31-1-57 2-2-57 31-1-57 Who is she? Who's the beautiful woman drinking champagne from the Lady Wigram Trophy. Peter Whitehead won it at Wigram last week in a gruelling road race. Second photo shows another English star, Horace Gould. Gould escorted the woman to a car club show at Christchurch's Mayfair Cabaret. He was happy when photographed, but was taken from his car only three hours before completely exhausted by the heat and race strain. He obviously came right in a hurry. But who is the woman? Everyone wanted to know. NO SUSPICION OF TEAM DRIVING IN LADY WIGRAM RACE WHa Rest Panell, on English racing driver, made a pit stop after one lap in the Lady Wigram Trophy last Saturday and got going again just ahead of the race leader, Ron Roycroft, the wiseacres round the pils nodded their heads and began to wonder. And they were wondering: Are we seeing team tacties for the first time in New Zealand motor racing? Parnell and Whitehead are making the New Zealand tour driving identical cars 3}-litre Super Squalo Ferraris and they are sharing Whitehead's ace mechanic, Stan Ellsworth. In the New Zealand Grand Prix at Ardmore, a fortnight previously, Parnell came home the winner and Whitehead was second. That was a good, close race and some observers were under the impression that Parnell and Whitehead had made it so, and it would be Whitehead's turn at Wigram. Well Whitehead did win at Wigram and he won very much as he liked. But when it was all over there were a number of people who left the course convinced that Parnell had helped him there. What Happened If Parnell and Whitehead were indulging in team tactics and there is nothing in the rules to say that this is not permis sible-all they did was to speed up the inevitable Never Likely As the race progressed Roycroft drifted further and further back, and, in tact, at no stage of the game did he look like winning material last Saturday. It may be that Roycroft's big ferrari is not so easy to bandle-he certainly seemed to have to work pretty hard at times. Whitehead and the Australian who took second place, Jack Brabham, were very relaxed, and appeared to have the situation well in hand at all times. This is what happened: After half the first lap was completed, Roycrott took the lead in his big At the end off-litre Ferrari. that lap Parnell pulled into the pits to re fair a broken throttle linkage. By the time Roycroft approached the pits for • the second time Whitehead had moved up to second place behind him, but a fair gap separated the two. of Parnell sot awar ust ahead Roycroft and the next seven laps led him. Parnell did not appear to be driving just as hard as he might have done and Royeroft contented himself by sitting in behind him. On the other hand, Whitehead. who had ground to make up to come to terms with Roycroft, speeded up a bit and consequently was able to pass Rovcroft in the eignth lap, and at that stage Parnell pulled out of the race with the throttle linkage broken again and the sparking plugs of his motor oiled up. Once Whitehead moved to the front, Roycroft never Jonked like making another serious threat. Discipline In New Zealand. where every driver is an " independent," team racing is unknown. But on the Continent, where the works teams predominate, team racing is the thing. Especially is t'is the case with the German teams, and the successes of Auto Union and Mercedes before World War II, and of Mercedes in more recent years, have been Largely the strict discipline imposed upon drivers by team managers. In other words, on the Contin- ent, drivers drive to orders. although there have been case. where Latin temperment has led to fireworks and to some " unexpected " race wins. The German nature is more amenable to this sort of treatment and that is perhaps one of the reasons why German racinz cars have been so successful. No doubt this obedience has paid dividends in other ways, too. German car exports have been boosted 'y racing successes. No Suspicion On the face of it, there is little reason to suspect that Parnell and Whitehead played ducks and drakes with Royeroft. White head obviously had something in hand for the greater part of the race and it is logical to assume that Parnell's similar car would have had the same margin, if a mechanical defect had not put paid to his chances. Parnell acted very wisely in the circumstances. He realised that a lengthy pit stop. which would have been necessary to change all the plugs in the Ferrari and repair the throttle linkage, would have lost him all chance of even a minor place in a race of only 150 miles. As he said: "There was no point in logging an expeusive piece of machivery to death for no purpose. I have two more races to think of before I leave New Zealand" If Parnell had resumed, most ikely all he would have done was wear out a perfectly good set of tyres, burn up a great deal of expensive racing fuel, and lift the tune out of the Ferrari motor. Although it is good to see drivers keep going in the face of misfortune when they have no chance of taking any stake money, from the strictly logi cal point of view Parnell has the right idea.