1975 Tasman Series

The 1975 Tasman Series, (officially the Tasman Championship for Drivers [1]), was a motor racing competition open to Racing Cars complying with the Tasman Formula.[2] Contested over eight rounds in New Zealand and Australia beginning on 5 January and ending on 23 February,[3] it was the twelfth and final Tasman Series. The series was organised jointly by the Motorsport Association of New Zealand and the Confederation of Australian Motorsport [1] and was promoted as the Peter Stuyvesant International Series for the 1975 Tasman Championship.[2]

1975 Tasman Series
Champion Warwick Brown
Previous:	1974	Next:	none

The series was won by Australian driver Warwick Brown in his fifth year of Formula 5000 racing with the Pat Burke Racing team, driving a Lola T332 Chevrolet. The series was resolved in a dramatic final race inwhat turned out to be the final Tasman Series race of all, at Sandown Raceway. Brown, fellow Australian Johnnie Walker and New Zealander Graeme Lawrence all sat on 30 points prior to the last race. All three struck trouble but with a sixth position Brown claimed the final point in Tasman Series history, breaking the deadlock to win the crown by one point. Race wins had been shared around with Brown and Lawrence each winning twice, with single victories going to Walker, Chris Amon who finished fifth in the points behind the winless but consistent John McCormack, and to Graham McRae and John Goss who each completed partial series runs focussed on their home country events.

In the aftermath of this series, the two legs of the Tasman Series broke apart. The New Zealand half became the Peter Stuyvesant Series and converted to Formula Atlantic in 1977. The Australian half became the Rothmans International Series.[4]

Races

Warwick Brown won the series driving a Lola T332 similar to the example pictured above

Additional information sourced from:[4]

Round		Name	Circuit	Date	Winning driver	Winning car	Winning entrant	Report
New Zealand	1	Levin International	Levin	5 January	Graeme Lawrence	Lola T332 Chevrolet	Marlboro /Singapore Airlines / Wix Filters [5]	Report
	2	New Zealand Grand Prix	Pukekohe	12 January	Warwick Brown	Lola T332 Chevrolet	Pat Burke Racing	Report
	3	Lady Wigram Trophy	Wigram	19 January	Graham McRae	McRae GM2 Chevrolet	Commercial Bank of Australia [6]	Report
	4	Teretonga International	Teretonga	26 January	Chris Amon	Talon MR-1 Chevrolet	MacCormack Racing [7]	Report
Australia	5	Oran Park 100	Oran Park	2 February	Warwick Brown	Lola T332 Chevrolet	Pat Burke Racing	Report
	6	Surfers Paradise 100	Surfers Paradise	9 February	Johnnie Walker	Lola T332 Repco-Holden	Walker Racing	Report
	7	Adelaide 100	Adelaide	16 February	Graeme Lawrence	Lola T332 Chevrolet	Singapore Airlines [2]	Report
	8	Sandown Park Cup	Sandown	23 February	John Goss	Matich A53 Repco-Holden	John Goss Racing	Report

Points system

Championship points were awarded at each round on the following basis:

Position [8]	1	2	3	4	5	6
Points [8]	9	6	4	3	2	1

Championship Standings

Pos [3] Driver [3] Car [3] Entrant [2] LEV PUK WIG TER ORA SUR ADE SAN Pts [3] 1 Warwick Brown Lola T332 Chevrolet Part Burke Racing 2 1 Ret Ret 1 8 2 6 31 2 Graeme Lawrence Lola T332 Chevrolet Singapore Airlines 1 3 5 9 2 9 1 Ret 30 = Johnnie Walker Lola T332 Repco Holden Walker Racing 4 4 3 4 3 1 3 Ret 30 4 John McCormack Elfin MR6 Repco Holden Ansett Team Elfin 8 6 2 2 5 5 DNS 2 23 5 Chris Amon Talon MR1 Chevrolet McCormack Racing Ret 7 Ret 1 4 Ret 4 5 17 6 John Goss Matich A53 Repco Holden John Goss Racing Ret 3 Ret 1 13 7 Graham McRae McRae GM2 Chevrolet Matich A51 Repco Holden Commercial Bank of Australia [6] Ampol (Australia) Ret Ret 1 DNS 8 4 12 = Kevin Bartlett Lola T400 Chevrolet Chesterfield Filter Racing 3 Ret Ret 3 10 6 Ret 4 12 9 Ken Smith Lola T332 Chevrolet la Vilase Travel Agents [9] 5 5 9 8 6 2 Ret 7 11 = Max Stewart Lola T400 Chevrolet Max Stewart Motors Ret 8 4 5 7 Ret 5 3 11 11 Jim Murdoch Begg 018 Chevrolet Begg & Allen Ltd 6 2 7 Ret DNS 7 Ret 7 12 David Oxton Lola T330 Chevrolet Coca Cola Bottlers (N.Z.) Ltd [6] 6 Ret 1 = Baron Robertson Elfin MR5 Repco Holden Robertson Racing [7] 9 11 DNS 6 1 = Garrie Cooper Elfin MR5 Repco Holden Ansett Team Elfin [9] Ret 7 6 8 1 Pos Driver Car Entrant LEV PUK WIG TER ORA SUR SAN ADE Pts

Colour Result Gold Winner Silver 2nd place Bronze 3rd place Green Points finish Blue Non-points finish Non-classified finish (NC) Purple Retired (Ret) Red Did not qualify (DNQ) Did not pre-qualify (DNPQ) Black Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Withdrew (WD) Race cancelled (C) Blank Did not participate (DNP) Did not arrive (DNA) Excluded (EX)

Key

Abbreviation	Circuit
ADE	Adelaide
LEV	Levin
ORA	Oran Park
PUK	Pukekohe
SAN	Sandown
SUR	Surfers Paradise
TER	Teretonga
WIG	Wigram

References

1. Tasman Championship for Drivers, CAMS Manual of Motor Sport, 1975, pages 80 to 83
2. Official Programme, Adelaide International Raceway, February 16th 1975
3. Tasman Series, Australian Competition Yearbook, 1976 Edition, pages 64 to 81
4. Allen Brown. "Tasman Cup (F5000) races « Formula 5000 « OldRacingCars.com". Archived from the original on 4 September 2009. Retrieved 27 August 2009.
5. Tasman Rd. 1, Racing Car News, February 1975, page 28
6. Tasman Rd. 3, Racing Car News, February 1975, page 6
7. Tasman Rd. 4, Racing Car News, March 1975, page 30
8. Tasman Series 1975, www.sergent.com.au Retrieved 23 November 2015
9. Official Programme, Sandown, February 23rd 1975