BACK in June, the editor of this website wrote a fascinating yarn about the Toyota Racing Series apparent lack of care in bypassing one of New Zealand’s most famous racing awards, the Lady Wigram Trophy, in their upcoming 2018-2019 season.
Wrote Editor Benjamin Carrell: “That such an important trophy will not be contested by international talent is robbing New Zealand motor racing of tomorrow’s history.” (LINK – https://talkmotorsport.co.nz/featured/why-is-trs-ignoring-the-lady-wigram-trophy/)
The phrase ‘robbing motor racing of tomorrow’s history’ struck home and appeared in my mind again last week following the announcement of the brand-new S5000 open wheel category, that plans to launch next year.
The brainchild of former Kiwi racer and publisher, Chris Lambden, S5000 aims to bring back the ‘glory days’ of Antipodean open wheel racing with loud, fast and hopefully extremely exciting ‘big banger’ wings and slicks racers.
The concept went through several iterations and challenges but thanks to come common sense and compromise has settled in the form of a cost effective Ford V8 and Hollinger gearbox combination, bolted to the back of a Crawford-designed chassis with all the latest bells and whistles that any top open wheel category should have.
While some of those with eyes stuck in the back of their heads complained that the re-launched version of Modern F5000 lacked the quaint styling features of both retro concepts that emerged – both Lambden’s Formula Thunder 5000 and the Supercars-endorsed Super5000 – in the end what we’re hopefully going to get is something that combines the best of both worlds.
Modern tech and safety coupled with old-school V8 performance, sound and racing.
Putting aside the obvious questions around where the competitors are going to come from in an already crowded market, the next thought turns to reflecting the great history of Australian open-wheel racing in this new series.
Since 1957, the CAMS Gold Star was awarded by the governing body to the top open wheel driver in the country – the winner of the Australian Drivers’ Championship.
In its first year it was won by the already great Lex Davison, racing a Ferrari 500 to victories in six of that year’s nine races around Australia.
In that same time-frame names like Stan Jones (father of Alan), Alec Mildren and Bib Stilwell wrote their names into local motorsport history. The award perhaps reached the height of its status in the 1970s, though, when Formula 5000 was the peak category both in Australia and across the Tasman.
As well as the epic battles in the Tasman series, names like Max Stewart, Frank Matich, John McCormack and perhaps the most under-rated open wheel driver Australia has ever produced, Alfie Costanzo, won their names into the record books.
As Touring Car racing gained prominence in the ‘70s and ‘80s so the Gold Star slipped from public consciousness, though it still retained relevance in the motor racing world. After the mighty 5000s passed into the history books, a succession of less impressive categories sustained the award through the 1980s before Formula Holden was created late in the decade.
A renewal of sorts saw names like Will Power and Scott Dixon forge their first steps into top-level competition via the Gold Star, but by the early 2000s that category, too, was on the way out.
Formula 3 replaced it in 2005 but by now the award was sadly an afterthought, handed out each year by CAMS because tradition said so, not because they actively engaged with it nor promoted it heavily.
In 2015, after one round of racing, CAMS put out a media release confirming that the award was to be parked in lieu of ‘falling grid sizes’ in Formula 3.
Now, however, there is a chance for something of a renaissance.
In S5000, with all the hopes and fingers crossed that it actually gets off the ground, there is finally a category with a level of performance and potential status that is not only a call-back to those heroic days of Formula 5000, but also to the days where the Gold Star meant something to those fighting for it.
The Gold Star was benched having been awarded 57 times. In the same way that the TRS bypassing the Lady Wigram, not awarding the Gold Star for a 58th year would deny Australian Motorsport the history of tomorrow – and it would be all the poorer for it.
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