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The 1968 Grand Prix season kicked off on January 1 and while South Africa rang in the new year for F1, the running order among competitors was anything but unfamiliar. Jim Clark blasted off the grid from pole and with the exception of the very first lap, the Lotus driver dominated proceedings to comfortably take the chequered flag from team mate Graham Hill and Brabham's Jochen Rindt.
Back in the years when the South African GP first appeared on the International calendar there was a big three-month break until the world championship resumed in Europe after the Northern winter, a period during which many F1 teams and drivers kept themselves busy by competing in the lucrative Tasman Series in New Zealand and Australia.
The series was contested between early January and early March over a number of rounds split between the two countries and located at such popular venues as Pukekohe, Surfers Paradise, Warwick Farm or Sandown. The blue skies and warm summer Down Under offered a perfect backdrop for a laid back atmosphere which encouraged some playful banter and jovial camaraderie amongst the drivers.
©RobMcKenzie
Interestingly, between 1964 and 1969, the technical rules for the series called for a 2.5 litre Formula with most teams fielding previous season chassis fitted with 'Tasman' engines (F1 had upgraded to 3.0 litre engines in 1966). Cosworth even produced a variant of its DFV V8, which was known as the DFW, while BRM simply reduced the capacity of its V12 bloc, with Ferrari basically using an F2 chassis powered by its 2.4 Dino V6 engine.
Incidentally, the 1968 Tasman championship also saw the very first appearance of a single-seater Lotus liveried in the flamboyant red, white and gold colours of Players Gold Leaf, which Colin Chapman had secured as the team's first commercial sponsor.
Local hero Chris Amon opened up festivities in New Zealand with a pair of wins at Pukekohe and Levin thanks to some strong driving and the Ferrari's convenient power-to-weight ratio. But on both occasions Jim Clark had either led the race or was snapping at Amon's heels before the Lotus was sidelined with mechanical troubles.
Clark offered Gold Leaf Team Lotus its first International race win on January 20 when the Scot took the Lady Wigram Trophy in front of Amon, but was runner-up to Bruce McLaren's BRM at round 4 at Teretonga when a rare mistake forced him to pit from the lead to replace a damaged nosecone.
Clark put himself back in the points battle with a win at Surfers Paradise and then into the championship lead for the very first time following a victory at Warwick Farm accomplished in front of a crowd of 35.000.
Conditions were scorching at Sandown for the 33rd running of the Australian Grand Prix, and only got more intense on race day to the point where the organizers even cancelled the drivers' parade and the traditional warm-up lap.
Clark was first off the grid, beating into the first turn Amon and poleman Jack Brabham who made a complete botch of his start. The trio swiftly pulled out a lead but gradually, Brabham lost ground, leaving the two championship contenders to duel it out in a battle royal.
Amon desperately needed the win to make up points on Clark before the ultimate round. The Ferrari driver actually had his nose over the finish line twice in the closing laps but each time the Lotus outbraked the scarlet red machine at the end of the straight.
In the end, and much to the crowd's pleasure, Clark edged out his Kiwi rival by a mere tenth of a second while team mate Graham Hill was the third man on the podium. Piers Courage used a special blend of Dunlop rubber to clinch the last round of the Tasman Series at Longford, but Clark was crowned the overall winner, beating Amon by 8 points.
Sandown would effectively turn out to be the legendary Scot's final victory. The black and white helmet and the Gold Leaf Team Lotus should have been a familiar sight in the Grand Prix winner's circle in 1968, but an obscure Formula 2 race at Hockenheim in April would deprive motor racing of such a great prospect.
As he once looked back on the 1968 Tasman Series and his tremendous battles with Clark, Chris Amon admitted he had been disappointed to lose such a close fought championship. "But given what happened afterward," Amon said, "I was always somewhat pleased that Jimmy won."
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