The 1968 Tasman Series
The 5th year of the Tasman Championship consisted of four races in New Zealand and four in Australia. 1968 marked the zenith of the Tasman Series. The 4 major Grand Prix teams Brabham, Ferrari, Lotus & BRM were all represented and the majority of topflight drivers took part. State of the art Grand Prix machinery was on show for the first time with Cosworth making a specially destroked 2.5L version of the famous DFV specifically for the Tasman and BRM also using a special 2.5L version of their cumbersome V12. The racing itself also reached its zenith. Clark and Amon fought a see-sawing battle for the title and racing was universally excellent across the entire series. Other things were brewing as well in a time that amongst other events saw the introduction of big Tobacco Money into Motor Racing for better or worse, worse in my book. The winner of the Tasman Cup for the third time was the great Jim Clark. Sadly his Victory in the Australian Grand Prix at Sandown was destined to be his last, Jim was tragically killed in a Formula 2 race at Hockenheim less than six weeks later.
FINAL RESULTS   Drivers Standings P U K E K O H E L E V V I N W I G R A M T E R E T O N G A S U R F E R S W A R W I C K F A R M S A N D O W N L O N G F O R D P O I N T S 1. Jim Clark 0 0 9 6 9 9 9 2 44 2. Chris Amon 9 9 6 3 0 3 6 0 36 3. Piers Courage 4 6 3 2 4 4 2 9 34 4. Frank Gardner 6 0 0 4 0 0 3 4 17 5. Graham Hill - - - - 6 6 4 1 17 6. Bruce McLaren 0 0 2 9 - - - - 11 7. Pedro Rodriguez 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 6 8 8. Denny Hulme 0 - 4 1 1 2 0 0 8 9. Jim Palmer 3 4 0 0 - - - - 7 10. Richard Attwood - - - - 0 0 1 3 4 11. Roly Levis 0 3 0 0 - - - - 3 12. Leo Geoghegan - - - - 3 0 0 0 3 13. Paul Bolton 2 0 0 0 - - - - 2 14. Ian Dawson 0 2 0 0 - - - - 2 15. Kevin Bartlett - - - - 2 0 0 0 2 16. Graeme Lawrence 1 0 0 0 - - - - 1 17. Bill Stone 0 1 0 0 - - - - 1