Informal racing between Australia and New Zealand dates to 1960, but the official Tasman Championship for Drivers was established in 1964. The Tasman Formula specified open-wheel single-seater cars broadly similar to Formula One machinery, yet retained F1 engine regulations that had been in force until 1960 — meaning 2500 cm³ engines that were obsolete in contemporary F1 remained eligible. This deliberate lag allowed teams to equip previous-season F1 chassis with "Tasman" engines and campaign them competitively in the southern hemisphere.
The series reached what many regard as its high point in 1968. That year Cosworth produced a Tasman-specific variant of its DFV V8 — the DFW — while BRM ran a reduced-capacity version of its F1 V12. Leading local contenders typically used the Repco-Brabham V8, the Coventry Climax FPF (manufactured in Australia under licence by Repco), or in the case of Alec Mildren Racing, the Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 V8.
In 1969, both Lotus and Ferrari entered factory two-car teams. Jochen Rindt and Graham Hill drove Lotus 49BTs; Chris Amon and Derek Bell contested the series in Ferrari Dino 246T cars, which used F2 chassis fitted with modernised versions of the late-1950s 2.4-litre Dino V6. Piers Courage, running for Frank Williams in a Cosworth-powered Brabham BT24, defeated the factory Lotus and Ferrari teams at Teretonga in New Zealand.
After 1969, F1's "return to power" — the shift to 3000 cm³ engines and the associated cost inflation — eroded the Tasman Series' appeal. Teams grew increasingly reluctant to invest significantly in what many regarded as a secondary championship. Only one Cosworth DFW-powered car appeared across the 1970 and 1971 seasons combined.
To contain costs, the Tasman Formula was broadened to include Formula 5000 cars from 1970, and the limit on pure racing engines was cut from 2.5 litres to 2.0 litres from 1972. Even those changes could not arrest the financial pressures, and the series was discontinued after the 1975 event. The four Australian rounds became the Rothmans International Series from 1976 to 1979, still under Formula 5000 regulations, while the New Zealand rounds became the Peter Stuyvesant Series before transitioning to Formula Pacific cars after 1976.
The series attracted illustrious local talent — Jack Brabham, Bruce McLaren, Chris Amon, Denny Hulme, and Frank Gardner all competed at their home events. The northern hemisphere contingent was equally distinguished: Jim Clark, Graham Hill, Phil Hill, John Surtees, Jochen Rindt, Pedro Rodriguez, and Jackie Stewart all made the long journey south to race. The combination of high-quality machinery and world-class fields gave the Tasman Series a prestige that its later cost-cutting regulations struggled to maintain.
The Tasman Series name was briefly revived in 1999 and 2000 as a competition for Formula Holden racing cars, running exclusively in New Zealand; Simon Wills and Andy Booth took the two respective titles. A further revival linked the Tasman name to the short-lived S5000 Series. From 2024, the Tasman Series title has been awarded annually to the highest-placed Australian or New Zealand driver in the Formula Regional Oceania Championship.
The Tasman Series occupies a distinctive place in post-war motorsport history as the only regularly scheduled championship that lured Formula One's elite to the southern hemisphere on a systematic basis. At its peak it provided a genuine competitive theatre for the era's greatest drivers and engineers during what would otherwise have been an idle winter. Its collapse reflected broader economic forces reshaping international motor racing in the early 1970s rather than any failure of the racing itself.
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