The MSC NZ F5000 Tasman Cup Revival Series will take the ‘world’s fastest museum’ to five of New Zealand’s pinnacle historic motorsport events this summer.
The 24th season opens at Manfeild Circuit Chris Amon on 13–15 November and runs through Taupō, Christchurch and Hampton Downs before the finale at the George Begg Festival at Invercargill’s Teretonga Park on 19–21 March.
The calendar has been built around events rather than fixtures. Each round was chosen for its own flavour and for the stage it gives these half-century-old cars, which once raced alongside Formula 1 machinery.
The season spans both islands and the length of the country, takes in some of the most storied names in New Zealand motorsport, and sees the reigning winners in both categories return to defend their titles.
The series is open to cars built to F5000 rules between 1968 and 1978 and raced in period specification – from 5-litre V8s capped at 8000rpm to period shock absorbers, wheels, wings and bodywork. It follows the FIA principle that historic racing is a discipline built on devotion to the cars and their history.
The season opens on 13–15 November at the MG Classic, hosted by the MG Car Club at the circuit named after Chris Amon – the Manawatū’s own Grand Prix hero, who helped design the track and called it his home circuit. The meeting is the series’ traditional curtain-raiser and annual reunion, with the F5000s back in the pit garages, where spectators can get up close to the machinery.
Manfeild is also where the first points of the season are earned in each of the series’ two categories, which are defined by the age of the car. Category A is made up primarily of the earlier cars, built up to the end of 1971, when F5000 grew out of the Formula A and Tasman era, and wings were still in their infancy; these cars race to a minimum weight of 567kg.
Category B covers cars built from 1 January 1972 onwards – the later generation shaped by bigger wings and wider bodywork – with a minimum weight of 612kg.
Any car running aerodynamic aids from the later period is automatically placed in Category B. Points are awarded in each category for every race and for attendance at each meeting, and numerous historic trophies are contested along the way, adding colour to the chase for the category titles, which the F5000 Association presents at season’s end.
Round two, the Taupō Historic Grand Prix on 15–17 January, places the series within the NextGen-run premier summer series, with F5000 racing broadcast live on television in New Zealand and Australia.
The F5000s return to Taupō to join a bill rich in single-seaters, sharing the weekend with the Atlantics and the Toyota series cars and their aspiring Formula 1 drivers. Owners with an F5000 sitting in a garage or museum are being encouraged to bring it back to the track for the occasion.
The series crosses Cook Strait for round three, the SKOPE Classic at Euromarque Motorsport Park, Ruapuna, on 5–7 February. A fixture of the historic calendar for decades, the Christchurch meeting is known for the Bert Hawthorne Cup and the Stan Redmond Memorial Trophy, and its flat, open layout gives spectators uninterrupted views of machinery rarely seen on track.
After a six-week break, the series heads to NZIGP Legends of Speed featuring McLaren at Hampton Downs on 13–14 March, where F5000 will be a featured category at a meeting celebrating New Zealand’s most famous motor racing name in the year of what would have been Bruce’s 90th birthday.
While it is the penultimate round for the series, it is also one of the most anticipated, with the F5000S woven into a weekend of competitors and machinery from the era Bruce McLaren helped define.
A single week separates Hampton Downs from Invercargill – usually a journey too far, too soon. Road transport for the cars from Hampton Downs to the bottom of the South Island has changed that, making the George Begg Festival at Teretonga Park on 19–21 March the season finale.
The biennial meeting honours the Southland engineer and constructor whose name it carries, and the McLaren celebration is set to continue there, with McLaren cars acknowledged at opposite ends of New Zealand a week apart.
Each round includes three races: typically one on the Saturday after qualifying and two on the Sunday. The second race has a handicap start, and the grid for the final race is set by the first race’s finishing order.
Last season’s category winners, Anna Collins (Category B, McRae GM1 004) and Toby Annabell (Category A, McLaren M10B 400-07), start the opening round as the targets for the returning regulars and past campaigners.
“It has been a long off-season, and it has resulted in one of our most exciting calendars of events to date. Each round is a pinnacle where we get to showcase history in action while being part of a unique spectacle – from live television and racing alongside the Formula 1 hopefuls, to being part of the McLaren celebration and then racing again a week later for the final at the George Begg Festival,” said F5000 Association chairman Glenn Richards.
The MSC NZ F5000 Tasman Cup Revival Series is proudly in its 24th season, supported by MSC, NZ Express Transport, Bonney’s Specialised Bulk Transport, Mobil Lubricants, Avon Motorsport Tyres – Dold Industries, Webdesign, Exide Batteries and Pacifica Shipping.
Series news, entry lists and results will be published throughout the season on Facebook and at www.F5000.co.nz.
Header Photo: Jarod Carruthers
