26-1-59 LADY WIGRAM R TO FLOCKHART IN AVERARN a breathtaking 89 miles and wo with a B.R.M., Ron Flockhart, of Scotland, won the fifth international Lady Wigram Trophy race by 2.7sec from the No. 1 Cooper-Climax driver Jack Brabham, of Australia, on Saturday. It was a record-breaking victory for the Scotsman,, After the race it was be lieved that the honour ofi establishing a new lap record had gone to Brabham with a time of 1min 22.6sec, but a: carerut check yesterday showed! that Flockhart had taken this; record with one lap of the 2.1-mile circuit in Imin 22.2secan average speed of about 92.5 miles an nour. It was a day of overwhelming success for British cars. The brilliant young Aucklander Bruce MeLaren finished third in his 1960 c.c. Cooper-Climax, and the Palmerston North driter, Sid Jensen, brought home 1500 c.c. Cooper- Climax in fourth place after turning on one of the most flawless exhibitions of motor-racing that the 150mile classic provided. The overseas men were : the oniy ones to complete thei seventy-one laps. NcLaren was! flagged sixty nine and feinen completed. sixty-eight. Next in line were Johnnie Mansell with a 250F Maserati, Bob Gibbons, with the New Zealand-built Lycoming Special, and Merv Neil, with a 1960 c.c. Cooper-Climax. These drivers completed sixty-six laps. Well Behind Thirty-one cars came to the starting grid and twenty were still running • when Flockhart crossed the line, but the tail. enders were miles and miles behind. The high speeds and the large field made the job of the time keepers and lap-scorers more difficult that it has been ever before and it was not until nearly midnight on Saturday that the club was able toi announce the major prizewinners. The position was further complicated by variations in the stop-watches caused by : the heat of the day. After the race Brabham was credited with fastest lap but the careful checking later proved this was not the case. it was a race of thrills dominated by Flockhart and Brabham. Each had his share of the lead and seldom throughout the whole distance did more than four or five car lengths separate them. Flockhart led from the drop of the flag to the seventh lap. Brabham led from then to the twenty-fourth lap. Then the Scotsman went to the front! again and stayed there until the thirty eighth lap. The Australian then took another turn in front.i but _ Flockhart finally resumed the lead in the forty-seventh lap and held it to the end. Pace On на о In the concluding stages the pace was really on and the smaller Cooper-Climax could not catch the fiying B.R.M. Brabham tried every trick he knew, but he just could not make it. McLaren and Sid Jensen were, models of consistency with their! smaller Coopers and both Of them must have realised that they had no chance of victory on the last, open Wigram circuit unless the overseas men over- •stressed their cars. From the end of the frst lap to the end of the race cuaren held his third place and at the end of four laps Sid densen moved up to fourth. It was a bad day for the Italian cars. The Aucklander, Ross Jensen, with a highly favoured El Salvador Maserati, retired after five laps with a split gearbox casing. Pat Hoare, the local driver, who looked the most promising of the South Island entrants, was out after seven laps when his Ferrari suffered a recurrence of the trouble it had in the first race of the season at Teretonga Park some months ago—broken. piston rings. The other fancied Ferrari driver, Tom Clark, of Auckland, ACE B.R.M. had bad luck, too. A piece of ¡paper whipped up off the track land partially blanked off the radiator of his car. He made a •pit stop to clear it away and finally finished in ninth place • having completed sixty-two laps. The twelve-lap saloon car race was wOn vert easily by the local driver, Ray Archibald, in a 3.4 itre Jaguar. He led from start to finish. Ernie Sprague, of Timaru came home in second place in his Ford Zephyr and third was another local man. Bob Blackburn in a Mistral. Actually the race, which attracted a very good entry. nad engine capacity categories inclunded in it and the detailed results may not be available until Wednesday. Results: Lady Wigram Trophy Race, Rochart laps (150) miles-R. (Scotland), B.R.M., 1hr 41min 4sec, 1; J. Brabham (Australia), Cooper- Climax, 1hr 41min 6.7sec. 2; B. McLaren (Auckiand), Cooper-Climax 1hr 42min 28.8sec (69 laps). 3; S H. Jensen (Palmerston North). Ihr 42min 35.3sec cooper Climas J. Mansell_ (Tuakau), (fi8 laps), 4: daserati, 66 laps. 5: R. Gibbons (Wellington), Lycoming, 66 laps, 6; 11. Neil (Auckland), Cooper-Climas, 66 laps, 7: La R. Gilbert_(Hamilton), Cooper-Bristol, 64 laps. 8. Fastest lap. R. Flocknart, Imin 22.2sec. Open Car Handicap (25.392 mles) -A. N. mis 25sec 115 Ruther D-type Jaguar, 8min 25sec, 1; R. ford (Christchurch), Zephyr Special, 7min. 2; B. Brown (Christchurch), Buckler, 7min 10sec, 3;_D. H. Lawrence T.R.2 Mistral, 7min 10sec. 4; D. (Wanganuy I Rutherford (Culverden), Licoming Special, Tmin 35sec. 5- Winner's race time, 19min 29.4sec. 500 c.c. Motor-cycle Race-M. nic Cutcheon (Dunedin). Norton, 1: McNeil! (Christchurch), Norton, 2; Anderson (Nelson). B.S.A., Minner's time: 13mia 45 1-5sec. Saloon Car Race (25 miles)-R. J. N. Archibald (Christchurch), Jaguar 3.4, 22min 19.8sec, I: F. D. Sprague (Timaru), Ford Zephyr, 23min 22.5sec, 2: R. J. Blackburn (Christchurch), Mistral, 23min 34sec, TOP: Brabham (No. 4) and F race at Tigram on Saturday (No. 6), i. Mansel, Maserati Brabham (No. 4) and Flockha "lockhart (No. 1) lap the field early on in the afternoon. Other drivers are F. D. Cantrell (No. 31), and R. d. Gibbons, Lycoming Speci art fighting it out towards the end. Brabham the Scottish ace. Lady Wigram Trophy in his Tojeiro Jaguar ial (No. 24). ABOVE: finished 2.Tsec behind Lady Wigram Records Records fell in no uncartain fashion in the Lady Wigram Trophy race on Saturday. Ron Flockhart won at about 89 miles an hour in 101min 4sec for the 150 miles with the B.R.M. Last Jear the late Archie Scott-Brown, driving a Lister-Jaguar, iron in 107min 33.4sec. Flockhart established a new lap record of 1min 22.isec about 92.5 miles an hour. Last Jear Scott-Brown set a record of 87.06 miles an hour. The first Lady Wigram Trophy was a national event held in 1949 over 105.8 miles and was mon at 66.17 miles an hour bs Morrie Proctor, of Wellington, in & Brooklands Riley. The fastest lap of 68 miles an hour—mas made by Frank Bennett, of Christ church, in an Invicta. In 1954 the first international race mras held over 99.5 miles and won by the late Peter Whitehead with a Ferrari at an average speed of 85.46 miles an hour. But that sear the slow hairpin bend mas eliminated and the course mas slightly shorter and faster than it is now. That Fear also the late Hen Wharton, driving the old sixteen-cylinder, 1z litre supercharged B.R.M., lapped the circuit at 89.37 miles an hour. & near record on Saturday was the crowd, carefully estimated at 20,000, and a certain record was a complete sell-out of programmes—10,000 were printed.