featureGraham Hill - champion
Profile of Graham Hill, twice world champion, twice winner of the NZ Grand Prix, awarded the OBE after winning the 1962 championship with BRM. It traces his late start in racing, spells with Lotus and BRM, and his return to Lotus as team leader after Jim Clark's death in 1968.
Facts
- Graham Hill did not hold a driver's licence until age 20 and began motor racing four years later; he had been a Royal Navy artificer.
- Hill joined BRM in 1960 and helped BRM win its first world championship in 1962, narrowly ahead of Jim Clark in South Africa.
- Hill had won the NZ Grand Prix twice and driven in New Zealand four times by January 1969.
Photos
- The fast Austrian driver, Jochen Rindt, at Pukekohe in his Lotus-Ford. Rindt was second in the Grand Prix after a spin and after driving for much of the race with no clutch.
- The fast Minis always give the crowd plenty of thrills, and local driver Clyde Collins, in this P.D.L. team Mini, has been going particularly well this season.
previewTimes may fall
Notes that last year's Lady Wigram Trophy fastest lap of 1min 19.6sec, shared by Jim Clark and Chris Amon, broke the 100 mph barrier on the 2.3-mile circuit, and that the 1968 race average of 102.6 mph might be bettered in 1969 with good weather. Spectators are encouraged to time laps themselves.
Lap times
- Jim Clark (Lotus): 1:19.6 lap record
- Chris Amon (Ferrari): 1:19.6 lap record
Facts
- The 1968 Lady Wigram Trophy record race average was 102.6 mph, and Jim Clark was the first to lap Wigram in under 1:22 (100 mph average); Clark and Amon shared the fastest lap of 1:19.6.
- The Wigram circuit in 1969 was 2.3 miles long.
featurePopular Formula Ford
Describes Formula Ford, a low-cost class using Ford Cortina 1600cc engines introduced in mid-1967, growing rapidly in Europe, and a marketing agreement for Holbay-modified engines through Lotus Components. Also notes the Racing Car Show at Olympia, London, featuring Graham Hill's Lotus.
Facts
- Formula Ford held 30 races in its first year in Britain and over 90 in the following year, with more than 200 drivers competing.
- Holbay modifications raised the Cortina 1600cc engine's 86 bhp to 105 bhp, guaranteed by dynamometer certificate.
- The Racing Car Show at Olympia, London, in January 1969 displayed Graham Hill's Lotus and Denny Hulme's McLaren M8A, the winner of the 1968 Can-Am series.
featureSafety moves
Notes safety measures in motor racing, including fireproof overalls, roll bars, crash helmets and harness seat belts, and at Wigram, fire extinguishers around the circuit, St John Ambulance men and spectator marshals.
Read the OCR text
15-9-69
THE FAST AUSTRIAN DRIVER, Jochen Rindt, at Pukekohe in his Lotus-Ford.
Rindt was second in the Grand Prix after a spin and after driving for much of
the race with no cluteh. He will be a force to be reckoned with at Wigram.
GRAHAM HILL-Cham
Graham Hill, the
gentleman with the
clipped moustache and
lively turn of phrase is
morid champion motor
racing driver for the
second time. He has
also won the N.Z.
Grand Prix twice and
driven in New Zealand
four times.
Hill, awarded the O.B.E.
for his services to motor
sport after winning the
championship for BR.M. in
1962. has an outstanding
record as a driver, particularly over the way in which
he has battled good-humouredly against adversity so
many times.
He is the prime example
i of the instinctive driver who
comes to the game late: he
did not have a driver's
licence until be was 20 (he
had been an artificer in the
Royal Navy) and did not go
motor racing for another four
years. And it was only
determination which got him
into the cockpit of a singleseater for the first time, at a
driving school at Brands
Hatch.
Within a few months of:
that he was driving for Colin
Chapnian • of Team. Lotus in
his earlier, less successful
days with front-engined cars.
Hill's ability was quichir
¡noticed by others. and B.R.M.
i snapped him up in 1960: his
engineering and development
skill made a big contribution
to the marque's first world
championship win by
whisker from the late Jim
Clark in South Africa right
at the end of the year.
The failure of B.R.M. to
mark with
design led
leaving them for Team Lotus
once again for the 1967 sea-.
Ison as and equal number one
with Clark, and be took over
the leadership in 1968 after
Clark's tragic death at
Hockenheim.
Driving, tne 3-litre V8
Lotus Ford fast and as!
cleanly as ever—be is a copy-:
book driver-he WOn the
championship like a cham-l
pion, by a big margin. Hill,
aiso a London representative
oarsman (his helmet 1S
‚banded in the colours of the'
London Rowing Club), won at
Pukekohe in 1965 driving the
¡Scuderia Veloce Brabham 2.5
and the following year in a
B.R.M. 2-litre V8.
pion
=-54
THE FAST MINIS always give the crowd, plenty
of thrills, and local driver Clyde Collins, in this
P.D.L team Mini, has been going particularly mell
this season
Popular Formula
Formula Ford, the 11725 c.c. Rootes engines for
the 100 m.p.h. Sunbeamn
relatively low cost rackapier Hizo, nave recenty
ing car elass for compieted a marieting agreesingle-seaters power- ment with Lotus for the sale
ed by Ford Cortina the Holbay modified
engines introduced in Formula Ford engines.
the middle of 1967, is In fact, engine modifications are strictly limited in
one of the fastest Formula Ford racing to keep
growing racing ciasses down the costs of this speciin urope. ally evolved "budget" class. LOTUS ON
TIMES MAY Balancing the reciprocating
But already more than 200 components, equalising the
FALL drivers are competing in combustion chambers and
Formula Ford events in Bri- porting and changing the SHOW
tain. During its first year 30 carburettor jets are virtually
Is last year's race Jim races were held in the United the only engine "mods" per-
Graham Hill's world-beat
Clark and Chris Amon shared Kingdom, and last year there mitted.
fastest lap of Imin! ing Lotus is the centrepiece
were more than 90. During! By carefully carrying outjof a display of last season's
19.6sec, which shattered she 1968, Formula Ford spread to these basic changes Hoibay Formula 1min 22sec (100 miles an hour the continent of Europe and raises cars-including
average) barrier and gained the Cortina 1600 c.c. Jackie Stewart's Tyrell Matra,
three races have bees held in engine's normal 86 b.h.p. a Cooper and a B.R.M.-at
Clark a special prize, as he Belgium, one in Sweden and gross power output to 105 te Racing Car Show now oni
was the first to record a lap оде in Denmark. issue alat Olympia, London.
lin this time. ib.h.p., and they
But this year even this time According to Nick Brittan dynomometer test certificate addition the show fea
of Formula Ford Interna- with every unit to guarantee tures one of the world's
is likely to be beaten, and tional, this year's calendar the output. record prize-winning cars, the:
given good weather last years! ¡includes 12 events in Belgium, McLaren M&A in which
record race average of 102.6 The specification includes Denny Hulme won the 1968
miles an hour should also be fire of them open to inter- Holbay dry sump equipment,
national participation, three (cog-belt assemblies Can-Am series which belped
bettered. pulley the McLaren racing team gain
some indication of the speeds and one in Germany. Plans! Practice on Friday will give in Holland, two in Sweden and a lightweight diaphragm i$170,000 in prize money.
clutch. The units will bel For the first time the show
that can be expected on the are aiso being made to open marketed by Lotus Compo- has this year been organised
2.3-mile circuit. If you have a British-operated racing ments, Limited, exclusively, jointly by the British Racing
a stop watch, bring it to the drivers school at tae German and will be available to all land Sports Car Club and the
circuit and try taking lap Hockenheim cireuit with alother constructors of Formula Society OF Motor Manufac
times and also time the inter- "stable" of 10 Formula Ford Ford cars as well as private
turers and Traders. It is the
vals between the leading cars. cars. ¡entrants.
About 15 drivers in Belgium biggest exhibition totally de-
Often this can show that a and Sweden have As yet no true formula voted to motor sport and
driver is starting to lauzch a already Ford cars have appeared on performance motoring held
challenge against the "gone Formula Ford" and New Zealand circuits. anywhere in the world. ahead before this is notice- interest is continuing to
able to other spectators. grow among both drivers and
manufacturers.
Holbay Racing Engines, who
are specialists in advanced
development of performance
engines and who modify the
SAFETY MOVES
Asked to select the most
dangerous sport in the world
many people would choose
motor racing, but few realise
the efforts made to reduce the
risks.
The considerable efforts
which have been made to reduce the injury to drivers include the use of fireproof
overalls, roll-over bars, crash
helmets and full harness seat
belts.
At a meeting such as Wigram both drivers and officials
are concerned with safety.
There are fire extinguishers
at appropriate points around
the circuit, and men of the
St John Ambulance are in attendance in case injury
should occur.
Spectators can help with
safety by obeying the instructions of spectator marshals,
and by keeping behind bar-
Summaries and tables are machine-read from the scan and may contain errors: the scan is the record.