18-1-69 Chri Clai s Amon m to Ta Has sma Strong n Title With 18 points to his credit Grand Prix and Rothmans In: Championship wins, 25-year-o Amon has already laid a stron Tasman Championship. from New Zealand ternational Tasman la Ferrari ace Chris g claim to the 1969 Amon's nearest rival after Levin was Englishman Piers Courage (2.5 Brabham - Cosworth ' - Ford) with 10 points. By the time you read this the third round at Wigram wil have been decided. If 1968 history repeats Amon's winning itser, in this series, ended ways last Saturday. But, the way things have shaped so far, Amon has everything on his side to become the second New Zealander to win the title. The first was Bruce McLaren in 1964. Favoured I'm betting on Amon, the quietly-spoken No. I Ferrari driver who on his showing at Pukekohe and Levin, is the only man contesting this series who goes really quickly without looking. as if he were in a hurry. There is something about amon's style that is strongly reminiscent of the late Jim Clark. But there is more than style that makes Amon look a good Tasman title prospect. There are lots of other factors in his favour. Not the least of them is team-mate Derek Bell, who showed at Levin last Saturday that he has taken to a Ferrari like a duck to water when he won the 14lap preliminary to the Tasman race. Amon might have had something in reserve as be shadowed Bell round the testing 1.175 mile circuit, but be bad sense enough to realise that there was no point in chancing his rm just for the sake of winning a race that did not matter. Bell has shown that lie is a handy man to have around as a back-up and this is something that Gold Leaf team Lotus badly lacks. CAR RACING PETER GREENSLADE That Levin preliminary showed that Lotus boss when he said that his driv! Colin Chapman meant ers enjoyed equal status and were at liberty to race against each other. World champion Graham Hill and his new Austrian team-mate Jochen Rindt did just that in the preliminary. On the day, Rindt, as be had been at the Grand Prix a week earlier, was faster than Hill. Admittedly. Hill's car was not as good as Rindt's and that makes it all the more difficult to understand why Hill, who had DO chance of heading off Bell and Amon in the Levin preliminary, did not give Rindt room to get through and have a go al the Italian cars. Obviously the • Austrian was not at all impressed by the worid champion's tactics and even people who were not within ear- shot at the end of the race, but who were close enough to view the scene, must have realised that Rindt voiced his disapproval to his team-mate. Il this Levin demonstration was an indicatioa of what can be expected in the Gold Leaf team Lous camp for the remainder of the series, then Amon's Chances must look better than ever! Of course Courage i cat not be discounted, but his is a hard task when confronted by two works teams. The way things are shaping, Amon must be hard to beat at Teretonga. Apart frora Courage, if there is a repetition of that Levin preiminary on the tight Southland circuit, the No. 1 Ferrari driver could have just about everything running for him. . including Gold Leaf team Lotus. THE TOP AUSTRALIAN RACING DRIVER, F. Gardner, was put out of the Lady Wigram Trophy race in the first lap, when he was rammed from behind by another car and then collided with the Lotus of K. Smith. Gardner is walking towards his car, which is on the right of the pietare. MOMENTS BEFORE CRASHING BACKWARDS.—An incident at the Lady Wigram Trophy meeting. The Chevrolet Camaro of S. Black is shown in a high-speed sideways slide, with smoke pouring of its wheels, before crashing backwards through the line of straw bales at the beginning of the pit straight. Black was leading the race when he spun, and I. W. Dawson's Ford Mustang, which was close behind, also crashed through the bales.