1967 Rounds 5-8
Australia

Round Five: LAKESIDE

Lakeside 99 International

Date: 12th February 1967

66 Laps of 2.414kms (159.325kms)

At Lakeside the internationals were to run into some serious opposition in the shape of Australians Leo Geoghegan and Spencer Martin. Geoghegan had the ex-Clark Lotus with a very good Climax long-stroke, Martin the former Scuderia Veloce Brabham with probably the best short-stroke Climax in existence. Also there were Greg Cusack in the ex-Clark-Palmer Lotus-Climax and John Harvey in the 1.5 Brabham now out to 1650cc. The main 1.5 litre contenders were Glyn Scott (Lotus 27 Ford), Ian Cook (Elfin Mono Mk II Ford) and Mel McEwin (Elfin Mono Ford).

In preliminary practice on the Friday, Stewart broke a water pump impeller and the engine was replaced overnight. Brabham did a few laps, but was overheating, and mechanics enlarged the nose area on the little Brabham. When official practice started on the Saturday Hulme only did two laps and pulled in with oil leaking from his valve covers. The Goodyear tyres were chunking and wearing on the Lakeside surface, and the BRM's of Stewart and Courage were suffering badly from wheelspin.

The early session saw Clark fastest at 54.3s, well under his two-year old record of 54.9. Stewart got 54.4, Brabham 55.4, Courage 56.0, Geoghegan 56.2, Gardner 56.4, Hulme 56.5, Bartlett 56.7, Martin 56.9, Harvey 57.2 and Cusack 58.0. Harvey took a tooth of the crown wheel and pinion and packed the car away to return to the workshop.

For the second session Stewart came out with the training car on Dunlops, then changed them to Goodyear, and then called for his number one car on Dunlops, which pleased the Dunlop men no end, as Harvey was their only car. However they did not yet have the new Kyalami tested 007 rubber, and Stewart turned identical times of 54.4 on both tyres, electing to use Goodyear in the race. Clark, however, came down to 54.1 in just eight laps to let everybody know what was what. Brabham improved to 54.8, but late in practice run the bearing in his Repco V8 and got to a telephone to get another engine up from Melbourne. Fourth fastest was Hulme with 55.1, then Geoghegan on 55.3, Courage 55.8, Gardner 56.5 and Martin 56.8.

The engine Repco sent up was down on power, so Brabham's mechanics built up a new engine out of the two overnight, while Hulme sealed his leaking valve covers very firmly with Araldyte.

On race day, Clark again won the start, but the Lotus jammed for a moment in first and Stewart sliced in ahead for the first left-hander. As the field arrived at KLG, as it was called then, Cook, who had been having brake trouble all weekend, lost his brakes, spun the car, and went up over the bank, damaging the suspension somewhat but stepping out unhurt.

The order on the first lap was Stewart and Clark, clearing away from the field, then Brabham, Hulme with Geoghegan worrying him, Courage, Gardner, Bartlett, Martin, Harvey, Cusack, Scott and McEwin. Cusack had lost a grub screw from his gear selector rods, and Harvey quickly got through him. Geoghegan passed Hulme at the end of the straight on lap 4, but was repassed around the back, and decided that Hulme was getting so sideways everywhere that Geoghegan decided that he should let Courage get through, which he did on lap 6.

Clark was pressing Stewart all the way around the circuit, while after a real fight Martin passed Bartlett on lap 9. On that lap Courage got a momentary cramp as he braked for KLG and went up the bank and along the Armco to thump down on the circuit again. He pulled into the pits for a quick check and dropped back to ninth.

With Courage working his way back up again, Hulme on lap 13 was only 1.7 secs behind Brabham, who was 12.6 adrift from Stewart. On lap 14 Cusack retired, and by lap 21 Geoghegan was still only 2.7 secs behind Hulme. But five laps later Geoghegan pulled up at the end of the main straight, after a great drive, a wheel bearing had collapsed, allowing the suspension to move and putting so much strain on the disc and caliper that the disc fell to bits.

Clark was still only inches away from Stewart, trying to get the run through out of Shell into the main straight, but being held out by the BRM's touch extra power. On lap 32 Martin reported to the pits with leaking clutch fluid, and went out again, only to retire on lap 39. And that was the lap that Clark got in front, snapping past Stewart under brakes into KLG and getting away at around 0.5 secs a lap from that moment.

But there was still more sensation, Hulme, still fourth, raced in on lap 58 to have the front wheel nuts tightened and one lap later Stewart retired the BRM with transmission failure. This left Courage in third place behind Clark and Brabham, but he pulled in on lap 63 with the same trouble, so that Clark went on to win from Brabham, then Gardner with no third gear, a bald left front tyre and almost out of fuel, then Hulme, Bartlett, Harvey, Scott and McEwin. The Goodyear tyres all looked very scruffy, and there was oil all over Clark's face and screen, but he had won important Tasman points. He left the lap record at 54.6 seconds.

The Tasman points after five rounds were:- Clark 24, Attwood 10, Stewart 9, Hulme and Gardner 7, Brabham 6, Bartlett 4, Palmer 3, Lawrence 2, Harvey, Levis and Hollier all on 1.

Grid: (* denotes pole)

                   Jackie Stewart                 Jim Clark*
 Denny Hulme                 Jack Brabham
                   Piers Courage            Leo Geoghegan
Frank Gardner                 Kevin Bartlett
                     John Harvey               Spencer Martin
     Ian Cook                      Greg Cusack
                     Mel McEwin                   Glyn Scott

Result Driver Nat Car

Laps

Time
1 Jim Clark Scot Lotus 33 / Climax 1987cc V8 66 1hr 0m 56.2s
2 Jack Brabham Aust Brabham BT23A / Repco 2493cc V8 65  
3 Frank Gardner Aust Brabham BT16 / Climax 2495cc 4cyl 64  
4 Denny Hulme NZ Brabham BT19 / Repco 2493cc V8 63  
5 Kevin Bartlett Aust Brabham BT11A / Climax 2499cc 4cyl 63  
6 John Harvey Aust Brabham BT6 / Ford 1650cc 4cyl 62  
7 Glyn Scott Aust Lotus 27 / Ford 1498cc 4cyl    
8 Mel McEwin Aust Elfin-Mono / Ford 1498cc 4cyl    
Ret Piers Courage UK BRM P261 / BRM 2136cc V8 63 Transmission
Ret Jackie Stewart Scot BRM P261 / BRM 2136cc V8 59 Transmission
Ret Spencer Martin Aust Brabham BT11A / Climax 2499cc 4cyl 39 Clutch Fluid
Ret Leo Geoghegan Aust Lotus 39 / Climax 2495cc 4cyl 26 Wheel Bearing
Ret Greg Cusack Aust Lotus 32B / Climax 2495cc 4cyl 14 Gear Linkage
Ret Ian Cook Aust Elfin-Mono Mk II / Ford 1498cc 4cyl 0 Suspension

Fastest Lap: Jim Clark 54.6s

 

 

Round Six: WARWICK FARM          32nd Australian Grand Prix

Date: 19th February 1967

45 Laps of 3.621kms (162.946kms)

So the stage was set for the 32nd Australian Grand Prix, one of the feature races of the eight Tasman events. The scene was additionally complicated by the arrival of the new compound Dunlops, and by the entry of the prototype Lotus F2 chassis with the FVA 1.6 litre Cosworth-Ford, driven by Graham Hill. Another first Australian appearance at the Farm was Paul Bolton in the Rorstan Brabham, while Chris Irwin took over from Piers Courage as number 2 BRM man. Harvey got a new 1860cc engine for his Brabham, and was out to do some giant-killing. Cusack withdrew his Lotus from the rest of the series, having an interested buyer, while West Australian Don O'Sullivan scratched after failing to qualify the ex-Patterson Cooper-Climax, as at Lakeside. The 1.5's were Cook, Scott, McEwin, Mike Champion (Brabham-Ford) and Jack Hunnam (Elfin Mono Ford).

Stewart went straight onto new Dunlops, and set a shattering 1:30.8 in the unofficial Friday practice, well under Clark's two-year old record of 1:33.7. The Brabhams were still in trouble with the fuel injection system, and were not happy with the Goodyears, because they did not have wide enough rims to take the good 15 inch rubber and the wear rate on 13's was alarming.

The first official session on the Saturday started with a bang when Leo Geoghegan's front wheel unscrewed itself on the way down to Creek Corner and the Lotus coasted to an unharmed stop as the wheel and tyre bounced into the trees. Brabham had done another overnight engine change, and Firestone had fitted out Martin with their only spare set of R125 rubber. Bartlett and Harvey both used new compound Dunlops, but not the 007 type, which was available only in 15 inch size. Graham Hill spent a lot of time sorting out the handling of his new car.

The first session ended with Stewart the fastest on 1:31.1, then Clark 1:31.8, Hill a staggering 1:32.1, Hulme 1:32.8, Brabham 1:33.2, Martin 1:33.4, Irwin 1:33.6, Geoghegan 1:34.1, Harvey 1:34.3, Bartlett 1:35.4, Gardner 1:36.1, Bolton 1:37.2, Cook 1:39.6, Scott 1:39.8, McEwin 1:40.7, and Champion 1:50.1. Harvey was particularly impressive, while Bolton was troubled with clutch slip, oil leaks, and sorting suspensions.

In the second session Stewart equaled his 1:30.8 from Friday in the coolest possible manner, while Clark could not better 1:31.6 before he broke a roll bar, which he at first put down to trouble in the limited slip differential. Hill came down to 1:31.7 before breaking the crown wheel and pinion in the small HD4 Hewland gearbox. The Howard brothers loaned him a replacement for the race. Brabham finally climbed down to 1:32.4, Geoghegan to a tremendous 1:32.7, Gardner 1:33.2, Harvey 1:33.7, Bartlett 1:33.8, Irwin slower at 1:33.8, Hulme slower at 1:34.6, Bolton a commendable 1:35.0 and the 1.5 litre times greatly unchanged. Thus the Sunday 3-2-3 grid saw seven cars at or under the lap record, including one 1.6 litre and one 1.9 litre engine.

Brabham and Hulme had been at Oran Park, just a bit further down the road from Warwick Farm, all the Sunday morning trying to sort out their injection and handling worries , but they lost one serious rival on the warm-up lap when Harvey's Brabham chewed out a half-shaft.

Stewart blasted off the line to get a clear lead immediately from Clark, Brabham and Hill, but Hill got Brabham into Creek Corner. Both Cook and McEwin pitted on lap one, the first with clutch trouble and the second with gear selection bothers. By lap 3, when everything had settled down the order was Stewart already 3.5 secs ahead of Clark, then Hill, Brabham, Gardner, Hulme, Martin, Geoghegan, Irwin, Bartlett, Bolton, Scott and Champion. Geoghegan was starting to worry Martin, while Hulme was attacking Gardner and Irwin was dropping right out of it.

On lap 10 Bolton made the first of several calls at the pits with overheating problems, and Hill was comfortably holding onto Clark. By lap 16, when Bolton called in again, Stewart was 9 seconds out from Clark. Geoghegan was right in Martin's ear, and although Martin had lost his clutch 10 laps ago and had started the race on half-worn Firestones, he would not let Geoghegan through. All the time Gardner was wearing down Brabham.

On lap 23 Geoghegan hit Martin side-on when the Gold Star Champion tried to shut the gate on him for the fifth time into Paddock, and the moment Geoghegan got through he got away at over 2 seconds a lap. Two laps later Hill's transmission broke in the Esses and his race was over. At this stage Geoghegan was only 2.6 seconds behind Hulme and on lap 29, the New Zealander left the way open for him into Creek.

Geoghegan was driving the race of his life, but so was Gardner, who after four laps right on Brabham's tail passed him on lap 34 going into Polo, the World Champion moving over to make room for him. This put Geoghegan in the way to pass Brabham as well, but on lap 35 he got wide going into the Esses and spun, letting Hulme and Martin through. He actually let Irwin through as well, going down to eighth place, but on lap 38 Irwin reported to headquarters with metering unit problems and finally retired on lap 39.

At stake for Geoghegan was the Langridge Trophy, inaugurated this year for the first resident home, but he had little hope of catching Martin. But on lap 41 Hulme pulled up at Creek with a burst radiator hose and then on lap 43, two laps from the end, Martin spun in the same place as had Geoghegan, but this time he smashed hard into the Armco, damaging the car front and rear.

So Stewart sailed home to a serene win 16.7 seconds ahead of Clark, with a new lap record at 1:31.4 secs. Gardner was a great third, then Brabham, Geoghegan, Bartlett two laps adrift, Scott and Champion. Bartlett had broken the top of his gear lever as well as the front anti-roll bar, and had done marvelously to keep the car going at all. Stewart had spun the BRM once, on Polo, but lost only 5 seconds, and Brabham had clipped the fence around Homestead without any ill-effects.

Tasman points standing after the race were:- Clark 30, Stewart 18, Gardner 11, Attwood 10, Brabham 9, Hulme 7, Bartlett 5, Palmer 3, Geoghegan and Lawrence 2, Harvey, Levis and Hollier 1 each.

Grid: (* denotes pole)

  Graham Hill               Jim Clark                Jackie Stewart*
                Leo Geoghegan     Jack Brabham
Spencer Martin       Frank Gardner            Denny Hulme
                   John Harvey             Chris Irwin
    Ian Cook                Paul Bolton                Kevin Bartlett
                   Mel McEwin              Glyn Scott
                                                                      Mike Champion

Result Driver Nat Car

Laps

Time
1 Jackie Stewart Scot BRM P261 / BRM 2136cc V8 45 69m 17.3s
2 Jim Clark Scot Lotus 33 / Climax 1987cc V8 45 69m 34.0s
3 Frank Gardner Aust Brabham BT16 / Climax 2495cc 4cyl 45 70m 28.9s
4 Jack Brabham Aust Brabham BT23A / Repco 2493cc V8 45 70m 43.6s
5 Leo Geoghegan Aust Lotus 39 / Climax 2495cc 4cyl 44  
6 Kevin Bartlett Aust Brabham BT11A / Climax 2499cc 4cyl 43  
Ret Spencer Martin Aust Brabham BT11A / Climax 2499cc 4cyl 42 Accident
7 Glyn Scott Aust Lotus 27 / Ford 1498cc 4cyl 41  
8 Mike Champion Aust Brabham BT6 / Ford 1650cc 4cyl 41  
Ret Denny Hulme NZ Brabham BT19 / Repco 2493cc V8 41 Radiator Hose
Ret Chris Irwin UK BRM P261 / BRM 2136cc V8 39 Electrical
Ret Graham Hill UK Lotus 48 / Cosworth FVA 1600cc 4cyl 25 Gearbox
Ret Paul Bolton Aust Brabham BT7A / Climax 2499cc 4cyl    Overheating
Ret Mel McEwin Aust Elfin-Mono / Ford 1498cc 4cyl 0 Gear Selection
Ret Ian Cook Aust Elfin-Mono Mk II / Ford 1498cc 4cyl 0 Clutch
Ret John Harvey Aust Brabham BT6 / Ford 1860cc 4cyl 0 Halfshaft

Fastest Lap: Jackie Stewart 1m 31.4s (Record)

 

 

Round Seven: SANDOWN

Sandown International

Date: 26th February 1967

52 Laps of 3.103kms (161.346kms)

So far in Australia Firestone had won one race and Dunlop the next, so the Goodyear crews were looking forward to their turn at Sandown, and it looked as though they had good hopes, for Brabham set about reshaping the rear suspension on his two cars with 15 inch Elfin-made wider rims that would accept the good rubber, same compounds, altered construction, and had three good engines on tap.

Mildren had planned to build up a new short-stroke engine for Bartlett, but Laystall mistakenly freighted out a long-stroke crank, so chief mechanic Glen Abbey had to patch and mend with that. Martin's car was rebuilt after his shunt, and Firestone had some fresh R125s on tap for him.

There were two practice sessions on the Friday, and again Stewart was immediately the fastest at 1:6.2, compared to Brabham's record of 1:7.6, but some hard work by Brabham cut his time down to 1:6.3, Clark could not better 1:8.1, and said that was as fast as the car would go. Nobody else was in the low times, although Harvey put away a good 1:11.7. Geoghegan, Bolton, Martin and Hulme did not practice.

The full field turned out for Saturday practice, Brabham having changed engines overnight. In the first session Brabham was slow, but Hulme got down to 1:7.3 and Stewart 1:6.1. Irwin did 1:9.9, Clark 1:7.5, and Martin was the fastest resident with 1:9.0 to Geoghegan's 1:9.9. But the later session produced some real shocks. Brabham slashed his time to an incredible 1:5.7 and Hulme to 1:6.6. Irwin came down to 1:9.2, Bartlett to 1:9.7, Gardner to 1:8.5, Martin to 1:8.9, Geoghegan to 1:9.3 and Bolton to a good 1:9.7 before he spun in the Esses and wrecked the Brabham against the Armco. Fastest of the 1.5's was Cook with 1:14.8.

The Tasman field had to run a 10-lap preliminary on Sunday, and Brabham, Stewart and Hulme had the front row. Brabham cleared right out to win comfortably from Stewart, putting up a new lap record of 1:5.7 in the process, compared to Stewarts best of 1:5.9, and the best resident time of 1:8.2 by Martin, the same time as gained by Gardner. But as he crossed the line, Brabham's timing gear broke, and his crew had to set to and replace the engine before the big race. They made it with little time to spare, but the crowd was right on Brabham's team as they took their grid positions for the start.

Brabham and Clark made magnificent starts, but Hulme and Stewart overpowered the Lotus up the back straight and past the stands the first time the order was Brabham, Stewart, Hulme, Clark, Martin, Gardner, Geoghegan, Irwin, Bartlett, Harvey, Scott, Cook, Hunnam, McEwin and Macrow. Before long the race had settled down into three separate fights, between Brabham and Stewart, also Martin, Gardner and Geoghegan, and finally a tremendous race-long fight between Cook and Scott.

There was also a fight developing between Bartlett ahead of Irwin, but on lap 8 Stewart ranged up alongside Brabham at the end of the main straight and just failed to get him under brakes. However, on the next lap he made it, and a great groan went up from the crowd as Brabham's car slowed and finally trickled to a stop near Dandenong Road corner. After some searching Brabham found the trouble, the soldering had broken on an ignition pickup wire off the flywheel. He was to repair it and get back in the race much later without any hope of placing.

Meanwhile Stewart had powered away, and to Clark in third place it must have looked like a Warwick Farm repeat. But on lap 11 Stewart's crown wheel and pinion let go, and he stopped at the beginning of the back straight. Clark immediately started to cut down Hulme, but behind them Gardner and Geoghegan were attacking Martin's third place. On lap 13 Clark got Hulme into Shell, but Hulme retook him going up to Lukey's.

On lap 18 Hunnam retired his Elfin with fuel leakage, and on that lap Clark pounced on Hulme into Shell and Geoghegan did the same to Gardner. But it was lap 23 before Clark got Hulme, and three laps later Hulme stopped in the pits with gear selector trouble that retired the car. By lap 31 Clark had a half lap lead on Martin, as Geoghegan finally got by Gardner and the dramatically Martin stopped almost next to Stewart's car with a broken half-shaft, putting Geoghegan up into second place.

And that's the way it ended, with Clark beating Geoghegan by 43.8 seconds, from Gardner, Irwin just ahead of Bartlett, then Harvey after a lonely drive, and Cook just ahead of Scott after probably the best race within a race of all. This was the highest placing by a resident driver in the whole series.

Tasman points after the race were:- Clark 39, Stewart 18, Gardner 15, Attwood 10, Brabham 9, Geoghegan 8, Bartlett and Hulme 7, Irwin and Palmer 3, Harvey and Lawrence 2, and Levis and Hollier 1 each.

 

Grid: (* denotes pole)

Jack Brabham*             Jackie Stewart               Denny Hulme
                        Jim Clark                    Spencer Martin
Frank Gardner             Leo Geoghegan                Chris Irwin
                    Kevin Bartlett                    John Harvey
    Ian Cook                         Glyn Scott                   Mel McEwin
                   Peter Macrow                  Jack Hunnam

Result Driver Nat Car

Laps

Time
1 Jim Clark Scot Lotus 33 / Climax 1987cc V8 52 59m 09.9s
2 Leo Geoghegan Aust Lotus 39 / Climax 2495cc 4cyl 52 59m 59.5s
3 Frank Gardner Aust Brabham BT16 / Climax 2495cc 4cyl 52 60m 08.6s
4 Chris Irwin UK BRM P261 / BRM 2136cc V8 51  
5 Kevin Bartlett Aust Brabham BT11A / Climax 2499cc 4cyl 51  
6 John Harvey Aust Brabham BT6 / Ford 1860cc 4cyl 48  
7 Ian Cook Aust Elfin-Mono Mk II / Ford 1498cc 4cyl 48  
8 Glyn Scott Aust Lotus 27 / Ford 1498cc 4cyl 47  
NC Peter Macrow Aust Cheetah / Climax 2495cc 4cyl     
Ret Mel McEwin Aust Elfin-Mono / Ford 1498cc 4cyl 39  
Ret Spencer Martin Aust Brabham BT11A / Climax 2499cc 4cyl 31 Half-Shaft
NC Jack Brabham Aust Brabham BT23A / Repco 2493cc V8 27 Ignition
Ret Denny Hulme NZ Brabham BT19 / Repco 2493cc V8 26 Gear Selector
Ret Jack Hunnam Aust Elfin-Mono / Ford 1498cc 4cyl 18 Fuel Leakage
Ret Jackie Stewart Scot BRM P261 / BRM 2136cc V8 11 Crown Wheel
DNS Paul Bolton Aust Brabham BT7A / Climax 2499cc 4cyl   Accident

 

 

Round Eight: LONGFORD

South Pacific Trophy

Date: 6th March 1967

28 Laps of 7.242kms (202.777kms)

So Clark had virtually won his second Tasman Cup. But there was still Longford to come, the fastest race of all, where everyone expected the Repco V8s to prove their superiority once and for all. And this is exactly what they did.

There were no major mechanical alterations to the cars that arrived in Longford, although Harvey's was the smallest-capacity car in the field, all the 1.5's having been refused entry because of the considerable speed differential. But nobody expected Stewart to go as fast as he did. There was the usual 100 bottles of champagne offered for fastest lap in the Friday practice, which was to set grid positions for the first of the two preliminaries on the Saturday. Stewart did a staggering 2:13.4 in the first session, making good use of slipstreaming, to obliterate his own existing lap record of 2:17.7.

Nobody could get remotely near this, perhaps because of the strong winds blowing over the circuit and in the first few laps Geoghegan dropped a valve on the Climax while doing warm-ups. The two team Brabhams came out late for the second practice session, with Stewart running around 0.5s outside his morning best, and Brabham's first five laps were safe enough around the high 14s to let Stewart pull into the pits and relax. But on the very last lap, Brabham stormed home with a 2:13.4 to get 50 of those 100 bottles of the best. Next fastest was Hulme at 2:15.6, then Clark 2:16.9, Martin a great 2:18.9, well under Stillwell's resident record of 2:21.0, Irwin 2:20.9, Bartlett 2:21.8, Gardner 2:23.6 and Harvey 2:27.5.

Brabham won both the 36-mile preliminary races on the Saturday quite comfortably. However, in the first Stewart broke his crown wheel and pinion and split the gearbox as he got away from the line, and Geoghegan blew his clutch and ran the bearings in his rebuilt engine. In the second race Stewart drove Irwin's car, Hulme stopped out of Newry while second with transistor ignition "black box" failure, having already replaced the box once on the grid. Brabham left the record at 2:14.5, and Martin came home with an incredible 2:15.9.

The BRM mechanics spent most of Sunday building up two good transmissions, they had none left now. Monday was fine at first but turned cold and windy as the big 126-mile race got closer.

It was a small field, the grid positions being decided by Saturday's second race times, and it was the first time in the series that Stewart had started from anywhere but the front row. He made a very gentle start this time to save his transmission, but Clark led the field away Gardner absolutely stormed up the inside. But Brabham took Clark into Longford corner, and the order first time back was Brabham, Hulme, Clark, Stewart, Gardner, Irwin, Bartlett and Harvey. Martin peeled off into the pits with the sealing rings gone, and that was the end of his Tasman series. He had recorded DNF's in all Australian races.

On lap 2 Irwin had passed Gardner, although Gardner was still niggling at him, and on the next lap Stewart went through Clark as though he was standing still over the brow on the start of Mountford straight. Brabham was getting away from Hulme, but Stewart had Hulme well covered too, and got him out of Tannery on lap 4. The little Scot hadn't wanted to work his car this hard, but there was nothing for it. He got within 3.4 seconds of Brabham, but the World Champion drew away again to around 6.0 seconds, and Stewart could not bridge this to better than 5.0 seconds.

On lap 5 Clark got Hulme into Tannery corner and as the field went by the stands onto lap 6, Hulme's Brabham stopped out of the viaduct with black box failure. Meanwhile Gardner had dropped back a little from Irwin, as his car was jumping out of gear on the bridges and he found it hard to steer with one hand and keep Irwin's considerable oil off his goggles as well.

The field had strung right out now, and by lap 14, halfway through, Stewart was 5.0 seconds behind Brabham with another 24.6 seconds back to Clark and 26.4 seconds to Irwin. But on lap 18 Brabham came past the pits with his engine sounding coarse. The exhaust system had fractured, but it hadn't hampered performance all that much for on lap 23 he put in a new lap record of 2:13.3.

On lap 26, two laps from the end, Stewart's race stopped out of Longford when the gearbox failed again. He hitched a ride back with Brabham, who won by 55.8 secs from Clark, then Irwin, Gardner, Bartlett with almost no gears left, and Harvey. It was a great finale for the Brabham team's long series of hard luck stories.

The final points score for the Tasman Series was:- Clark 45, Stewart, Brabham and Gardner all on 18, Attwood 10, Bartlett 9, Geoghegan 8, Hulme and Irwin 7, Palmer and Harvey 3, Lawrence 2, Levis and Hollier 1 each.

Grid: (* denotes pole)

  Jim Clark             Denny Hulme            Jack Brabham*
             Spencer Martin         Jackie Stewart
Kevin Bartlett           Chris Irwin               Frank Gardner
                                                  John Harvey

Result Driver Nat Car

Laps

Time
1 Jack Brabham Aust Brabham BT23A / Repco 2493cc V8 28 1hr 3m 25.6s
2 Jim Clark Scot Lotus 33 / Climax 1987cc V8 28 1hr 4m 20.4s
3 Chris Irwin UK BRM P261 / BRM 2136cc V8 28 1hr 5m 03.4s
4 Frank Gardner Aust Brabham BT16 / Climax 2495cc 4cyl 28 1hr 5m 32.7s
5 Kevin Bartlett Aust Brabham BT11A / Climax 2499cc 4cyl 27  
6 John Harvey Aust Brabham BT6 / Ford 1860cc 4cyl 26  
Ret Jackie Stewart Scot BRM P261 / BRM 2136cc V8 26 Gearbox
Ret Denny Hulme NZ Brabham BT19 / Repco 2493cc V8 6 Electrical
Ret Spencer Martin Aust Brabham BT11A / Climax 2499cc 4cyl 1 Rings
DNS Leo Geoghegan Aust Lotus 39 / Climax 2495cc 4cyl   Engine

Fastest Lap: Jack Brabham 2m 13.3s

 

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