Tasman Motorsport
Encyclopedia
- Not to be confused with Tasman MotorsportsTasman MotorsportsTasman Motorsports Group is a former racing team owned by Steve Horne that competed in the Indy Lights series and, most notably, the CART series from 1995 to 1998. Tasman was one of the first teams to successfully field a Honda powered entry...
, a former CARTChamp CarChamp Car was the name for a class and specification of open wheel cars used in American Championship Car Racing for many decades, primarily for use in the Indianapolis 500 auto race...
team.
Tasman Motorsport was a V8 Supercar racing team. It was formed in 2004 out of what was Lansvale Racing Team
Lansvale Racing Team
Lansvale Racing Team, also known as Lansvale Smash Repairs Racing was an Australian motor racing team that competed in Australian touring car events in the 1980s and 1990s...
V8 Supercar team and is associated with Greg Murphy Racing
Greg Murphy Racing
Greg Murphy Racing is a V8 Supercar team that is competing in the second-tier Australian V8 Supercar series, the Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series. The team have also had wild card entries into the V8 Supercar Championship Series endurance races, specifically the Phillip Island 500 and Bathurst 1000, in...
as a satellite operation
Satellite team
In motorsport, a satellite team is a team related to a larger, better-funded team. This relation may involve ownership, technical support and staff sharing, including drivers...
.
Tasman Motorsport entered the series in 2004, with a single Holden VX Commodore
Holden VX Commodore
The Holden VX Commodore, Berlina and Calais range of full-size cars were the eleventh instalment of Holden Commodore, a model manufactured by Holden, the Australian subsidiary of General Motors...
which was driven by Jason Richards
Jason Richards
Jason Richards is a motor racing driver, currently on break from full time racing due to his fight with cancer, whilst still providing full engineering support for Brad Jones Racing in the Australian touring car series, V8 Supercar.-Early career:Richards started his motor racing career at the age...
. At the Queensland Raceway
Queensland Raceway
Queensland Raceway nicknamed "the paperclip" is a motor racing circuit located near Ipswich in Queensland, Australia.The circuit plays host to V8 Supercars, the Australian Superbike Championship, Drifting as well as club level racing and ride days....
round they introduced a VY Commodore and then entered the VX as car #43 for Fabian Coulthard
Fabian Coulthard
Fabian Coulthard is a professional race car driver, currently racing for Walkinshaw Racing known commercially as Bundaberg Racing Team in the Australian V8 Supercar series....
for the Oran Park Raceway
Oran Park Raceway
Oran Park Raceway was a motor racing circuit at Narellan in southwestern Sydney, New South Wales, Australia which was operational from 1962 to 2010....
round.
2005 saw the team upgrade to a two car operation and move to a new factory near Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, from their previous site in Sydney. With internet service provider Dodo the naming sponsor of the team, both Jason Richards, and Jamie Whincup
Jamie Whincup
Jamie Whincup is Australian auto racing driver who competes in the V8 Supercar, driving for TeamVodafone. He is a two-time V8 Supercars champion and three-time Bathurst 1000 winner.-Early career:...
, had some very good placings including third at the Sandown 500
Sandown 500
The Sandown 500 is an endurance motor race staged at the Sandown Raceway, near Melbourne in Victoria, Australia between 1964 and 2011. It was typically held in September, the month before Australia’s premier endurance race, the Bathurst 1000. The “500” was not run in 1966, 1967, 1999, 2000, 2008,...
and second in the Bathurst 1000
2005 Supercheap Auto 1000
The 2005 Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 was the ninth running of the Australia 1000 race, first held after the organisational split over the Bathurst 1000 that occurred in 1997. It was the 43rd anniversary of the original touring car endurance race held at the Mount Panorama Circuit in 1963...
This was all after Richards was still recovering after he had one of V8 Supercar's biggest ever accidents at Queensland Raceway barrel rolling at least 6 times after a tag from Paul Morris
Paul Morris (motorsport)
Paul Morris is a V8 Supercar racecar driver.-Early career:Paul Morris started his motor racing career at the age of 19 in 1987, driving in the Queensland Gemini Series. He won Rookie of the Year in his debut season, and won the state championship the following year. He spent the next three years...
.
2006 saw improved pace with drivers Jason Richards and Andrew Jones. Armed with many sponsors for the year, including Firepower, SEW Eurodrive
SEW Eurodrive
SEW-Eurodrive is a German manufacturing company founded by Christian Pähr in 1931 as Süddeutsche Elektromotoren Werke. Today, it is an international organization that manufactures geared motors, frequency inverters and servo drives employing over 13,000 people worldwide with annual sales in excess...
and Sleepyhead Bedding, Tasman Motorsport won their first V8 race, with Jason Richards at Winton Motor Raceway
Winton Motor Raceway
Winton Motor Raceway is a Motor Racing track in Winton, near Benalla, Victoria, Australia.-History:The Benalla Auto Club began planning for a permanent racing track around 1958. In 1960 it was decided to build the track at Winton Recreation Reserve and was completed in twelve months...
in June. At the same event the team got their best qualifying result of third on the grid. Later on in the season the team announced their plans to recruit Greg Murphy for the following 2007 Season.
2007 saw the début of the VE Commodore in V8 Supercars and the team opening a base in New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
. Championship wise the team finished 13th and 14th with Murphy and Richards respectively and both nearly stole a Bathurst 1000 victory but finished as the highest Holden, in 4th place. Later on in the season the team announced that Rockstar Energy Drinks would come onboard as a sponsor for the last two rounds of the season. The team were on the way to secure sponsorship (with Rockstar) for the 2008 season but at the last minute pulled out.
Sprint Gas become naming rights sponsor in 2008 in a three year deal, although the third year will not now occur, while retaining Murphy and Richards. The two drivers started promisingly finishing 7th and 9th overall at the season opening Clipsal 500 in Adelaide. More top 10 results at the next round at Eastern Creek means that Murphy comes into the next round at Hamilton in 7th place with 330 points. Criticism was received around the rushed livery that Tasman were running and the team designed a new livery for the Hamilton 400.
2009 will see Jason Richards move to Team BOC and Jason Bargwanna come in and replace Richards in the #3 Sprint Gas Racing VE Commodore. Despite a standout performance at the 2009 Bathurst 1000 which saw both cars finish in the top six, the team announced it would not be continuing into 2010 and its V8 Supercar Racing Entitlement Contracts were for sale.
2009 has seen the closure of Sprint Gas Racing, the announcement late in the season cited lack of funding for 2010 as the reasons for closure.