The 1979 Rothmans International Series was an Australian motor racing series open to Australian

Formula 5000 Formula 5000 (or F5000) was an Open-wheel car, open wheel, single seater auto-racing formula that ran in different series in various regions around the world from 1968 to 1982. It was originally intended as a low-cost series aimed at open-wheel ...

, World

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and Australian

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cars.Programme, Oran Park International, 25 February 1979 It was the fourth and final

Rothmans International Series The Rothmans International Series was an Australian motor racing series which was staged annually from 1976 to 1979. Initially open to Australian Formula 1 cars (commonly referred to as Formula 5000s), for the final year it was for ‘’Austra ...

.The Macquarie Dictionary of Motoring, 1986, page 414 Despite his best placing in the series being a 2nd in the final round at Oran Park, the series was won by ex-F1 driver

Larry Perkins Larry Clifton Perkins (born 18 March 1950) is a former racing driver and V8 Supercar team owner from Australia. Biography Early years Growing up on a farm in Cowangie in the Mallee region of Victoria, Larry, the son of racing driver Edd ...

driving an Australian designed and

Elfin MR8 Elfin may refer to: *ELFIN, a CubeSat developed by University of California, Los Angeles *Elfin (steamboat), a steamboat that ran on Lake Washington from 1891 to 1900 *Elfin of Alt Clut, ruler of Alt Clut, seventh century Scotland *Elfin, a charac ...

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. The series included three Formula One cars, though only one featured prominently in the series. Irishman David Kennedy drove a Wolf WR4 powered by the

Cosworth DFV The DFV is an internal combustion engine that was originally produced by Cosworth for Formula One motor racing. The name is an abbreviation of ''Double Four Valve'', the engine being a V8 development of the earlier four-cylinder FVA, which had f ...

to 4th place in the series including winning the

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round and setting the circuits outright lap record of 1:04.400 seconds (this record wasn't beaten until 1986). English driver Geoff Lees drove a Cosworth powered Ensign MN09, though luck deserted him after a second place finished in the opening round at

Sandown Sandown is a seaside resort and civil parishes in England, civil parish on the south-east coast of the Isle of Wight, England. The neighbouring resort of Shanklin and the settlement of Lake, Isle of Wight, Lake are sited just to the south of t ...

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and he only finished 11th in the series. The third F1 car was driven by

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

based driver John McCormack. His was a

McLaren M23 The McLaren M23 was a Formula One racing car designed by Gordon Coppuck, with input from John Barnard, and built by the McLaren team. It was a development of the McLaren M16 Indianapolis 500 car. A Ford Cosworth DFV engine was used, which was p ...

, converted to F5000 specification and powered by a

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- Leyland V8. The

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winning McLaren suffering unreliability until the final round at Oran Park where it scored a 5th placed finish giving McCormack 9th place in the series.

Calendar

The series was contested over four rounds with one race per round.''Rothmans International Series'', Australian Motor Racing Yearbook 1979/80, pages 178 to 189

Points system

Points were awarded on a 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis for the first ten places at each of the first three rounds.Wolfgang Klopfer, Formula 5000 in New Zealand & Australia: Race by Race, pages 204 to 208 Points were awarded on a 15-14-13-12-11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis for the first fifteen places at the fourth round.

Series results

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Alfredo Costanzo Alfredo Costanzo (born 3 January 1943, in Soveria Mannelli, Calabria, Italy) is a retired Italian born Australian racing driver. From 1980 to 1983 Costanzo won four Australian Drivers' Championships in a row, equalling the record set by Bib S ...

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Lola T430 The Lola T430 is an open-wheel formula race car, designed, developed and built by British manufacturer and constructor Lola Cars, for Formula 5000 Formula 5000 (or F5000) was an Open-wheel car, open wheel, single seater auto-racing formula tha ...

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Lola T332 The Lola T332 was a race car designed and built by Lola Cars for use in Formula 5000 racing and made its racing debut in 1973. The T332 was successful around the globe with race victories in places such as Australia, the United Kingdom, New Zeal ...

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Theodore Racing Theodore Racing ( zh, t=徳利賽車隊香港) was a Formula One constructor from Hong Kong founded by real estate magnate and millionaire Teddy Yip (businessman), Teddy Yip. They participated in 51 Grands Prix, entering a total of 64 cars. In ...

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Colin Bond Colin John Bond (born 24 February 1942) is an Australian former racing driver. Bond reached the highest levels in Australian motorsport in 1969 when he was recruited by Harry Firth to the newly formed Holden Dealer Team. He quickly found succ ...

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Vern Schuppan Vernon John Schuppan (born 19 March 1943) is an Australian former motor racing driver. Schuppan drove in various categories, participating in Formula One, the Indianapolis 500 and most successfully in sports car racing. Although he considers ...

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References

Rothmans International Series

Rothmans Rothmans may refer to: * Rothmans, Benson & Hedges, a Canadian tobacco company * Rothmans International, a former British tobacco manufacturer, founded by Louis Rothman See also

* Rothman, a surname * Rothmans 12 hours, a series of sports car r ...

Formula 5000