20-1-75 Start to finish win gives McRae fourth Wigram title The 1971-73 Tasman race leading from start to GM2 yesterday afternoon. By PETER GREENSLADE champion, Graham McRae, won nis finish at an average speed of 115.45 He also recorded the fastest lap at fourth Lady Wigram Trophy 2 miles per hour in his MeRae 117mph. 1cRae, Fho has been out in motor racing's wilderness for more than a year thus opened his Peter Stuyvesant points score with nine for a win and five races yet to run. A brilliant last minute bid earned last sear's Wigram winner John McCormack second place in his Ansett Elfin M1R6. McCormack who had rum out the whole race in close company with • fellow • Australian Johnnie Walker Lola T332) slipped into second spot in the final round of the 44 lap race. Fourth was another Australian Max Stewart (Lola T400). and tith a lap down. was Hamilton's Graeme Lawrence Lola T332). Lawrence earned two! - Stuyvesant points which puts him at the top of the ladder with Australian Warwick • Brown (Lola T332) who abandoned the race with a blown cylinder bead gasket after (four laps when lying second. Aucklander David Oxton, who had his first race drive in nearly a year, brought Stewart's older Lola T330 home in sixth place on the same lap as Lawrence. Sevento, and also on 43 laps, was Jim Murdoch in the New Zealand designed and built Begg 018. Second in the New Zealand! Grand Prix, the 018 lacked the power on the fast 2.2 mile ¡ aerodrome circuit. | when Brown retired and held it urt the end of the nine. teenth lap when he was forced out with a cracked cylinder head in his Talon MRI. Watter and McCormack then moved up to second and third places with Stewart and Oxton nest. Inen came Murdoch and Lawrence, who had lost ground with a brief stop. Kevin Bartlett (Lola T400) had been sidelined earlier when a magnetto drive sheered. McRae had a relatively trouble free drive apart from some gear selection troubles that slowed him a little on one occasion. But he had such a handsome lead the issue was never in doubt. FORCED OUT I soned international driver athe 14-car field, qualified on equal terms with McRae and shared the front row for the rolling start. Amon took over seconă spot 25-1-75 John aga 25-1-75 John Boote at Wigram. And it's little wonder has again walked away the top prize money OHN 8D John Boote «. • winner of the open airfield championship at Wigrom twice running. Boote d in at Wi likes racing his Levi's special er. He titles at the Lady Wigram y with trophy meeting. • and Last weekend John took the open airfield championship at Wigram for the second year running. He won the two motorcycle events at the meeting. His main challenge for this year's title should have come from two people. Dale Wylie would have been competing at Wigram if he had not fallen from his machine two weeks earlier during the Levels rounds of the $25.000 Mailboro series. • He tell during pracuce on the Saturday before the Levels meeting and spent several days in Timaru Hospital. Wyle suffered a broken wrist and other injuries and had to miss the final round of the Marlboro series a week later. He was at Wigram, but had to be content with watching from the pits. The fastest man on two wheels during, pracice at Wigram was 20-year-old Stuart Avant. He was covering the circuit a full second faster than John Boote on Saturday. But about half-way through the first race on Sunday a broken con rod ended his race. This let Trevor Discombe through for second place and Steve Dundon in for third Oes gram I Yamaha motor-cycle After a mad dash from the circuit into Christchurch Avant returned with a re placement bike. But it was a 350 Yamaha - not the ideal machine for the long, fast two-mile Wigram circuit. In spite of the small bike, Avant rode well to a third place, being beaten for secone by John Boote's younger brother Gary, also riding a 350 Yamaha. It was an expensive day's racing for Avant. He expected repairs to the broken bike to cost about $600. John Boote was pleased with his success at wigram, coming so soon after a good equal third placing in the $25,000 Marlboro series.