He was right with that too...

But his main argument was that the NZ Summer season was getting really good entries. This peaked with virtually the whole grid from the USGP of 1960 coming across in 1961.

It was still a good entry in '62 and '63. And in those three years there were Australian races to extend the 'season' and help cover the costs for the competitors. And in '64 the Tasman Cup came along and Bruce McLaren won it.

But the quality of the entry was declining. Sure, it seemed good when the Ferrari/Ferraris came, but by then McLaren was no longer bringing a team and Brabham was a bit hit-and-miss and the BRMs were lesser cars. Lotus, though, did remain a constant from 1965 onwards.

Until they all stopped coming in 1970, leaving us with F5000 if we were to have international participation at all.