16-1-75 Australians JOHNNIE WALKER (Australia) was the surprise of the last Peter Stuyvesant series, winning the first round at Levin and finishing fourth-equal on points over all. No-one will be surprised if he does even better this season. Right from the start of the Australian 1. Gold Star series Walker showed he had not lost any of his form, running near the front until set back in a starting-line shunt that wrecked his Lola T330 at Surfers Paradise. Walker. now 29, came to the last Stuyvesant with nothing more behind him than a second place in the just-finished Gold Star series. But after his Levin win he kept on the pace right through the series, finishing second to Max Stewart at Oran Park and turning in sizzling performances at Teretonga and Adelaide. Walker is a fiery character who had a few scrapes with New Zealand motor racing officials last season off the track. But it's a fire that makes him a force to be reckoned with on the track. JOHN MCCORMACK was between-cars last Stuyvesant series, running the Elfin MR5 with its Chey power in the early. rounds and breaking in the new MRo Leyland-powered car in later rounds. Despite this he iron the New Zealand Grand Pris for the second year in TOW and finished fourthequal on final points. The N.Z.G.P. was at Wigram last year. SO McCormach will be out to make it two in a row on the wide, fast track. conid do it. MAX STEWART (Australia) was runner-up to Peter Getbin in the series last year in a Lola T330. This year he has one of the new T400 Lolas, but SO far it has not been going as quickly as was hoped. Stewart is a driver to contend with and if he has the car fully sorted out by the time the Australian part the series begins he could do very well indeed. Brown Even before Warwick Brown's win at Pukekohe last week-end many people were tipping the 21-year-old Australian to take the Peter Stuyresant laurels this rear. On his present form he must be first choice. His convincing win at Maif..ld in December and his recent performances in Australia and the United States have been thoroughly professional, and he will start as favourite at Wigram on Sunday. A former boxer, Brown started motor-racing four years ago, and in that time he has developed a skill for high speed driving through a series of Formula Three, Formula Iwo Formula 5000 cars. Warwick Brown has great confidence. It was this and his determinat* • that enabled him to overcome one of the worst crashes seen on motor racing circuits in Australia. The crash, at Surfers Paradise near!! two years ago, happened at 145 m.p.h. when a tyre sent leading series flat on one of the fastest comers of the circuit. The car cartwheeled into drainage ditch and Brown both legs very badly smashed. For a year he struggled to make his come-back to motor-racing. Some people said he was foolish as he hobbled on walking sticks to his car at Sandown Park for his first drive after the accident. But they soon changed their minds when they saw him go, better than ever. It was the start of a new career for Warwick Brown and after competing in the Peter Stuyvesant series last year turned to the United States to try to break into the big time. Here he proved his outstanding capabilities by finishing seventh in the championships. At Riverside, the final race, he was third to Mario Andretti and Brian Redman. He took $8000 prize money in the series, which paid for his trip and assured him of both contracts and sponsorship for a full season's driving in the United States this year. Brown said recently: "Going to the States was the best thing I've ever done. I really fell on my feet and learnt a lot about the finer points of racing including the psychological approach which IS important than I had imagined. "I've also discovered a lot more about setting up ту саг for different circuits and I'll one back my car as the best handling Lolas in the worla. Murdoch — rising star Jim Murdoch, formerly of Auckland but nOW of Drammond, Southland, where the Beggs are built, was the hero at Pukekohe on Sunday when he drome a great race to finish second behind Warwick Brown. His Begg 018 has obriously been sorted out and Murdoch could surprise many peopie as the series progresses. The car is brand new and the 28-year-old driver is having his first season in F5000 machinery, so everything points to more success - 800n. world-class race mechanic who has forked for Lotus on the complex four-wheel drive cars and for Denny Hulme with McLarens, he only relatively recently turned his hand to driving. Murdoch first caught the motor-racing bug while serving as an apprentice at Holden dealers, Skofelds. olone of his friends at night school took up racing, and Murdoch went along as his mechanic. The driver was David Oxton. In 1969 Murdoch went to Britain where he worked first for Lotus and then McLarens. When he came back in 1971 he brought with him a Titan Formula Ford Although there was no championship that year he went well in half a non - championship races. The following year Murdoch was runner-up to Oxton in the first Formula Ford series. The following year the young Aucklander went back to Britain and drove a Formula Atlantic Tui buit by Alan McCall. In spite of having no sponsorship he managed to place as high as third against drivers of the calibre of John Nicholson and Tom Pryce. Plust as Murdoch ran out money into George Begg, designer, and builder of the Begg FIM5 he was campaigning with Oxton as driver in Britain and Europe that year. They came home together and Murdoch and Begg decided to build a Formula Ford down in Drummond. By the time the Begg Formula Ford was finished the first five rounds of the championship had already been run. in the remaining rounds Murdoch managed to score three wins and enough points to make him runner-up in the senes. During the fuel CriSiS George Begs, an internationally respected car designer by this time nutted out the 018 and by March Murdoch was working full-time on it He missed the first round of the P.O.S.B. 5000, but the new car, with its deformable structure, sidemounted radiators, Inboard front suspension and farforward driving position, took to the track at Levin for the second round. Murdoch placed second to Graeme Lawrence the flyine it and was obvious the new F5000 driver was on his way. fie as da cine arming car hily not aiming too high in his first Stuyvesant, but careful watchers of the sport are already picsing him as the man to watch in the future.