16-1-71 quite sure where the blame for the difficulties lay-the McRae sets record shipping company said book- ings were not early enough, some teams said their bookings had been sold by the сотралу by mistake, and practice time should others said the New Zealand Grand have Prix made organisation arrangements but had failed to do (By our motor-racing reporter) 50. "FAULTS ALL ROUND" Pole position on the grid for the Lady Wigram Trophy But most agreed there were faults all round. Next . lette was aered esterdambo the one els auditing. the organisers vear the Motor Racing Club, of Wigram, laps to become the fastest man yet around the 23-mile airfield is likely to deal with bookcircuit. ings itself. went well in the In spite of a strong Cannon and Allen clocked! The second of the Ameri. March although a punctured : 157.4 miles an hour down the can drivers, M. Ejerly (Sur- rear tyre cost him some prachead-wind on the back back straight Gardner and tees TSS) was next straight, ScRae lapped team-mate M. Guthrie with 1:21, a time he shared think, he said, that he had in 1min 17sec, compared (Lola T192) were checked at suddenly forgotten all he with last year's pole 156.2 miles an hour. (McLaren MIOB). The British Belgian I. Pilette knew about driving-until he As usual with the powerful driver M. Guthrie (Lola T192) realised the cause of the set by the Australian, F. their position time of 1:182, Formula A cars—to spare was nest with 1:24.4; Matich's car's odd handling. Cannon had some handling transmisions—today's team-mate D. O'Sullivan (Mc- Matich. race will begin with a rolling probiems-as he had in the start, which means two cars Laren-Repco), recorded 1:21.8 North Island-and Allen said and the American E. Noyes he had a few adjustments McRae said his engine was to a row on the grid. (Brabham 1850 c.c.) had still to make, and hoped to down on power-it is the Thus McRae and Matich | will be on the front learn more about the circuit Chevrolet unit which dropped Cannon and Allen on the sec-i The American B. Brown in the additional untimed a valve in practice for Puke- Gardner and C. Amon on a new engine, installed all main-race, drivers (Lola T190) recorded 1:23.6 "warm up" practice period kohe, and was only re-instal-. (March-Ford 2.5 litre) on the since the New Zealand Grand have this morning led in the car on Thursday. third. D. McConnel of the The saloon practice McRae raced at Pukekohe on, AMON'S TROUBLES United States c.c.) recorded 1:26.4, and B. Fahey's Ford Mustang and (Lotus 1600 as exciting as usual, with P. an engine lent by the Belgian Amon had his troubles yesdriver, T. Pilette. Robertson of New Zealand: D. Marwood's Lotus-Ford 5 litre in untimed under 1:27. only other drive? Camaro being particularly RECORDS LIKELY practice, but stopped on the impressive. The fastest lap in the race back straight with a burnt INCIDENT-FREE Escort 1860 c.c. of J. Nazer last year was 1:19.8 set by piston. Practice was remarkably was also extremely fast and McRae and the Australian, M.. Consequentiy, he took over free froz incident, although spectacular. record the March-Ford 2.5-litre from there was about the usual presently stands at 1:18.8, set the New. Zealand driver, D. number of spin-ups, particu. main-race cars lasted an hour in the 1969 event by C. Amon|Oxton, and qualified in that larly in the loop. But Amon's and a half, but for the first and J. Rindt. So the record STP Lotus was the only top! half-hour or so times were i car with & time of 1:19.2 and cars were in ged drastically today, particu-i books are likely to be chan-l(104.55 miles an hour): mechanical trouble-an encounter serious Siow out of the pits making final larly back-straight! Lotus was rushed back into! head-wind stays away. Christchurch for the engine teresting commentary on the adjustments. For the faster cars, times the first five cars yesterday. Just nue ses ad covered to be stripped and hope- big ormula A machines. i tully-repaired, as spare cn- of the started in the low 1:20s and were slowly whittled down The first and untimed prac- the exception being McRae, Matich, in his McLaren-Repco for the car not yet arrived tice session was, as usual, second-fastest who set his pole position lap If the car is rebuilt in time, devoted to sorting out handtime of 1:17.6 (106.70 miles Oxton will start with it from ling and fine-tuning bothers, early in the piece. an hour with the American O'Sullivan had one section Formula A champion, J. Can-i the back of the grid. and it was watched by the of his two-wing aerofoil com. non (McLaren M10B). The The present Tasman cham- usual fairly substantial prac- ling loose, removed and third-best time 1:18.0 ¡pion, G. Lawrence, took his ace-cay crowd-including did several laps without it, 2.4-litre Dino Ferrari around the usual hundreds of smal! (106.15 miles an hour) was He also had a tyre-smoking shared by the present cham-!!! 1:19.7 (103.89 miles an! pionship leader, N. Allen (ViC the ¡hour a time he shared withi Most of the drivers whoispin in the loop which sent flag-marshals Australian single-seater : had not been to Wigram be- Taren M10B) and his fellow-champion at speeds they Australian, F. Gardner (Lola! Geoghegan fore ; although it remained a little realised they could attain. Chevrolet T192). (Lotus 59 Waggot 2-litre). Brown was another to spin Considering the lap times, Next fastest was the New | slippery throughout the day.lin the loop, and Eyerly also the top speeds of the various McLaren MIOB, clocking 1:20 Zealander, F. Radisich, in his Cannon and Pilette were two exceptions. Both said they marker barrels a did not like airfield circuits. i clase shave as he smoked by are interesting. back straight (103.05 miles an hour) just 2 them backwards. the fastest, with 158.5 miles lian Matich was sec. faster than the Austra- But if Cannon did not like Guthrie had to stop when and compared with Bartlett (Mildren progress a rear damper failed and sud- : Chevrolet). round it made one wonder denly gave him 140.2 miles an hour suggested; how fast he would have been handling: if he had liked it. tew laps with the new dam. wav round Wigram's corners.: All cars arrived at the cir- per fitted and he ran out of cuit in time for practice in petrol. spite of the shipping prob- Like most drivers, he prac lems encountered since tised with nearly dry tanks Pukekone. Nobody seemed to save weight, but he cut things too fine CLOSEST EVER • With the top cars in the field so close on time, the slight uncertainty which must attach to the durability of MacRae's engine, the largely factor of Oxto in the STP Lotus, and the improvement more exerience and some adjustments might make to Allen's times, today's race promises to be the clos est contest ever at Wigram. It could be a vital race for the championship contenders: third in the seven-race series, Wigram is as. near as can be to the half-way mark After Wigram, the experts say, it becomes relatively safe predict the championship winneT. Now Allen leads the series with 15 points to the 13 of McRae, Matich's and Amon's four. Matich and Amon badly need good places to keep them in contention fur the title. But so do the two leaders. A lot more hangs on today's 101.2 mile contest than the kudos and the $2600 firstplace prize-money. 822 THE NEW ZEALAND DRIVER, G. MeRAE, on his way to setting the fastest practice time for the Lady Wigram Trophy Race at Wigram yesterday. McRae's McLaren-Chevrolet lapped the circuit in Imin 17sec, an average of 107.53 m.p.h. and the fastest lap recorded on the circait. McRae wil start today's race from pole position on the grid. Airfield motor-cycling T. Discombe (Hamilton) and K. Turner (Wellington) should be favoured to win their respective classes when the New Zealand airfield championships motor-cycle held are at Wigram today. There are four classes in the championshps, with points also counting for the Rothmans and New Zealand road-racing championships series in both the 25-mile races. Discombe, iho will ride a 350 c.c. Yamaha, is leading both championships in the 350 C.C. class, and will also be a threat in the larger capacity classes. He was the winner of the senior and junior classes at the last New Zealand grand prix, and has had success in Asian events. Turner, the former New Zealand I.T. captain at the Isle of Man, will rider а 250 C.C. Yamaha. He returned from виторе recently after several seasons, there, and in North Island events so far has performed extremely well on his small machine in the largecapacity events. Auckland's G. Perry will pro vide the greatest threat to Dis. combe and Turner with his 250 c.c. and 500 c.c. Suzuki machines. He was fifth in the American Do ared was in age sad fared well in many events. Christchurch's promising 21- l'year-old D. Wylie crashed at Tauranga last week-end, suftering minor injury, and there is still some doubt about whether he will ride today. He was narrowly beaten on points by the Angio-American Suzuki works rider, R. Grant, for the national 500 c.c. crown last season. The entry of W. Molloy, runner-up in the 500 c.c. world chamionship last season, has jet to be confirmed, according to one of the organisers (Mr I. Ward). Molloy has ridden in more than 40 international events, gaining thire the fourth, and fifth placings in 125 C.C., 350 c.c., and 250 c.c. classes in the 1968 world championship. Other riders who will provide stiff competition include R. Haldane (350 c.c. Yamaha), also just: back from Europe, and K. J.F McCleary, of Christchurch.