22-1-73 BELOW —McRae, photographed from the control tower as he races down the front straight into the tower bend, is here near the end of the race. Tasman racing series is still wide open after Wigram By PETER GREENSLADE. Although Graham MeRae man Cup series by winning Wigram Trophy race on Sat Zealand-Australian internation: as wide open. • raced into an 11. his third successi turday afternoon, al series must be -point lead in the Tasive international Lady the eight-round New regarded at this stage The Tasman champion in 1971 and 1972, McRae is obviously setting his heart on a hat-trick. With 21 points to the 10 of Sydney's Warwick Brown, 22, and the nine each of the New Zealand Grand Prix winner, John MeCormack, and the current Australian Gold Star champion, Frank Matich, the former Wellingtonian appears to have the situation under his commana. However, this series, which has attracted one of the most competitive collections of ariver-car combinations for many years, has already turned into one in which luck is playing a prominent role. Although Mckae, his Mcnae Gill, was able to pull out a handy lead over Brown (Lola T300) in the last 12 laps: on Saturday, he reduced his pace to almost a crawl over the last two laps in an effort to nurse home a car with a sicks engine. COSTLY The race was worth $3000 i to him, but McRae had a costly two days at Wigram. An engine failed during the galifying sessions on Friday- : fortunately after he had assured himself of pole position for the race and, no doubt, race-winning engine will 'need to be rebuilt before it is raceworthy again. With five races to go-one at! Teretonga Park, Invercargill, i on Sunday and four in Austra- • lia next month-MeRae and his team may find it hard to front up with relable engines developing sufficient power tol ward off strong challenges. Brown could be the thorn in ¡McRae's side. On Saturday he momentarily snatched the lead from front runner Max Stewart (Lola 1330) and McRae, only to drop back to second place ahead of McRae when he accidentally flicked off the igniition switch when reaching for ¡the Lola's gear lever. LAP RECORD At that stage he had set a ¡116.89 miles an hour lap record and when • Stewart was: forced out of the race after 36 ¡laps, Brown was only feet behind MeRae. Gear selection problems prevented him from making a winning bid and he played it safe for second place. Matich, who finished second behind McRae at Levin and fourth at Wigram, has not had much luck either. The twin wings at the rear of his Repco Matich A50 be Fame displaced after about! eight laps on Saturday and after two spins he eased offi his car. because of the bad handling of; tention mach ses out of the! Levin and Wigram starts, However, both he and Matich should be in a stronger position, as far as engines are concerned, in Australia. Both their cars are powered by Australian-built Repcos. UNLUCKIEST Stewart must be the unluckiest man in this series. Suspension failure at Pukekohe and Levin kept him out of contention. At Wigram he was leading when a crankshait counterbalance weight came adrift and his race ended dramatically. Stewart might well turn out to be the man to beat in the final New Zealand Tasman round at Teretonga Park on Sunday. Teretonga Park may give the outcome of is series of Takings down at Wigram About 18,000 people attended the international Lady Wigram Trophy race meeting on Saturday, according to the secretary of the Motor Racing Club Inc F. Sheppard). " Mut, in spite of higher adi mission charges, takings were down. Officials, competitors and their crews, as well as Royal New Zealand Air Force staft and their families at the base, account for the difference between the attendance and the actual gate.