suisse was a great fit for the Tasman Revival.
“Credit Suisse is no stranger to the historic motorsport scene, with a major presence at such high profile events as the Goodwood Revival, Monaco Grand Prix Historique and the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance – it’s fantastic that they’ve chosen to back the Tasman Revival,” Mr Matthews said.
The Tasman Revival is a celebration of motor racing history, bringing together a collection of over 400 historic sports and racing cars spanning over fifty years of racing history.
Categories include Formula Junior, 1960s Tasman Cup cars, Formula 5000, Sports racers of all eras up to the mid-1980s, and racing for production sports and touring cars.
More information can be found at www.tasmanrevival.com and you can join in the discussions on Facebook at www.facebook.com/hsrca and Twitter at www.twitter.com/hsrca.
Photo Gallery: Tasman Revival at Muscle Car Masters 2012
The Tasman Revival team was back at Sydney Motor Sport Park this weekend, enjoying the spectacle of Muscle Car Masters 2012 and talkin’ Tasman with its fans.
Peter Schell was at the event and has very kindly shared a selection of his photographs from the day. They cover some of the action on the track as well as the display in the paddock and are great fun. Check ’em out below!
Thanks to Peter Schell for the photographs!
Tasman Revival Display at 2012 Muscle Car Masters
The HSRCA are heading to this weekend’s Muscle Car Masters to show off some of the magic machines that will hit the track at the 2012 Tasman Revival.
We’ll be located in the Legends Marquee on the skidpan at Sydney Motor Sport Park and will be bringing along five cars indicative of what will be in action come the last weekend of November and the 2012 Tasman Revival!
Firstly the much prized Brabham BT24 driven by Sir Jack Brabham carrying the No1 on the side, as Sir Jack was world champion from the year before. Sir Jack Brabham is still the only man to have ever won the Formula One World Championship in a car bearing his own name, and Brabham is the only marque in F1 to be built by a winning driver. The BT24 is Repco V8-powered and ran second in the 1967 Formula One World Championship to finish behind Brabham’s teammate Denny Hulme in a similar car.
Secondly, another Brabham! This time a BT23 powered by a Cosworth FVA. This car is prepared by the legendary Peter Molloy and is the current lap record holder for its class around Eastern Creek with a time of 1min 36 seconds.
Third on the list is one of the two Milano GTs built in the late 1960s. Powered by a mighty Holden 179 engine, the Milano make were front runners at this time against the best GT cars in the country. The Holden 179 of course will be no stranger to a lot of those attending the Muscle Car Masters event.
Fourth is a 1950s Lotus Eleven. These iconic sports racing cars swept all before them in the small capacity class throughout the world in the second half of the 1950s and beyond. Quite a rare car in Australia with around a half dozen here, this car has local history at all the main venues such as Warwick Farm, Bathurst, Catalina and Lakeside.
Finally there will be a C-Type Jaguar. Although this particular car is in fact a replica, you would not be able to tell by just looking at it, such is the workmanship that has gone into building it. C-Types won LeMans on two occasions, 1951 and 1953, and could have won in 1952 except for a change of bodywork that caused overheating.
So you can see there is a great spread of cars from the early ’50s to the late ’60s. Missing of course are the cars from the ’70s and ’80s, which will also be in action at the Tasman Revival, but happily the mighty Formula 5000s are competing at Muscle Car Masters on the day which will give you an idea of what they’ll be like when they’re let loose on Sydney Motor Sport Park for the 2012 Tasman Revival.
Tickets can be pre-purchased at Ticketmaster for the Tasman Revival and are on sale now.
Brabham BT-24 Photo by Peter Schell.
More Photos! Tasman Revival at the 2012 Eastern Creek Classic
Long time HSRCA member and talented photographer, Peter Schell, joined us at the 2012 Eastern Creek Classic last weekend and has kindly provided a gallery from the day for everyone to enjoy. Check ’em out below!
Many thanks to Peter Schell for sharing his photographs!
Photo Gallery: Tasman Revival at the 2012 Eastern Creek Classic
We spent a sunny Sunday at Sydney Motor Sport Park this past weekend, enjoying the huge selection of classic cars on display at the 2012 Eastern Creek Classic and chatting about the 2012 Tasman Revival!
Plenty of cool people stopped by to chat and enjoy the cars and our display, and we had a great day talkin’ Tasman Revival and classic cars. We have a few photos from the day for you to check out, and you can enjoy them below, along with a few more over in the gallery on the HSRCA website.
