(oldracephotos.com)
Few drivers knew Warwick Farm like Frank Matich and Kevin Bartlett…
They raced at the track from its earliest days, it’s first meeting in 1960 I wonder?, and certainly the last international meeting, sadly the 1973 Tasman round run 12 months after the photos here were taken, Steve Thomson won that very wet race in a Chevron B24 Chev.
Here the two Sydneysiders are attacking The Esses during the 1972 F5000 Tasman round, the ‘Warwick Farm 100’ on 13 February. Matich was 1st in his Matich A50 Repco and KB 3rd in his McLaren M10B Chev, not really a front-line tool by that stage but still quick enough in Kevin’s highly skilled hands to win at Teretonga, the final ’72 Kiwi round, a fortnight before.
Bartlett and original owner Niel Allen had a lot of success in this McLaren M10B ‘400-02’, car now in the tender, loving hands of Alan Hamilton, also a former Australian champion .KB here during the ’72 Tasman race. A Lola T300 would replace the car in time for the domestic Gold Star Series (unattributed)
Matich didn’t have a good Tasman, the A50 was quick enough to win the series but FM didn’t have a lot of luck, the championship was convincingly won by Kiwi arch driver/constructor rival Graham McRae in the Leda/McRae GM1 Chev penned by Len Terry.
Click here for an article on the Matich F5000 cars including the 1972 Tasman Series:
https://primotipo.com/2015/09/11/frank-matich-matich-f5000-cars-etcetera/
Credits…
oldracephotos.com, Bob Williamson Collection
Tailpiece: The Lola T300 was ‘a chick’ with a great arse and hips, visually arresting…
Frank Gardner and Lola T300 Chev ahead of Frank Matich in the ’72 WF pitlane for tweaks. FG won the ’72 NZ GP in this T300 at Pukekohe, his last single-seater win, I think (Bob Williamson)
Frank Gardner split Matich and Bartlett, he was second at Warwick Farm in the factory T300. Frank was not exactly unfamiliar with WF either, mind you no-one would have done more laps around it than Matich, Frank tested tyres for Firestone, and later Goodyear and his cars a lot!
Between Gardner and Bob Marston they concepted a small F5000 based on Lola’s F2 tub. By placing the big water radiators, you needed plenty of coolant to look after the needs of a big Chev, at the cars hips they gave the car, and the T330/332 which followed it their most distinctive and attractive feature. Effective too in terms of aerodynamics and centralising weight, an article on the T300 is one for another time…
Finito…
primotipo... 
Thanks for sharing the photos of a class of racing I am still in love with after all these years. I just love this site since I discovered it a month or two ago. There is a small mistake here though Steve Thomson won the ’73 race in a Chevron B24
Magic cars aren’t they Greg, I’m torn between Tasman 2.5’s and F5000 as to my own favourite class!
Thanks for the correction about Thomson’s Chevron, I should not have relied on memory, it was the other Pommie, Alan Rollinson who ran the GM1 i was thinking of! Will fix.
If you’ve not read this article, you might find it amusing, it’s my ‘ode to F5000’ !
Mark
https://primotipo.com/2014/11/18/my-first-race-meeting-sandown-tasman-f5000-1972-bartlett-lola-and-raquel/