The 1968 Australian Grand Prix was a motor race held at

Sandown Park Sandown Park is a horse racing course and leisure venue in Esher, Surrey, England, located in the outer suburbs of London. It hosts 5 Grade One National Hunt races and one Group 1 flat race, the Eclipse Stakes. It regularly has horse racin ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

on 25 February 1968. The race was open to Racing Cars complying with the Australian National Formula or the Australian 1½ Litre Formula. It was the thirty third

Australian Grand Prix The Australian Grand Prix is an annual Formula One motor racing event, taking place in Melbourne, Victoria. The event is contracted to be held at least until 2035. One of the oldest surviving motorsport competitions held in Australia, the Gran ...

and was also round seven of the

1968 Tasman Series 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 and four in Australia.The Tasman Championship for Drivers – Season 1968, 1 ...

. The race was staged by the Light Car Club of Australia and was sponsored by the

Royal Automobile Club of Victoria The Royal Automobile Club of Victoria (RACV) is a motoring club and mutual organisation. It offers various services to members, including insurance and roadside assistance. It has about 30,000 ordinary club members and 2.1 million service ...

Jim Clark James Clark (4 March 1936 – 7 April 1968) was a British racing driver from Scotland, who competed in Formula One from to . Clark won two Formula One World Drivers' Championship titles with Lotus, and—at the time of his death—held the ...

, driving a Lotus 49T, won by 0.1 seconds from

Chris Amon Christopher Arthur Amon (; 20 July 1943 – 3 August 2016) was a New Zealand racing driver and motorsport executive, who competed in Formula One from to . Widely regarded as one of the greatest drivers to never win a Formula One Grands Prix, ...

(Dino 246), with whom he battled for the lead throughout the race. Clark's victory was rewarded with the Lex Davison Trophy and the Royal Automobile Club of Victoria Trophy. It proved to be the last major victory for the Scotsman. Twice winner of the

World Championship of Drivers Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one of the world ...

, three-time

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 ...

champion and the winner of the

1965 Indianapolis 500 The 49th International 500-Mile Sweepstakes was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana on Monday, May 31, 1965. The five-year-old "British Invasion" of Indy racing by rear engine cars (actually mid engine), which preceded ...

, Clark was killed in a

Formula 2 Formula Two (F2) 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 to 2012 in the form of the FIA Formula Two Championship. The name returned aga ...

crash at the

Hockenheim Hockenheim () is a town in northwest Baden-Württemberg, Germany, about 20 km south of Mannheim and 10 km west of Walldorf. It is located in the Upper Rhine Plain, Upper Rhine valley on the tourist theme routes "Baden Asparagus Route" ( ...

circuit in

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

six weeks after the race. In his last drive in an Australian Grand Prix,

Jack Brabham Sir John Arthur Brabham (2 April 1926 – 19 May 2014) was an Australian racing driver and motorsport executive, who competed in Formula One from to . Brabham won three Formula One World Drivers' Championship titles, which he won in , and , ...

started the race from

pole position In a motorsports race, the pole position is usually the best and "statistically the most advantageous" starting position on the track. The pole position is usually earned by the driver with the best qualifying times in the trials before the ra ...

but retired with engine failure.

set the fastest race lap.

Leo Geoghegan Leo Francis Geoghegan (16 May 1936 – 2 March 2015) was an Australian racing driver. He was the elder of two sons of former New South Wales car dealer Tom Geoghegan, both of whom become dominant names in Australian motor racing in the 1960s. ...

(

Lotus 39 The Lotus 39 was a single-seat racing car produced by Team Lotus. It was originally intended for use in Formula One, to be powered by the Coventry Climax 1.5 litre flat-16 engine. The engine project fell through and the chassis was modified to ...

Repco V8) was the first Australian resident driver to finish,Tasman Cliff-Hanger!, Sports Car World, April 1968, pages 20 & 21 an achievement which was rewarded with the Langridge Cup.

Classification

Results as follows:

Notes

* Attendance: 12,000 * Winner's average speed: 101.5 mph (163.3 km/h)The official history of the Australian Grand Prix – 80 Races, p. 245

References

External links

Australian Grand Prix, Sandown Park, 25 Feb 1968, www.oldracingcars.com
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Grand Prix ( , meaning ''Grand Prize''; plural ''Grands Prix'') most commonly refers to: * Grand Prix motor racing, a form of motorsport competition ** List of Formula One Grands Prix, an auto-racing championship *** Monaco Grand Prix, the most prestigious ...

Australian Grand Prix Motorsport at Sandown Tasman Series