27-11-69 6-1-70 NEW JUNIOR Final Race Of Series The March meeting of the Canterbury Car Club at Raapuna will now be the final race in the gold star series for 5litre single - seaters. Announcing the addition to what will now be a ninerace series, the promoter • of the Ruapuna meeting (Mr Brian Hepburn) said it should be a crucial meeting in the championship. It is hoped that several North Island cars will contest the race with the two South Island formula A machines. FORMULA CONSIDERED A new Junior Formula is being considered by the Motorsport Association of New Zealand for the start of the 1970-71 season. The move follows the intro-: duction of the Tasman Formula which caters for larger capacity cars and is partly because of the ageing and availability of the 1500 c.c. racing engine which previousiy qualitied for the New Zealand National Formula. No definite formula has been. decided on, but the association is giving some thought to suggestions ot 160 c.c. engines, i originating from standard pro duction cars, steel wheels and: New Zealand-made tyres. A similar class, Formula tI00, has recently been intro-| duced in Britain and is provi ing very popular. 16th INTERNATIONAL LADY WIGRAM TROPHY RACE GRANDSTAND SEATS STAND AT START/FINISH $2.50 each STAND AT THE LOOP. $2.50 each AVAILABLE NOW AT D.I.C INCLUDES ADMISSION AT GATE SAT., 17th JAN., '70 BOOK NOW AT D.I.C MAIL ORDERS TO D.I.C PLEASE ENCLOSE STAMPED ADDRESSED ENVELOPE 12-1-70 Predictions for Lady Wigram Race Difficult By Peter Greenslade With Wintrniah ra place each, New Zealander Graeme Lawtence and Australian Frank Matich will go into the third round of the 1970 Tasman Championship, the Lady Wigram Trophy, on Saturday, with 13 points apiece, seven points clear of their nearest rivals, Derek Bell, of England, and Max Stewart, of Australia. Driving the ex-Chris Amon 2.4 litre Ferrari V6, Lawrence won Opening round at Levin from end to end Matich finishing third in his 5-ltre Melbaren NI0A. In the New Zealand Grand Prix last Saturday, Matich averaged about 104.5 mues an hour and also led from start to finish on the fast Pukekohe circuit which obviously suited his big Chevro let-engined car. Lawrence, after a stero mid-race battle with the American McLaren MI0A driver, Ron Grable, finished third. Contrary to early opinions, the big American-engined Formula A-5000 cars have proved reliable, and honours between them and the much smaller and older style Tasman cars, with specially built racing engines, were fairly evenly divided at Pukekone. The American V&s finished first, courti sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth, while Englishman Derek Bell kept the older Tasman cars well in the picture by finishing second in a 2.5 litre Brabham Cosworth- Ford V8, Lawrence in the Ferrari being next and Kevin Bartlett in i the 1.85 litre Mildren Waggott fifth. Lady Wigram It would be a brave man who attempted to forecast the Lady • Wigram Trophy race result now. In many respects the 2.3 mile Wigram course is much more demanding than the 1.75-mile Pukekohe cir- cuit, for it has more highspeed corners. The entrance to Pukekone's main straight is through al Slow corner, whereas Bomb Bay Bend. the approach to Wigram's main straight, is a 120 miles an hour curve that not only sorts out the good handling cars but also the men from the boys in motor racing. Slower Bell's Brabham was 12 miles and hour slower than Matich's! Mclaren through the speed traps at Pukekohe. I don't expect the margin to be nearly so great at Wig ram because the drivers of the 2.5 and 2-litre cars will be able to make the approach much faster. The drivers of the American V&s relied upon the tremen-! dous torque of their 5-litre engines to gain pace out of the! and it! slow Pukekohe corner was readily evident that the' bigger cars did not handle so well. The wider Wigram circuit should suit the driving styles of the Americans and the Swedish Lola T190 driver, Ulf Norinder, much better than the narrow Levin and Pukekohe courses. These drivers showed that they had plenty of pace when they were clear of trattic, but were not i happy when they had to indulge in wheelto-wheel tactics. Two men who were unlucky at Pukekobe were the Aus tralians Niel Allen (McLaren M1OB› and Max Stewart (1.8 Mildren Waggott). Both made pit stops for wheel changes, made necessary by deflating tyres, when well placed. These stops cost them all chance, for in the 100-mile Tasman races even the shortest stop spells the difference between a points scoring place and a finish in the ruck of the feld. Pukekone attracted a crowd of more than 30,000almost certainly the be: since the first Grand Prix was held there in 1963-and there. is no doubt that the spectators were attracted to the meeting by the prospect of much closer racing than in the past, when a tew star drivers have made all the front running. They certainly were not disappointed for, although Matich led all the way, there was plenty of chopping and changing behind him.