The 1968 Tasman Championship for Drivers was a motor racing series contested over eight races during January, February and March 1968, with four races held in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island coun ...

and four in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

.The Tasman Championship for Drivers - Season 1968, 1968 CAMS Manual of Motor Sport, pages 66 to 69 The championship was open to Racing Cars fitted with unsupercharged engines with a capacity equal or inferior to 2500cc. It was the fifth annual Tasman Championship. The championship won by

Jim Clark James Clark Jr. OBE (4 March 1936 – 7 April 1968) was a British Formula One racing driver from Scotland, who won two World Championships, in 1963 and 1965. A versatile driver, he competed in sports cars, touring cars and in the Indianap ...

, driving a Lotus 49T. IX South Pacific Trophy, www.tasman-series.com, as archived at web.archive.org
/ref> It was the third and final Tasman Championship win for Clark who was killed in a

Formula 2 Formula Two (F2 or Formula 2) is a type of open-wheel formula racing category first codified in 1948. It was replaced in 1985 by Formula 3000, but revived by the FIA from 2009–2012 in the form of the FIA Formula Two Championship. The name re ...

crash on the ultra fast Hockenheim circuit in

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 ...

just over a month after the series concluded. Clark won the last of his twelve career Tasman Series wins when he won the

1968 Australian Grand Prix The 1968 Australian Grand Prix was a motor race held at Sandown Raceway, Sandown Park in Victoria, Australia, Victoria, Australia on 25 February 1968. The race was open to Racing Cars complying with the Australian National Formula or the Austra ...

at the

Sandown Raceway Sandown International Raceway is a motor racing circuit in the suburb of Springvale in Melbourne, Victoria, approximately south east of the city centre. Sandown is considered a power circuit with its " drag strip" front and back straights be ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/ Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a metro ...

, only 0.1 seconds in front of the Dino 246 Tasmania of

Chris Amon Christopher Arthur Amon (20 July 1943 – 3 August 2016) was a New Zealand motor racing driver. He was active in Formula One racing in the 1960s and 1970s, and is widely regarded as one of the best F1 drivers never to win a championship Grand ...

after a famous duel between the pair. Reigning

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...

World Champion

Denny Hulme Denis Clive Hulme (18 June 1936 – 4 October 1992), commonly known as Denny Hulme, was a New Zealand racing driver who won the Formula One World Drivers' Championship for the Brabham team. Between his debut at Monaco in 1965 and his f ...

finished equal seventh in the series in his Formula 2

Brabham Brabham () is the common name for Motor Racing Developments Ltd., a British racing car manufacturer and Formula One racing team. Founded in 1960 by Australian driver Jack Brabham and British-Australian designer Ron Tauranac, the team won fo ...

with a best finish of third in Round 3 for the

Lady Wigram Trophy The Lady Wigram Trophy is a New Zealand motorsport race trophy formerly awarded to the winner of the Wigram Airfield race. It made up part of the Tasman Series and classes like Formula Holden, Formula 5000, Formula Pacific and Formula Three. The ...

, his first race of the series.

Schedule

Points system

Points were awarded at each race on the following basis: Championship placings were determined by the total number of points scored by a driver in all races.

Championship standings

References

{{Reflist

1968 The year was highlighted by protests and other unrests that occurred worldwide. Events January–February * January 5 – " Prague Spring": Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. * J ...

Tasman Series The Tasman Series (formally the Tasman Championship for Drivers)Tasman Championship for Drivers, CAMS Manual of Motor Sport with National Competition Rules 1974, pages 80 to 83 was a motor racing competition held annually from 1964 to 1975 ove ...