20-1-65 A blue flag, waved, means a car is FLAG trying to overtake. SIGNALS The marshals at the various corners of the circuit have flags with which to signal drivers. Thus, tae drivers can be kept informed of any dangers, or vital information about the state of the A red flag means a complete stop for all cars. A yellow flag means no overtaking. A yellow flag with vertical red stripes means there is oil on the course. A blue fiag, motionless, taeans a car is following closely. PHIL World champion winner for Ferrari in 1961, the first year of the 1.5 litre formula, Phil Hill is a quiet Californian who has, at the age of 36, won not only the highest honour in single-seat racing, but many, many of the major sports car races of the world as well. Serious, intense, he drives himself to motor racing as a challenge and admits to a good deal of tension. Yet he has been in the game for 15 years, (they don't allow them to race in the United States until they are 21), and in the year he won the championship did not make a single mistake. Phil fill graduated from MG's and a Jaguar XK120 into single-seaters, one of which was an enormous pre-war 2.9 litre supercharged Alfa Romeo like those which used to race in New Zealand. He was placed second in the great Pan-American road race of 1954, then tried his hand in Europe. Luck came his way in 1956, when Farrari gave him some works drives on the strength of his showing in odd Ferraris in Californian sports car races. With Peter Collias he was largely responsible for the dominance of Ferrari in sports racing through 1957 and 1958, and in the latter year had some Formula one (2.5 litres) drives. change. Ferrari beat the British constructors to the jump with a good rearengined car and a fine V6 motor which set his drivers, Hill and Wolfgang von Trips, ahead of the rest of the field. When the Italian Grand Prix at Monza A white flag means there is a service Fehicle on the course. A black fag, accompanied by a white number, means the car bearing that number must stop at the pits. green flag means 2 danger previously signalled has now gone. circuit. The flag marshal is one of the very essential men on the circuit. Warning flags indicate danger, and indicate danger in vicinity. The New Ze: to start all races. held motionless when waved they the immediate aland flag is used started they were running neck and neck for the championship; von Trips made an error which cost him his life and those of some spectators, and Hill won the championship. Up to that day he had won at Le Mans three times for Ferrari in the 24-hour Grand Prix d'Endurance, the Sevring 12-hour thres times, the 1000 kilometres of Buenos Aires and similar events on the Nurburgring and Venezuela. Besides these and wins in Formula one the Belgian Grand Prix and the Italian Grand Prix, both won at 130 mn.p.h.-Hill was the first driver to break the nine minute barrier on the tortuous Nurburgring, 11 miles with 175 corners and curves. A ycar after the fateful Monza of 1961, Hill and Ferrari parted company, a partnership of eight years which Hill himself says was never easy. A disappointing year with the abortive A.T.S. солсе, Which set out to make a racing car and failed miserably, ended with Hil Joining Bruce McLaren in the Cooper team. Again he has been out of luck, for the present is not Coopers' time in Formula one racing. Still unmarried, Phil Hill is perhaps the most thoughful and introspective of all first class racing drivers. Though a warm person, Hill has many acquaintances but very few friends. He loves music; either in the flesh as at the opera, or alone when listening to symphonie music through the hi-f set he has rigged up himself. SALOON EVENTS Saloon car racing, spectacular but also is gaining more and over the world, and become extremely Zealand. which is not only highly competitive, more adherents all in recent years has popular In New At Wigram on Saturday patrons can expect to see some of the best saloon car racing yet, with some very fast cars providing plenty of thrills and close racing. The allcomers saloon car race at Wigram has attracted a large entry of widely-assorted and very fast vehicles, but the results of the last year seem to indicate a Ford is very likely to finish in top spot. There are several high-capacity Anglias entered, including those of N. I. Doyle (Ashburton), I. Rutherford (New Plymouth),: K. Richardson (Rotorua), and local drivers. H. W. Hawthorne, J. W. Saville, and W. Collins. J. Nazer, of Wanganul, bas a 1650 c.c. Lotus Anglia entered, and C. M. Horgan bas entered his Anglia Allardette. There are some Lotus Cortinas, Inciuding those of A. G. Marshall (Tuakau) and J. Ward (Gisborne), and P. Fahey is expected to compete with a similar car. A. F. Moffatt will drive the 1963 c.c. Lotus Cortina Climax, but this car and otbers will meet plenty of opposition from the field's lone Jaguar 3.8, entered by F. I. Dow of Geraidine. Always fast and neat, this car should be worth watching. J. W. Armstrong of Dunedin has entered & Ford Zephy, and a Zephyr Corvette is entered by R. Coppins of Wanganui. The Mini brigade will also be out in force, and S model Mini Coopers are entered by P. R. Yock of Christchurch and B. B. Langley of Napier. B. Innes of Morrinsville has entered a similar car, as has D. C. Gooch of Wellington. C. Collins of Christchurch has entered his MG engined Morris Minor and there is even an Austin A35, entered by K. Hawes of Invercargill. There is also a production saloon car race, and the field in this event looks equally interesting. Dow's Jaguar will once again be a starter, as will be the Mini Cooper S models. D. S. Hayward will drive the Hutchinson Motorsentered Cortina, and D. Ransley of Christchurch will drive s Skoda. A Cortina is also entered by A. D. Bell of Palmerston Jim P There seems a strong chance that the first New Zealander to finish on Saturday will be last year's champion, the young Hamilton driver Jim Palmer. Last year Palmer easily won the New Zealand Gold Star award and the New Zealand Racing Drivers Club championship award in a Cooper Climas, and he has already done very well indeed this year in the Brabham which he will drive at Wigram. Palmer started his racing career when he was 16, entering at first in small races and hillelimbs with & Buckler sports car. He did well, and later purchased a Lotus sports, and then a new 2 litre Lotus 15. In 1960 Jim Palmer's father brought back a formula Junior Lotus from England, and in 1961 Palmer drove a Lotus 20. It was in the 1963 season that Palmer really came into prominence, for be drove # 2.5 Cooper Climax in almer At the beginning of the present season Palmer won the first event of the Gold Star series, the Renwick Road Race, and it seems quite possible he may retain the New Zealand championship this year. the New Zealand G.P. at Pukekohe and came third. Rex Flowers Rex Flowers, who will drive a Lola 2.5 litre on Saturday, is a Wellington driver who started racing about five Fears ago. He started racing-in a Jaguar XK120, and later purchased a Lotus Mark VI sports. With this car he took several hiliclimb records and also did well on the circuits. His next car, bought for the 1962-63 season, was a single-seaters a new Gemini Mark IIA He finished fifth in the first G.P. at Pusekobe, and seventh at Levin. His next car was a 1500 c.c. Lotus, with which he did particularly well, several times being the first 1500 c.c. car to finish. At Wigram in 1963-64 he mas seventh, and he finished seventh at Teretonga after second and third gears had jammed. At Waimate, racing in heavy raili, he drove an escellent race, until gearbox failure forced his retirement about two laps from the end, and cost him an almost certain victory. In Australia last year Flowers performed ably amongst the other 1.5 litre cars, gaining a third, a fourth, and a seventh, the latter low position being caused by faulty oil pressure. Flowers is without doubt one of the most promising of New Zealand's up and coming young drivers, and his performance at Wigram may fell surprise everybody. Kerry Grant If Jim Palmer is headed off as first New Zealander home in the Lady Wigram trophy race it will almost certainly be by the spirited Wellington driver, Kerry Grant, last rear's saloon car champion. This is Grant's first season in a single seater, and although he retired in the first championsiap race of the season at Renwick with a puncture, it was not before he had shown his ability to keep up with the head of the field. Grant on the track is a spirited and even fiery driver, and is rarely satisfied until at the head of the field. It was last year, with a Lotus Cortina, that he became really well known to the New Zealand public. Grant started the season at Renwick, In 1963, with a Cortina G.T. with a modified 1650 c.c. engine, and he finished third after a spin at the hairpin. This engine was transferred to a Lotus Cortina, and at Levin, Grant's home course, be set a new lap record and won the event. He won the open scratch race at Pukekone, and at Wigram spun out in the frst beat, but fon the final. He won again at Teretonga, and at this stage it emerged that there was to be at exciting finish to the year's saloon championship. Grant had 35 points on the table, compared with the 37 points of E. Sprague, who had been driving the very fast Zephyr MIk. II. If Grant won at Waimate, the last race of the championship series, he would take the title. If Sprague also happened to finish second, Grant would hold the title br only one point As it turned out, Sprague crashed in a previous race, and Grant drove re strainedly to take second place in the main saloon race behind P. Fahey in another Lotus Cortina, thus winning the championship. Providing Grant does not try too hard, he stands a good chance of finishing well up the list at Wigram. He is a driver who may well be a future New Zealand single seater champion. LAST YEAR JIM PALMER was driving this 2.5 litre Cooper Climas, and in it before in the same car. Palmer finished he won the New Zealand championship, just as Hysiop had done the year ith after a fine race. This year the Cooper will be raced by I. W. Dawson.