21-1-60 THURSDAY. JANTARY 21, 1960 41 Youngest driver in Saturday's Lady Wigram erent. 18-yearold Jim Palmer, of Hamilton (centre) works on the engine of his 2-litre Lotus during the serutineering of car in a city garage this morning. At left is his father mechanic, Mir G. Palmer. English driver David Piper drops for a chat while the tiro men make adjustments. COOPERS SHOULD SHATTER ¡LADY WIGRAM RACE RECORD WHAT willa Tropce Wigram Trophy 2.116-mile aerodrome cir who are going to knock be the Cooper Car Comp Bruce McLaren. rtainly be the fastest-run Lady ever will be staged on the cuit on Saturday, and the men the previous record flying will any drivers Jack Brabham and It can be confidentiy predicted that Brabham, the world cham- Dealander, are, our ranks MeLaren, who ranks sixth on the world drivers' list, will put in a few laps around 97 miles an hour. Last year the young Scottish driver Ron Flockhart averaged 89.19 miles an hour for the 150 miles, and in the effort set a new lap record of 92.67 miles an hour. Flockhart drove a B.R.M. and these works Coopers should be about 4sec a lap faster than it was. Increased power • output should make them at least 2łsec a lap faster than the B.R.M. and better tyres should chisel апother 1łsec off. Tactics The main talking point to-day is conjecture about • the tactics likely to be adopted by Brabham and McLaren. There are some who say that they will sort it out between them and others that they will really race. Mclaren has said that he is out to beat Brabham. Brabham has not said anjthing because he will not arrive from Australia till to-night. But if these drivers go out in win-or-bust moods there will be some fireworks. There is always the chance that the Works' men will drive their cars into the ground and lone or both of the 2s-iitre cars will crack up. This would suit the Englishmen Ian Burgess (2.2-litre Cooper-Climax) and David Piper (Formula I Lotus). Methanol Brabham's car would not have lasted out much longer at Ardmore, and McLaren's gearbox was not in the best of shape either. Also Brabham's car was not unloaded from the ship that brought it from Auckland till this afternoon. There is little time left to get the motor back in best trim. Brabham and McLaren will be running their cars on methanol on Saturday. It runs the engine cooler than ariation fuel. Burgess is sticking to aviation fuel. He appears to be confident that he will at least pick up a place in the first four. Lacks Speed Piper's Lotus looks good, but it seems to lack the speed of the works Coopers. Wigram, with its fast sweeping bends, is much better suited to the Continental Grand Prix cars than the tighter Ardmore course. This means that the Maser-! atis and Ferraris are likely to figure more prominently than they did in • the New Zealand Grand Prix. The New Zealanders, Johnnie Mansel and Ross Jensen, with their 250F Maseratis, and Pat Hoare and Ron Roycroft, with their Ferraris, should be able to hold their own with everyone apart from the Works Coopers. Mansel, first New Zealander to finish at Adrmore, fine driver with a fairly old car. Jensen will most likely be driving Gavin Quirk's 250F Maserati, and Hoare's 3-litre Ferrari "spot on" at present. Puzzle The puzzle in the trophy race picture at the moment is thei sudden decision of Sid Jensen to! race on Saturday. He is undoubtedly the best 1500 c.c. Cooper driver in the country and it may be that his car will be fitted with the 1960 cc engine out of Denis Hulme's car. Hulme, it was understood by the Motor Racing Club yesterday, had withdrawn from the race because his car without the engine has to be shipped to England shortly. • But this young and promising driver arrived in Christchurch complete with car this morning. f-