15-1-66 Page 8 The Christchurch Star Sports, Jan. 15, 1966. LADY WIGRAM TROPHY Pukekohe Form No Guide Moron mai rentasies can start store a bor nest Saturdays Lady egrad The reason is that the Grand; gearbox weakness in Clark's Prix-at least for Wigram Lotus most likely would have prospects was not a true race. shown itself and been rectified Why? before the big day. It also Well, Pukekone was winner is unlikely that Martin would Graham Hill's only New Zea-have made his first lap error land appearance. at Railway Bend. Then, second man bome.! With the Gold Leal Inter- Jackie Stewart. drove the old national meeting at Levin spare B.R.M. which was con- to-day and Christehurch's siderably down on horsepower Motor Racing Club out to give compared with his tailor-made the drivers all the time pos usual mount and also Hill's sible to sort out the circuit car. and their cars next Friday, Thirdly, current world the situation should be very champion and last year's different. Wigram winner Jim Clark Though training was brief/ was out of the race right at Pukekohe the lap times from the start with put up by the leading contenstripped first gear that ders clearly showed that eventually broke up the Clark, Martin Stewart and the gearbox after six fat-ene- New Zealanders Jim Palmer: of-the-field laps. ¡and Denis Marwood and the Finally, young Spencer Mar- Australian Frank Gardner are very evenly matched. tin who was third fastest in his 2.5 Brabham in practice, Less than 2sec separa skated out of the race in the ted the to five qualifiers first lap. at Pukekohe and on the It may be argued that history consideraniy faster Wigcould repeat itself at Wigram ram circuit tbe range for some of the overseas visi- conid easily be narrower. tors. Well, it's always on the Moreover, there is another cards that some one will have unknown, quantry a who wol a breakdown early in the race, in Dickie Attwood, but, frankly, i don't think that be driving the B.R.M. which is ikely at Wigram helped Hill to his Grand Prix victory. More Training Attwood has done exceptionlally well in Europe in For- Clark and Martin were dead unlucky at Pukeiche and it entrust racine and has been with track probably was not their fault. work for B.R.M. He is highly Most was lack of practice be- regarded and might well! fore the big race. spring a Wigram surprise. If drivers had been allowed Another unknown factor is more time for training the just bow the B.R.Ms will go at Wigram. Mechanically they were faultless at PUkE• kohe and will certainly be equally well prepared for Wigram. But whether Stewart and : Attwood will be able to keep their 1930 c.c. engines turning over quickly enough at Wigram's slow corners, such as the loop and the hairpin, to take advantage of the very narrow top-end torque range which is a feature of the engines, remains to be seen. The cars are tremendously fast - they were touching 150 miles an hour at Pukekote! and could be even faster on Wigram's long straight but| they might prove to be at a slight disadvantage when faced with the very wide torque range of the 2.5 litre FPF fourcylinder Coventry Climax engine. These engines power the Ciark Lotus, the Brabhams of Martin and Gardner and the majority of the cars driven by leading New Zealanders. Among the New Zealanders, current national champion Palmer and up-and-coming Marwood look the most promising prospects. A severe bout of stomach *flu ieft Palmer unable to get the best out of his ex-Clark Lotus last Saturday. Marwood, who is driving the Ecurie Rothmans Cooper this season, had his first international race in the Grand Prix and very wisely elected to feel his way along very carefully. This he did to finish a well-merited fourth. He should go to Wigram a much more experienced and confident young man. Good Showing The 1500 c.c. single-seaters made a very good showing ati Pukekone and they should• prove good for an excellent: race within the race at Wigram. Graeme Lawrence, Ken Sager and others are achieving prominence in them this season. So national 1.5 litre champion Roly Levis will cer-! tainly not have things all his way_here, judging by the way Lawrence and Bill Caldwell dusted him off in the |1509 c.c. championship , race! at Ruapuna Park last Novem-: ber. Pukekone showed saloons Group II and "all! ¡comers"-to be even more competitive than they were last season and the "allcomers" feature event at Wigram could easily determine this season's national saloon car championship. Current national saloon champien Paul Fahey has been beaten twice by comparative newcomer David Simpson in races to date. Fahey showed the way Graham Hill. . . Pukekohe only appearance. home last Saturday, but he desperately needs points to head Simpson and retain his crown. Adding zest will be Martin with the Scuderia Veloce 250LM Ferrari coupe. Martin won the Pukekohe sports car race as he liked and has been accepted to run in the saloon category here. paper. at least, Martin shoula be outright winner al Wigram and also it is possible that he will run the single-seater lap record very ciose. Aucklander Jim Boyd has the national sports car championship pretty well sewn up already with nis Lycoming Special, but he could meet his match Wigram Motor Racing Club Championship when he comes up 'against Geof Mardon in the Stanton brothers' Stanton-Corvette sports-racer. Taken all round, the calibre of tbe cars and drivers competing at Wigram next Saturday would clearly indicate that - weather permittingthere will be race and lap re cords in all categories and certainly some of the most keerly-contested racing seen . on this very fast airfield circuit. - Jim Clark was out of гасе 13-1-66 12th International Lady Wigram Trophy Race R.N.Z.A.F. Station Wigram, Sat. 22nd Jam. GRANDSTAND SEATS 20"-ea. (including admission) Two Stands, one opposite Start-Finist and one at "Loop." CONCESSION TICKETS AVAILABLE ONLY AT D.I.C. Not on Sale at Gate on Race Day. FAMILY TICKET: Admits Private Car and 2 Adults. Children Free. 30'- CONCESSION TICKETS: Admits car and up to 6 Adults. 40'- GRANDSTAND SEATS and CONCESSION TICKETS NOW ON SALE D.I.C BOOKING OFFICE