8-2-54 MOTOR RACING WHITEHEAD WINS •WIGRAM TROPHY B.R.M. Breaks Down Near Finish 15,000 SEE FAST RACE A crowd of at least 15,000 at Wigram on Saturday saw the fastest car race ever run in the South Island. Peter Whitehead, English farmer and woolbroker, driving a bottle-green Italian Ferrari, thundered round 48 laps of the two-mile course to win the Lady Wigram Trophy in 69min 51.3sec -an average speed of a little more than 85 miles an hour. Second place was taken by an H.W.M. driven by Tony Gaze, of England. Ken Wharton pushed bis B.R.M. in to ill third place. The engine of the 200-miles-an-hour racer that had thrilled the crowd with its howling din and jet-like acceleration, sickened over the last six laps, and died 400 yards from the nnish. Any one of these three cars could have won the first prize of £150. Without doubt the B.R.M. would have won had its 16 cylinders functioned as smoothly throughout as for the first 40 laps. It was another disappointment for the men who have given their utmost to keep safe this car's reputa-. tion of being the most technically advanced and fastest racing car ever built. Sitting alone in the back of a saloon car after the race Wharton, exhausted; stained with oil disappointed almost to teates just that litile trick ot fate said: "This is not the first that has been against us all along" Whitehead, too, was exhausted. He stepped from his Ferrari to receive congratulations for his brilliant win, his face flushed, grooved, and grimy: Deafened by the booming exhausts of the car. he found difficulty in talking. He blinked often, and his mouth twitched. Gaze, who finished less than a minute behind Whitehead, was more relaxed when his wife said in greeting: "If it had not been for that pit "oGaze strode eagerly you would have won. Never mind.: towards the press of people surrounding Whitehead, who was by then drinking Ine victory champagne.. Wharton Leads From the grid Whitehead was in front. But inside 200 yards Wharton had wrested Enis place from him. Wharton boomed past the hangars, the supercharged' motor of the B.R.M. screaming. Ibe full song Df the car as it shot past the crowd lining the course almost shattered the ear drums. At Lancaster Park the noise was clearly audible. Wharton fung the car through bends at tremendous speeds, and rocketed to 150 miles an hour down the mile-long back straight. The squeal of tortured tyres was rarely heard. Nor was this unhealthy note heard often from the cars driven by Whitehead and Gaze. The first lap was finished almost before everyone realised it had begun. Wharton came back into the pit straight 100 yards ahead of Whitehead, #ho led Gaze by a similar distance. Two Christchurch drivers. F. Shuter and H. Green, in their home-engineered cars, next came past the lap-scorers. -Following these were R. Jen- Austin aley and Britaid, ed Austin-Healey; christchurch, tae motor of his dare green XK120 Jaguar • producing oals a deeptoned industrious hum; J. MeMillan,. of Wellington, noisier in his red Alfa Romeo; япа А. Stafford, of Levin, in the crackling COOper-Norton. At this point came the first disappointment for those who had pinned some of their hopes on R. Roycroft (Auckland). The shiny, black Alfa Romeo slid into its pits at the completion of the first lap, and a few minutes later the red square telling that he had withdrawn from the enntest showed against 19 on the scoreboard. The fault was lack of oil pressure. The first lap order was held for the second appearance in the pit straight. except that F. Zambucka, in the black Maserati, had moved up one place to be between Archibald and the red Alfa Romeo driven by McMillan Spacing was wider, too. Wharton led by a slightly greafer margin from Whitehead, who had pulled eway slightly from Gaze. Shuter and Green, in fairly close company. round after the last British racing green tail had disappeared from the pit straight. The rest of the field began to bunch. On the third lap the story was agam similar. The B.R.M., the Ferrari, and the H.W.M. were almost half a lap ahead of Shuter and Green. Sauter Withdraws Four laps later Shuter came into the pit turn with smoke pouring from hist car. The long white .car stopped at the pit, and another red panel was clipped on to the scoreboard. Auckland drivers were not prospering by this stage of the race. Roycroft had gone in the first lap, Zambucka came in after the fith lap with no oil pressure. and he became an onlooker. By the end of the race only one of the four Auckland drivers was still going. J. E. Horton, in a bronze supercharged TD M.G., drove very: quickly and reliably to finish. R. Jensen, in the Austin-Healey, was not so lucky. He met trouble half-way through, and retired. Of all the Christchurch drivers Archibald seemed most likely to complete the course and even to take a minor place. On the sixth lap he overtook Horton, to lie fith. and in the eleventh passed Green, to be fourth. In this position, right behind the overseas drivers. he continued very steadily and very fast until a tyre blew out on lap 31. The Jaguar lurched through the pit straight| corner and struck a hay bale. which jammed under the mudguard of the envelope body. Archibald drove up to his pit, pushing the bale ahead of him. Feverish activity among his pit crew sent himi out a short time later with a new wheel. By this time he was in eighth place. but ne drove through the field again to be sixth as the checkered flag fell for him. Archibald's performance in his sports car in competition with standard racing cars was of hign merit. While all attention was focused on the overseas men. McMillan had been driving! his Alfa Romeo steadily. It was a mild surprise When he took fourth place. Stafford, too, had been progressing with little attention given to him. His performance with his small 500 c.c. Cooper- Norton was little short of miraculous. Ati times he went through a corner faster than the BR.M., but on the straights, of course. he could not possicly hope match the larger car's acceleration. Green burst into flames near the end of the race. He turned the corner out of: the pit straight with smoke gushing from beneath the cowling of his engine. Turnblack H.R.G.. came past, swung into the infeld, and slowed as he passed the pyrel that marked Green's car. Logan threw out his fire extinguisher, and swung back into the race. Logan's sporting! action cost him several seconds. very "but what else could you do?" he said afterwards. Fastest Lap to B.R.M. The fastest lap of the day was made by Wharton when he travelled the 2.073 miles of the circuit in 1min 23.5sec—an average speed of 88.9 miles an hour. This lap was made in practice, and gave him the pole position on the startine grid. Next fastest in practice was Whitehead, with a lap of lmin 26sec. Gaze, with Imin 26.5sec, Zambucka, with 1min 33.3 sec, and Archibald, with 1min 33.8sec. During the race Wharton did not lap much faster than 1min 27sec. Whitehead travelled about the same speed, although. he appeared to be driving much faster towards the end. Gaze followed tactics: very similar. His speed down the back straight during the final 20 laps or so seemed much more rapid. Although the course was shorter by about 75 yards and faster because the hairpin bend was removed, it is almost certain that many drivers bettered R. Gibbon's previous lap record of lmin 33 sec. Strict comparisons are. nowever, i impossible. P. J. Ward. in a J.B.s., lapped: once at Imin 32.2sec, and was going very quickly until he blew up. Results of Main Race The official results of the race. with orovisional times, are:- P. N. Whitehead (England), 2000 c.c. Perrari, 69min 51.3sec 1: F. A. Gaze (England), 2000 c.c. H.W.M., 70min 32.3sec 2 K. Wharton (England), 1500 c.c. B.R.M., 76min 19.5sec J. McMilland (Wellington), 2900 c.c. Alfa Romeo, 76min 59.4sec A. Stafiord (Levin), 499 c.c. Cooper- Norton, 77min 5 R. J. N. Archibald (Christchurch), 3442 c.c. XK120 Jaguar, 78min 19.5 6 Others, flagged off the course, but who were placed. were:-A. I. Freeman (Wellington), 497 c.c. Cooper-J.A.P T: J. Torton (Auckland) . 1250 c.c. ID M.G., 8; W. Darrell (Christchurch), 2088 C.C. A.C.E. Special, 9; H. R. Logan (Nelson), 1496 H.R.G. 10; Кеплата i Christchurch), 1100 co. Fiat, Ii. PRELIMINARY RACES Iwo preliminary races were held, sports and racing car handicap of 25 miles and a saloon car handicap of 15 miles. J. K. Kerr, of Christchurch, in a Singer SM, won the Redex race for sports and racing cars, with R. J. N. Archibald only four minutes on Archibald, who was on the back mark. An old favourite in new colours appeared for this race, the Austin 7 special Blackburn Which was a few vears ago driven by R when won the Mairehau race. This year, instead of dignified green.| its colour scheme involved brilliant shade of pink. A number of interesting cars were entered; the local enthusiasts and backyard "Enzo Ferraris" were given a day out B. Briggs's Ford 10 specia growled ferociously. around for most of the race, but was unplaced. G. : A. Roud. i in a very neat composite of Vauxhal, Singer, and Ford parts powered by an Austin engine, came third. Two Ford Zephyr Sixes supplied a great deal of the excitement in the saloon race. Their long suspensions gave them pienty of room to lean on the corners and this, coupled with the verve of their drivers! (W. J. Mauger and P. R Womersley), made interesting watching. The Morris Minors performed astonishingly. One of the fleet of five seemed at times to outaccelerate some of the larger cars. The results of these two races were: Sports and Racing Car Handicap (placings are official, but times are provisional -J. K. Kerr (Gore), Singer SM, Imin 50 26min 16sec, At specla., 40sec, 26min 30.5sec, K. Roper (Neison), Austin-Healey, 5min sec, zomin ss.4sec, $. 15min 2min 16min 13.5sec, 2; W. (Invercargill), 55sec, 16min 42.8sec, 3; P. R. Womersley, (Oxford), Ford Zephyr, Imin 45sec, 16min 53.4sec, 4.