There was no fairy tale finish for Kiwi supervet Ken Smith (Lola T332) in the MSC NZ F5000 Tasman Cup Revival Series races on the second day of competition at the annual VHRR Phillip Island Classic motor racing meeting in Australia today.
Smith ended up third rather than the first he was aiming for in both Sunday races. But that didn’t stop the 73-year-old from praising the meeting, and the drivers he battled with, Tom Tweedie and Tim Berryman, over the weekend.
“It’s been magic, just magic, “Smith said after an all-action 8-lap final won by category and series’ newcomer Tim Berryman from fastest qualifier and the winner of the three other F5000 races at the 27th annual Phillip Island Classic meeting, Tom Tweedie. “This is one of the world’s great circuits and I’ve had a ball, an absolute ball all weekend.”
Despite not – quite – being able to make a clean sweep of the four MSC series races Tweedie (Chevron B24) was also on a high after the final.
“It’s been an honour racing against you here,” he said to Smith as the pair chatted afterwards.
Tweedie, 27, and now working as a stock broker in Sydney after a promising early pro driving career in Australia’s Formula 3 single-seater, and Carrara Cup and Dunlop V8 Development series, proved the man to beat in the F5000 races at the meeting.
But rather than Smith – who ran him closest in qualifying and Saturday’s two races – it was compatriot Berryman (Lola T332) who successfully completed the challenge, splitting Tweedie and Smith in the 4-lap race on Sunday morning then getting the jump on Tweedie off the rolling start to lead the final in the afternoon from start to finish.
A farmer from Stockinbingal (near Wagga Wagga) in rural New South Wales, Berryman was very much the surprise package of the meeting, having only done limited laps beforehand in the ex Davison family Lola T332.
The 39-year-old is not exactly a newcomer to racing though, having competed successfully in the Formula Ford and Formula 3 classes early on in his career and won the Radical Australia Cup (for purpose-built Radical two seater sportscars) in 2014.
Despite progressively losing rear end grip as the final played out, only Tweedie went quicker, the pair the only two to lap in the 1.28s as they edged ahead of Smith who, despite changes made on Saturday, was still struggling to get off the final turn and onto the start/finish straight as well as his two, younger, adversaries.
“It was spooky through the left-handers, I’ll tell you that for a fact,” said Smith. “I just couldn’t get the power down like those other two and it hurt me down the shute.”
Berryman, who fitted a new set of tyres for Sunday’s two races, took advantage of the fact in the race on Sunday morning, testing his move for second on Smith at the end of the second lap then successfully pulling it off at the end of the third.
What Berryman didn’t know was that Smith’s car had started jumping out of gear, making it even harder for the Kiwi to maintain the pace Tweedie was setting.
It wasn’t just up front where there was action from lights to flag either.
In the first Sunday race Melbourne drivers Andrew Robson and Paul Zazryn consolidated their top six status in their Lolas (Robson’s a T330/2, Zazryn’s a T332) with British driver Greg Thornton (having taken over the Chevron B24 used on Friday and Saturday by Kiwi young gun Tom Alexander) the big mover after starting from the back of the grid (P24) and making it up to ninth by the start of the final lap then drafting past Kiwi Lola T332 ace Sefton Gibb for eighth by the start/finish line.
Second Kiwi home (after Smith) was veteran Blenheim all-rounder Russell Greer (Lola T332) who withstood consistent pressure throughout from Aussie Lola T330 counterpart Peter Breenan to claim sixth place.
Behind Sefton Gibb, former MSC F5000 series champion Ian Clements was the Lola T332 meat, meanwhile, in a Talon sandwich, with David Banks leading in his dark blue MR1 and Aaron Burson bookending Clements and somehow managing to hold off Aussie Darcy Russell (Lola T330) at the same time in his red MR1/A.
Kiwi Glenn Richards (Lola T400), and Aussies Phillip Lewis (Matich A50) and Bryan Sala (Elfin MR8) enjoyed a race-long battle of their own behind Russell, with the first of the older Class A cars home the second McLaren M10B of entrant Alan Hamilton in the hands of the category’s other 73-year-old driver, Alfie Costanzo, in 17th place.
The second Class A car home was also a McLaren, the crowd favourite high-wing M10A driven by Kiwi category stalwart Tony Roberts.
In the final in the afternoon, a race generally agreed to be one of the best in the 12-year history if the MSC series, the main interest was in whether Tom Tweedie could take back the spot from Berryman.
The Sydneysider definitely tried, setting the race’s fastest lap (1:28:5277) as he poked and probed for a gap, but Berryman had every option covered, even as – late in the race – the pair encountered lapped traffic.
“I’m just so stoked, this is just awesome,” Berryman said of his debut category win.
With Smith third, a good six seconds behind Tweedie, Andrew Robson (driving the car Smith claimed a number of memorable wins in, including the New Zealand Grand Prix. in period) was only five-and-a-half seconds back in fourth with a sizable gap back to the rest of the field led by Paul Zazryn.
Russell Greer enjoyed another strong run in sixth in front of the mid-field battle pack of Sefton Gibb, David Banks, Peter Brennan, and Ian Clements, then the closely dicing Darcy Russell and Aaron Burson, and Alfie Costanzo and Glenn Richards.
Both pairs entertained with close, committed dicing throughout the race with a second-and-a-half at the line between Russell and Burson but barely a lick of paint (two-hundredths of a second) between Costanzo’s M10B McLaren, which was again the first of the older Class A cars home, and Richards’ Lola T400.
Aaron Burson spoke for all the Kiwi MSC series regulars when he said afterwards how much be enjoyed racing on the fast, flowing Phillip Island circuit.
“It’s a brilliant track, awesome, and so well suited to our Formula 5000s. The VHRR have treated us all so well too, we’ve all had a ball!”
Brit Greg Thornton was also in the thick of things early on in the final, getting a blinder of a start to elevate himself from eighth on the grid to fifth at the end of the first lap, only to have his car’s steering rack fail, forcing him out of the race on lap 5.
The weekend’s round was the final of the 2015/16 MSC NZ F5000 Tasman Cup Revival Series with Ken Smith claiming his fourth title after dominating all four New Zealand rounds.
Plans for the 2016/17 series are already well advanced with the opening round expected to be contested at a high profile historic meeting at Perth’s Barbagallo Raceway in October.
That will be the MSC series’ first visit to Western Australia and the meeting will set the tone for a season set to include several other firsts.
One is a special Australia vs New Zealand Challenge ‘test series,’ another the return of the ‘Race of Champions’ concept popular in the UK in the 1970s where the top Formula 1 cars of the period are pitted against the top Formula 5000s.
Though final venue and date details are yet to be sorted a provisional calendar looks like starting with three meetings in Australia later this year (Barbagallo, Sandown and Sydney Motorsport Park) followed by three in New Zealand in the New Year.
The first of those will be at the 2017 New Zealand Festival of Motor Racing meeting at Hampton Downs (celebrating the life and career of Ken Smith) with the second at a new historic meeting on the calendar at Bruce McLaren Motorsport Park at Taupo (both in January) and the third at the annual Skope Classic meeting at Christchurch’s Mike Pero Motorsport Park at Ruapuna in February.
There is also the likelihood of at least one other round in New Zealand or Australia.
The MSC F5000 Tasman Cup Revival Series is organised and run with the support of sponsors MSC, NZ Express Transport, Bonney’s Specialized Bulk Transport, Mobil Lubricants, Pacifica, Avon Tyres, Webdesign and Exide. The final round was brought to you with the support of the Victorian Historic Racing Register (VHRR) and the members of the Australian Formula 5000 Association.
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Tom Tweedie (#2 Chevron B24) and Tim Berryman (#6 Lola T332) shared race wins in the MSC NZ F50000 Tasman Cup Revival Series races at the VHRR Phillip Island Classic meeting in Australia over the weekend. Kiwi veteran Ken Smith (#111 Lola T332) claimed three seconds and two thirds. Enjoying a weekend of close racing with his Australian counterparts meanwhile was Auckland driver Glenn Richards (#99 Lola T400). Photo credit: Fast Company/Peter Ellenbogen image © peter ellenbogen ( www.flickr.com/photos/peterellenbogen )
