Days of thunder: Push to bring back Australasian Tasman Cup championship

A Melbourne motor sport entrepreneur is planning a modern revival of the Australasian Tasman Cup championship, which was once second only to the Formula One world championship.

Older fans recall the F5000s. Photo: Supplied

The reborn summer series in New Zealand and Australia will feature a new version of the thundering Formula 5000 V8-powered open-wheel racing cars that thrilled local fans in the 1970s.

The popularity of historical F5000 racing, showcasing the original cars from the big-banger era of single-seaters, inspired former motor sport magazine publisher and racing driver Chris Lambden to re-create the class with an up-to-date car built to the latest safety standards.

Called Formula Thunder 5000, the proposed new "big banger" open-wheel category uses a locally made chassis based on an international design and powered by an Australian-developed 570 horsepower production-based five-litre Ford V8.

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FT5000 was launched on Thursday as controversy raged over the future of Australian single-seater racing, with the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport (CAMS) under fire for its funding and support of the international Formula 4 junior class.

This weekend's opening round of the F4 championship on the V8 Supercars Tasmania SuperSprint undercard at Symmons Plains Raceway, near Launceston, attracted just nine entries, prompting fierce criticism of CAMS' administration of open-wheel racing.

Separately, Lambden created FT5000 to cater for what he claims is growing demand among enthusiasts for a modern high-powered single-seater category, missing from Australian tracks for a decade.

If his plan is successful, a field of bellowing, big-winged and fat-wheeled racers will compete in up to seven events in NZ and Australia in December and January.

Lambden is also proposing to revive the spirit of the original Australasian summer season of open-wheeler racing by calling it the Tasman Series.

The title is more than a nod to the Tasman Cup championship, which was staged in NZ and Australia over seven or eight rounds in January/February from 1964-75.

The Tasman Cup was a major international series in its time and at its peak featured many of the leading F1 drivers in modified versions of their grand prix racers.

From 1964 to '69, F1 stars such as Jim Clark, Graham Hill, Jackie Stewart, NZ's Bruce McLaren and Australia's Jack Brabham spent most of the northern winter competing in the Tasman Cup, treating it as a racing holiday.

Despite the camaraderie and relaxed atmosphere between the weekly races, the trans-Tasman series was fiercely fought between the F1 visitors and the leading locals, with top F1 teams such as Lotus, Ferrari, Brabham and McLaren bringing their previous season GP cars.

In the 1960s, the Tasman Cup championship was regarded as a second F1 season in the southern hemisphere and rated in prestige and importance only behind the world championship, which back then was decided over as few as eight races.

It remained popular and continued to attract leading international drivers when the then new F5000 category replaced the F1-based 2.5-litre Tasman Formula in 1970.

The F5000 machines were F1-style open-wheel racing cars powered by production-based five-litre V8s that rumbled and roared, in stark contrast to the screaming grand prix thoroughbreds.

While they were cheaper and easier to run, the 500 horsepower F5000s - featuring famous racing marques such as Lola and McLaren, and local rivals Elfin and Matich - were nearly as quick as the F1 cars of the day and arguably more spectacular.

The last Tasman Cup championship was run in 1975, after which the NZ and Australian legs split into short-lived separate series.

Baby boomer-generation motor sport enthusiasts recall the Tasman Cup as the pinnacle of the golden era of Australian open-wheeler racing, which was overtaken in popularity by touring cars in the mid-'70s.

Older fans have a particular fondness for the thundering F5000s, which were Australia's premier open-wheelers from 1971-81 and have made a comeback in recent years as the biggest drawcard of historic racing for period machines.

As well as creating a modern version of F5000, Lambden plans to run the FT5000 trans-Tasman summer series as an homage to the original.

"The concept is to re-create the spirit of the Tasman Cup Championship," he said. "The goal is to attract overseas teams and drivers, just like the original Tasman series."

Lambden, who is also a former V8 Supercars independent commissioner and historic F5000 competitor, is planning two FT5000 events in NZ in December before Christmas, then up to five in a row in Australia in January.

The proposed Australian leg will start at Sandown in Melbourne, followed by Symmons Plains and Sydney Motorsport Park, then a possible appearance at Queensland Raceway, near Ipswich, before finishing at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit.

While Lambden claims CAMS is "supportive" of his FT5000 initiative, he hasn't sought official classification or championship status, planning to run under the general provisions for 'Formula Libre' open-rule single-seaters.

Although the rights to the Tasman Cup title are understood to belong to CAMS and MotorSport New Zealand, he believes he is free to call his competition the Tasman Series.

"It was referred to as the Tasman Series in all the documentation viewed by CAMS and I've had no objection," he said. "And, anyway, Tasman is a generic term."

Lambden will also update the presentation of FT5000 events, planning action-packed formats that he describes as "Big Bash On Wheels".

He wants to compact qualifying and racing into one day, with the FT5000s making four or five appearances during a fast-paced program that will include supporting races for other fan-friendly categories.

There will also be the potential for twilight races at the events in Victoria and Tasmania, where it doesn't get dark until late in mid-summer.

Lambden needs confirmed orders for 12 cars at about $240,000 each before he commits to the Tasman Series, which he hopes to finalise around midyear.

He has received one deposit following the initial positive response from open-wheel racing fans and potential competitors.

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