20-1-73 Mc RAE She Three on end at igr By Peter Greenslade Graham McRae, the 1971 and 1972 Tasman champion, into the ground in the 19th International Lady Wigram Trophy he romped home 27.8sec ahead of 22-year-old Sydney driver, at a record average speed of 114.277 miles an hour. beat a class field Race today, when Warwick Brown, In third place came Englishman Steve Thompson, 33.5sec behind Brown, and these were the only ones to run out the 47 laps. NeRae drove his self-designed and built MeRae GN1 while Brown was in a Lola 1300 and Thompson • drove a Chevron B24. Hopelessly outelassed. the current Australian Gold Star champion Frank Matich, drove his Repco Matich A50 into fourth place. having completed 46 laps and just staving off the Aucklander David Oxton's Begg FM5. Sixth place, and a further Dexter Dunlop (MeRae GAll). On the basis of makes of ca among the sir Tasman Cup poi been in many a day on the fast Zealand-Australia International lap back, was Wellington's at, there was more variety its winners than there has st circuit used in the New Tasman Formula series. Without a doubt today's trop! have seen at Wigram in the last der McRae, for the first time sine headlines by winning the Tasman to work for his win. The Australian giant, Mar Ster was finally going to make it here the race for 35 laps with MeRae than a couple of seconds behind hi came to an ignominious end whe # race was the best ade. e he made international Cup in 1971, really had vart. looked as thnagh he in his Lola T330. He led or Brown seldom more im. But a brilliant drive •n a crankshaft balance- weight came adrift and holed the sump of his Cherolet engine. MeRae automatically went to the front and at that stage, Brown. who drove a tremendous race, was only a second behind. In the concluding stages Brown wisely decided to drive for second place and Thompson, who had been knocking at the door all the war. passed Matick to get into third spot eight laps from the end. MeRae, nho was fastest qualiher yesterday, changed the cylinder heads on his car last night, and before most of the other competitors were out of bed this morning, had his car out at the track where he gave it a couple of quick runs up and down the back straght just to assure himself that everything was in order. He really had to work for bis $3000 this afternoon and he was handicapped to some extent by tyres which started to melt in the heat of the race and steering that became slack in the latter stages, But the cffort was really worthwhile for he has now drawn out a healthy lead in the Tasman Cup series. BIG POINTS TALLY His win in this the third of the eight rounds today, has given him a points total of 21 - 11 clear of Brown, who is just one point ahead of New Zealand Grand Prix winner John MeCormack (Elfin Repco) and Matich. Thompson has eight points and his cousin, Alan Rollinson (MicRat GMI) has sir points.