NO FAIRY-TALE

There was no fairy-tale finish for Kiwi super vet Ken Smith (Lola T332) in the MSC NZ F5000 Tasman Cup Revival Series races at the annual VHRR Phillip Island Classic motor-racing meeting in Australia recently. Smith ended up third rather than the first he was aiming for in both Sunday races. However, that didn’t stop the 73- year- old from praising the meeting and the drivers he battled with over the weekend, Tom Tweedie and Tim Berryman. “It’s been magic, just magic,” Smith said, after an all-action eight-lap final won by category and series newcomer Tim Berryman, from the fastest qualifier and 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.’” The 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 expected to include several other firsts — one a special Australia versus New Zealand challenge ‘ test series’; another the return of the ‘Race of Champions’ concept popular in the UK in the 1970s, whereby the top Formula 1 cars of the period were 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 — at Barbagallo, Sandown Racecourse, 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 — which will celebrate the life and career of Ken Smith — with the second at a new historic meeting 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.