Jackie Stewart’s BRM P261 is pushed onto the Longford grid by Jimmy Collins and Stan Collier on 5 March 1966…
The race is the Launceston Examiner Trophy, the preliminary Longford Tasman round race, and Jackie is being moved onto pole.
Stewart won the main race, the South Pacific Trophy on the Monday from his teammate Graham Hill and Jack’s Brabham BT19 Repco- the new Repco ‘620 Series’ V8, 2.5 litres in Tasman spec, having its third race and gearing up for his successful world championship assault that year.
For the BRM boys it would be a more character building F1 year, mind you, Jackie took a great Monaco GP win in his nimble 2.1 litre P261 against the new 3 litre GP cars that May.
The 1966 Tasman Series was a BRM rout.
The 1930cc P60 versions of the 1.5-litre P56 V8 engined cars won seven of the eight rounds- JYS took four victories and the title (Wigram, Teretonga, Sandown, Longford) Graham Hill two (NZ GP Pukekohe, AGP Lakeside) and Richard Attwood one (Levin). Jim Clark won the other round, the ‘Warwick Farm 100’ in his Climax FPF-engined Lotus 39.
The days of a Coventry Climax FPF winning the Tasman were over. From 1966 to 1970 the 2.5 Tasman Series was dominated by ‘multi-cylinder’ V6 and V8 engines of F1 and F2 extraction.
Lindsay Ross of oldracephotos captured the feeling at the time, ‘After his win at Longford in 1966, a lot of Tasmanians were now aware of Jackie Stewart and I, along with no doubt many other enthusiasts, began following his career.’
‘The podium shot has him shaking hands with Tasmanian Premier ‘Electric Eric’ Reece, who was the driving force behind Hydro-Electric power in the state. He also made sure the Longford roads were laid with the finest hot mix bitumen available. Ron MacKinnon of the Longford Motor Racing Association has the microphones- he owned much of the land around the Longford track.’
Etcetera…
Brabham accelerates away from Mountford in BT19, surely the most photographed single-seater in 1966. The chassis was Brabham’s weapon in Tasman and GP competition pretty much all year.
Note the long inlet trumpets of the RB620 2.5-litre V8. Longford was the new RB620’s third race- a 3 litre unit was used in the non-championship South African GP at Kyalami, and another of 2.5 litres in capacity for the Sandown International in Melbourne the week before Longford. All three events in BT19- BT19-1 is still owned by Repco.
The next group of shots are all on the exit of Mountford- the corner onto the straight past the pits, here Clark’s Lotus 39 FPF from Hill’s BRM. The BRM’s solo are #2 Hill and #3 Stewart.
And another podium shot from a slightly different angle.
Credits…
Spencer Lambert, Ray Bell, Tasmanian Motorist Magazine, Lindsay Ross, oldracephotos.com.au-David Keep
Tailpiece: Stewart, BRM, The Viaduct…
Stewart wheels his BRM into the left-hander under the famous Longford Railway Viaduct- a tricky, fast on approach, downhill corner with minimal run-off area should the pilot goof. Note the spectators on the hill and alongside the railway line at the top.
Finito…
primotipo... 