Formula A – The SCCA’s Gift to the World

Trevor Lister entered the University of Canterbury on a public service scholarship, graduating with a double degree in Physics and Mechanical Engineering. On graduation, he worked in the Ministry of Transport in the setting and administration of Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, primarily on natural gas and LPG vehicle standards. This led to a secondment to a national research and development organization where he was responsible for research on a wider range of alternative motor vehicle fuels. It led also to an international consultancy in that area, including a stint as the New Zealand delegate to the International Natural Gas Vehicles Association.

Upon completion of that work, he returned to his foundation automotive design skills and his motorsports hobby. At which point he became an inspector and certifier on other peoples’ projects, as well as designing, building and racing his own cars. In semi-retirement, he took up teaching and tutoring pre-apprenticeship students in Mathematics, Science and Automotive Engineering.

THERE ARE NO SLIDES WITH THIS PRESENTATION.

[00:00:00] Brake Fix’s History of Motorsports series is brought to you in part by the International Motor Racing Research Center, as well as the Society of Automotive Historians, the Watkins Glen Area Chamber of Commerce, and the Argettsinger family. Formula A, the SCCA’s gift to the world, by Trevor Lister. Trevor holds degrees from the University of Canterbury in mechanical engineering and physics.

On graduation, he joined the New Zealand Ministry of Transport, setting and administrating automotive safety standards. This includes standards and protocols for the use of gaseous fuels, like CNG and LPG, in motor vehicles. He served as the New Zealand delegate to the International Association for Natural Gas Vehicles.

This led to This led to consulting in Southeast Asia and South America. He has built and raced competition cars, as well as served as safety scrutineer for Motorsport New Zealand. And occasionally as clerk of the course for motorsport events, now retired from active racing, he serves as editor for the newsletters for the classic motor racing club in New Zealand.

In [00:01:00] the late 1960s, New Zealand motor racing found itself in a bind. A few years earlier, the Tasman Formula had been written to keep the local fleet of older two and a half liter X Formula One cars in play. But now the more modern Formula Two, and even a few of the national Formula 1600cc cars, were embarrassing the older ones.

Visiting cars from Europe were either bigger engined or new designs for the upcoming three liter Formula One with capacity reduced engines, leaving Motorsport New Zealand with a dilemma. Whichever way you looked at it, it was going to be expensive. The SCCA appeared to have come to the same conclusion, with a 1967 amendment to their Formula A allowing stock block engines.

The gate was open for others to do the same. At the last SCCA race of 1968, SC. CA teams were approached by the New Zealand delegation to demonstrate their cars in New Zealand. Four teams took up the challenge and the Kiwis liked the look of it. Within the year, formula A was a mainstream category with championships for it unfolding in Europe, South Africa, and the Tasman countries.

This presentation looks at the nitty [00:02:00] gritty of that first Kiwi formula, a race as seen through the eyes of the presenter in 1968. My name is Trevor Lister. I’ve been in and around Motorsport for a long time. In 1968, I was a lad of 19 at a brand new track in the then small town of Mount Maunganui. I had a job to do, setting up the dummy grid and getting the cars out to the start line in good order.

This on the occasion of New Zealand’s first contact with Formula A, when a group of four SCCA race teams travelled to our track in late 1968 to showcase their cars. This is my first hand account of that visit. With a bit of help from some photographs that have languished, thought lost, in a box, in a closet for 60 years before re emerging and giving me the impetus to prepare this paper.

In 1967, the SCCA had amended the technical criteria for their single seat racing Formula cars, Formula A. It was now possible to use either a race engine [00:03:00] with a maximum capacity of 3 litres or a 5 litre stock block. On the face of it, a small change, but one that changed New Zealand motorsport and then went on to change the world, one step at a time.

New Zealand and Australia, historically, had invited Northern Hemisphere teams to come racing on the sunny South. During the winter, along with the opportunity to sell their obsolescent cars to their southern cousins. This racing was on an ad hoc Formula Libre basis. A situation addressed by the Tasman Formula in 1964, that adopted the recently departed late 50’s 2.

5 litre Formula One. A decision that kept the older local cars in play, but not for long. A scan three years on, and the 2. 5s of the local fleet were being challenged by a new strain of 1600cc Formula 2 cars, along with even the best of our national Formula 1500cc cars challenging the bigger old ones.

Change was in the air. Mount Maunganui was then, and [00:04:00] still is, a dormitory village for the big city across the bay. Doubled as a holiday resort town in summer, and a mecca for surfers most of the year. The local car club set out to capture a part of that market. Firstly trying out an around the house race meeting in 1964, but finding that the local roads were not up to the job, and if a racetrack was to be built, it would have to be a new one on a stand alone basis.

The place was found and purpose built. Track opened on December 1967. Got over one and a half miles of it, a long back straight. One leg with a sweeping return and a tight S bend. On the face of it, a power track, but in practice, not necessarily so. On the twisty bits, these small cars made up most of what they lost on the straights.

Racing was always close and tight, and the spectators loved it. This provided the local car club, being both the track builder and the race organiser, with a fortuitous captive audience for just this time of the year, and a newly built track to [00:05:00] accommodate them. By late 68 the track had progressed from hosting local events through to national championship races and was ready to go international.

And that first big summer crowd was in for a real treat. Come they did, on the 28th of December 1968, 38, 000 of them to crowd out the track and the new breed of race car. There is an adage that says that spectator sports need appeal and attendance to survive, and the new track did that in spades. The club aimed high.

An approach was made to the SCCA and a deal made. Four SCCA Formula A teams came to New Zealand in that December. A car club delegation had been present at the end of season SCCA race meeting at Laguna Seca in October 1968 and four teams had put their hands up to make the trip down under. Grable, Phillips, McMillan and Ramsey.

The who and the how of this delegation is not stated. [00:06:00] Seems to be a bit of a mystery. These old eyes note that the end of season SCCA Formula A race on scant one day after the washed out 12 October Can Am race. And there were plenty of Kiwis at Laguna Seca that weekend. So the club’s delegation may have been enhanced.

Denny Holman in particular having a close relationship with the club. However, it panned out getting these cars to New Zealand was a very tight schedule indeed. And essentially the visit itself was as much a demonstration as a race. And what a demonstration it was. A spectacle not to be missed, ask any of us that were there.

The foundation cars for the existing Tasman series were essentially. Pre 61 two and a half litre X Formula One cars. And these had been standard fare for the past few years but were no longer competitive against the big engine, uh, X one and a half litre Formula One cars that were now turning up. The second generation Tasman cars were both effective and expensive.

It was [00:07:00] time for a change, but what to? Formula A provided the answer. Exciting and affordable cars you could make at home. And for the first year, the stock block Formula A cars and the 2. 5 litre racing cars shared the same grits. The next year was even better. The stock block V8s had taken over with nigh on two thirds of the field being Formula A cars with a sprinkling of local builds and drivers from all over.

By this time, Formula A was becoming worldwide and popping up everywhere. The first hybrid Tasman season fell to a big ex Formula 2 Ferrari, but that was the last time that this happened. From then on it was Formula A all the way. Five things had made that possible. Falling competitiveness of the existing domestic fleet, the unwillingness of the Tasman series organizers to release signed up drivers for non championship events, the willingness of the SCCA teams to demonstrate their cars, and the very existence of the new track itself.

A generous prize [00:08:00] pool did not hurt. Reflecting the multi usage nature of the venue, the car paddock doubled as a speedway for motorcycle and midget racing. Concerns were expressed that the Formula A cars would be so much quicker than the domestic cars that they would serve as a racing danger. A storm in a teapot, as the domestic fleet was quite capable of running with the new boys on the block.

Greatwill is the best of the A’s. Took a second or so off the lap record in practice, but the field behind was well mixed between domestics and the new boys. The whole of grid time split between the domestic Tasman Formula cars and the Formula A ones was in the order of two seconds. Grable went on to take the race honest.

But second place went to a 1600cc Formula 2 car. The best years of Kiwi Motorsport were about to begin. The following year, Grebel and Phillips returned for another run at Bay Park. Grebel with his wedge bodied McLaren, and Phillips to drive a local car. Add in Campbell’s Force Greenie, Simpsons Eagles, and a [00:09:00] lot of Aussies warming up for the Tasman Series races, Formula A was here to stay.

And, uh, where did they go? Three of the four 68 cars went home, but the ISARC stayed for a little while and it had been damaged in a late race incident. Repairs were made locally, and the car reappeared in late September 1969, in time for a couple of shakedown races before rejoining its buddies at the next big Bay Park meeting, again in late December.

This time, Formula A cars from the United States, Australia, Europe and New Zealand, including the local builds, Made up more than half of the entry list. Formula A was here to stay for a while. A good while. But all good things have got to come to an end. And that end, around 76 or so in New Zealand, was when the cycle of obsolescence and challenge and replacement clicked over one more time.

By happy coincidence, the challenger this time was another SCCA or shoot. This time the Formula B morphed into an international [00:10:00] arrangement called Formula Atlantic. and down under Formula Pacific. The siblings had pushed the old boys out of the nest. The 5, 000 in the Pacifics could race together, but with a 6 percent handicap added into the, uh, Formula A’s elapsed time at the end of a race.

An undeserved indignity that the driver that won each and every race on the track that year was not in the end declared as the winner of the national championship. Formula A was marvellous. Us old fellows now stand around for the next Nostalgia series of racing. We still say well, so do the kids. Thank you, thank you SCCA.

Thank you very, very much. This episode is brought to you in part by the International Motor Racing Research Center. Its charter is to collect, share, and preserve the history of motorsports, spanning continents, eras, and race series. The center’s collection embodies the speed, drama, and camaraderie of amateur and professional motor racing throughout the [00:11:00] world.

The Center welcomes serious researchers and casual fans alike to share stories of race drivers, race series, and race cars captured on their shelves and walls and brought to life through a regular calendar of public lectures and special events. To learn more about the Center, visit www. racingarchives.

org. This episode is also brought to you by the Society of Automotive Historians. They encourage research into any aspect of automotive history. The SAH actively supports the compilation and preservation of papers. Organizational records, print ephemera and images to safeguard as well as to broaden and deepen the understanding of motorized wheeled land transportation through the modern age and into the future.

For more information about the SAH, visit www. autohistory. org.

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