22-2-52 22- 2-52 WIGRAM! TO-MORROW Practice Starts 10.30 a.m. for LADY WIGRAM TROPHY RACE also SPORTS and SALOON CAR HANDICAP, also HOT WATER and LIGHT REFRESHMENTS availablé on Airfield ADMISSION: ADULTS 3/-;. CHILDREN 1/6; CAR PARK 1/- N.Z.'s ONLY MOTOR RACE, GRAND PRIX STYLE! SEE YOU AT WIGRAM! PRESENTED BY MOTOR RACING CLUB (Inc.) CAR RACES AT WIGRAM BIG ENTRY OF FAST CARS TO-MORROW'S EVENTS The race to be conducted by the Christchurch Motor Racing Club on the perimeter airstrips at the Royal New Zealand Air Force Station, Wigram, to-morrow has attracted one of the best entries since the race was first organised as an annual event three years ago. Some prominent Christchurch racing motorists will drive new cars in the contest, and several entries of fast cars from outside Canterbury have been received, including one irom Australia. The race this year will be conducted in two heats of 25 miles, with 10 cars in each, and the four fastest cars in each heat will compete in the final race of 50 miles. It was thought by! the organisers that several compara- Lively short events -would provide keener competition than one long race of 100 miles, as in otner years and spectators would be able to Into drivers' progress more easily. Also, it has been found in other years that tyres will not stand 100 miles of hardi driving on the non-skid surface of the ! airstrips, and competitors have had to resort to slowing more than necessary in approaching high-speed corners in order to reduce drifting and consequent tyre wear. A race for saloon and sports cars has been included as a separate event, over 25 miles. Cars entered in this race will be handicapped on power output. Last Year's Winner The car which won the race last year. a 2.9 litre Grand Prix Alfa- Romeo, will be driven again this year in the first heat by a well-known racing motor-cyclist, Les Moore. Also in the first heat will be Moore's son Ronnie, a speedway rider who has risen in the last two seasons to world nampionship class, driving a Kiett acing car powered by a 998 c.c. Vincent-HRD Black Lightning motor. This car is very like the Cooper-J.A.P. car raced with some success by J. Lee and H. McLean in Christchurch in recent seasons, but it is considerably lighter. the second Two Coopers will be competing in heat. The first will be McLean's 1100 C.C. Cooper-J.A.P., which competed at Wigram last year but covered most of the distance with only one of its two cylinders doing any work. The second will be a car which was until recently powered by a unit similar to the engine of Moore's Kieft. but this motor was completely ruined in a sprint event a few weeks ago. The owner. J. Stafford (Wellington) has bought the Grand Prix Norion ridden by J. Swarbrick when he! won the New Zealand Grand Prix at : Cust last year. and will use the 500 c.c. motor in his car. 22-2-52 Powerial Special The driver who led Moore for the / greater part of the 1951 Wigram race, i G.. C. Smith (Auckland) will again drive the powerful Ford . V8 special which over-heated at critical moment last year, when in side-valve form. Smith has returned to overhead-vaives, and he hopes that the motor will not over-heat this time. Hec Green, perhaps one of the most popular and certainly the best-knowi racing motorist in Christchurch, will try again to make his rear-engined supercharged Vanguard special stay ir the race long enough"to use its tre-! mendous reserves of power to good Green's car was hand-built purpose. from many bits and pieces in a Christchurch garage, as was his red Wolse- ¡ley special in which he won the Wigram race in 1950, and each time it is fused in competition Green finds another weak spot to cure for the next irace. The Australian driver will be T. Sulman, whose Grand Prix Maserati withdrew with a cracked cylinder head at. Wigram last year. Sulman had considerable difficulty in preparing his car for the race, after a bad smash lat the Paramatta Park race meeting lin Australia on January 28. 23-2-52 Events Prove / Motor Racing ). Here to Stay By Frank Bennett Who was a competitor in the ! 1949 гасе. When a somewhat wavering flag sent the cars away in the first Wigram 100 mile road race in 1949, the future of motor racing in this country was very much at. stake. The success of that meeting and those followings seems to me to have removed any uncertainty. There is no doubt that the : machines in the big race at Wigram today were of better quality than most of those which assembled on the grid in 1949. Many of those originals-embodying some weird and wonderful ideas--have now been consigned to the junk heap; but not so the enthusiasm and expert ence gained from that event. It is easy to see that both drivers and cars are generally better now, for the placing on corners, the rapid gear changes, and the snappy pick-up have raised the standard immensely. It was a great thrill to see that of amend in Hec Green, snake out of a bend his gleaming machine and lead the pack into the • straight on the first lap. This low slung beauty is a far cry in performance and roadability from Green's first Wolseley, the massive Invicta, and Don Ransley's undaunted Riley. Groans of disag pointment drifted all along the circuit when Green came slowly down the back straight and limped to the pits with one wheel damaged. But such is the luck of this game-and Green knows it well. Big Cars Supreme Even so, interest could never flag. when such partnerships as Moore in his Alfa Romeo and the Smith and Logan Specials battle for the honours. Smail-capacity cars may stil try their hardest, but it seems that the big cars have what it takes in long-distance open races. The true enthusiast cannot but hope that this supremacy will be upheld, and the Alfa Romeo's decisive victory to-day points the way.