14-1-69 15th international 1rophy I Race. Lady Wigram Sat Jan 18 Wings Will be INTERNATIONAL Lady Wigram Trophy race patrons will see ra wings for the first time at the circuit on Saturday. The wings, or aerofoils, as they are more scientifically described, appeared for the first time on Grand Prix cars during training sessions for the Belgian Grand Prix at the very fast Spa-Francorchamps circuit last year. Since then every works Grand Prix team has adopted them and they are also used extensively in Formula 2 and 3 racing overseas. May S Cast very much in the seemingly easy-going Gardner mould, Leo Geoghegan has long| been one of Australia's leading 1.5 litre drivers and in more recent times has established a quite formidable reputation with his Repco V8-powered Lotus 33, his Wigram mount. With this car he came with-! in an ace of heading off all the much more powerful. Am-! erican Formula A cars at! Baypark Raceway, Mount Maunganui, at the inter-i national meeting on December 29. The Australian had the Uni-i ted States driver Ron Grable well within his sights when an oil pipe fractured in the concluding stages of the race. Whether he would have won if trouble had not intervened, no one will ever know. But the drive was a most impressive one - so much so,: The purpose of a wing is to ¡exert a downwards force on the rear wheels to counteract wheelspin under hard acceleration and counteract sideslip by improving traction while cornering. At present there would appear to be no unanimity among the various racing car constructors as to how and where the wings should be fitted. For example, the Ferrari urprise in fact, that it would not be surprising to see him harrassing the front rumers at Wigram in the concluding stages of the 100-mile South Island classic. V6s of Chris Amon and Derek Bell have fixed wings attached directly to the car bodies. Rear Suspension But on the Gold Leat Team Lotus Cosworth-Ford V8s of Graham Hill and Jochen Rindt, attachment is to the rear suspension uprights and the drivers can alter the angle by depressing a pedal next to the clutch pedal. Thus, as the independently suspended rear wheeis of the Lotus move up and down so do the wings. The purpose of driver control is so that the wing can be located in a horizontal plane to reduce drag and minimise the downward force when the car is travelling in a straight line. The driver keeps the wing Fitted on acing cars fitted with in the horizontal plane simply by keeping his left foot on the pedal. Naturally when he changes gear, either to slow or accelerate the car, he must take his foot off this pedal and depress the clutch pedal. Then the wing declines forward and in this position exerts the downwards force which is transmitted directly to the rear driving wheels. •Tipsy Moth 'he Lotus also has aerof mounted on each side of the front of the car ahead of the front wheels, and, although they are fixed, their purpose is to keep the front wheels on the ground and so counteract "lift" on the straights and understeer (the tendency of a car to take a wider are Cars through a corner due to wheel slip than intended by the driver) when cornering. The whole business is carried another stage forward on the Frank Williams-entered Brabham-Cosworth-Ford V8 Piers Courage will drive in the trophy race. This car has wings front and rear and mounted on the suspension uprights. One onlooker seeing the car in action for the first time during the qualifying sessions of the New Zealand Grand Prix at Pukekohe described it as like a "tipsy Tiger Moth." And it must be admitted that there is more than a passing resemblance. However, the fact remains that Courage finished third in the race to add weight to the contention that "tipsy Tiger Moth" layouts are not without some value! SOMETHING FOR EVERY MOTOR Wilk ten races o • Wigram Troph something to suit ever attraction of two mot Zealand's top riders. The programme, as usual, will open with the two Lady. Wigram Trophy race heats, the first of which will be of particular importance to the majority of New Zealand's' leading single-seater drivers, for it will constitute a round in the 1.5-litre National For- ula Championship seri RACING TASTE on the programme for the International Lady y race meeting on Saturday there will be ry motor racing taste along with the added tor-cycle races which have attracted all New Among the leading en will be the young Wellir driver, Graham MeRae, will be driving his Mc Ford. McRae designed and this car himself and so far season it has proved to more than a match for the tory-built cars of the r rants| drivers contesting the 1.5-litre ngton engine capacity class. who A firmly established favourite on the Wigram programme cRae- Club is the Motor Racing Championship, a race which is built open to cars which do not * this qualify for the trophy race, as o be well as others. e facother Interest Although factory-built cars now contest this race, it still retains tremendous interest for it affords the back-yard spe cial builders an opportunity to test their theories. The Group 5 saloons have captured the imagination of motor racing patrons since this category was introduced last season and they will make three appearances in the course of the day, all the leading saloon car exponents being among the bumper entries. Timed to start at 2.30 p.m., the Lady Wigram Trophy, which has attracted two-car factory teams from Gold Leaf: Team Lotus and Ferrari, as • well as private entries from Britain and Australia, could! easily turn out to be New Zea- : land's fastest car race and certainly the 44 laps of the 2.3mile course will be covered in less than an hour, so a race average speed of something like 165 miles an hour is likely to be the order of the day. The first race on the programme will start at 10 a.m. and the final event, open to motor-cycles of all capacities: Will start at 4.30 p.m.