Wi gram prob 19-9-76 em may spell ena ol era IOr promoters Aided by misfortune, moter of the international yesterday. By PETER GREENSLADE some its own making, the Motor Racing Club Incorporated, pro- Lady Wigram Trophy race, probably witnessed its own obituary Aucklander Ken Smith trundled his Lola T332 around the 2.2 mile aerodrome circuit to win the third round in the Peter Stuyvesant series by more than a lap from Jim Murdoch i Begg 018) at an average speed of 112 miles an hour. Third and fourth with 43 laps completed were the touring Australians Paul Bernasconi ( Lola T400) and Bruce Allison (Lola T332). Another Australian John Edmonds, who races for the fun of it, ran out 40 laps in his Elfin MR5 to be fifth and he. like New Zealanders Baron Robertson (Elfin MR5) and Garry Love 'Begg FM4), who completed 29 and 14 laps res pectively were probably laughing their way to the bank today. Those of the cash customers who really care may be wondering why they spent their money to attend what will probably go down as the dullest motor racing meeting held at Wigram since the first in 1949. No honest racing driver would begrudge the diminutive Smith, who has already won the New Zealand Grand Pris this year, and has only Allison left as an opponent in the four race Peter Stuyvesant international series, his win resterday. He won in style from start to finish, but within five laps had the race to himself. for by then the other favourites had fallen by the wayside. Hamilton's Graeme Lawrence blew up the engine of this Lola T332 in a pre-race : warm-up session and did not: make the starting grid. Within minutes of the rolling start, Austrailan veterans Kevin Bartlett and Max Stewart in their Lola T100s were sidelined with engine troubles as was the English star, Brian Redman in his Chevron BMW. After that the race was, to all intents and purposes, a foregone conclusion. The "high mortality" rate in the early part of the race could be contributed to several factors. not the least of which mas the lack of practice time on Saturday. Practice time is devoted to preparing cars to race at their best but the sessions were so short that no one really had time to tune up to the circut. On race day itself two fune- •ral speed laps behind the pace- (car probably did nothing to warm up engines to racing trim and this more than likely accounted for the early de- : mise of Bartlett, Stewart and : Redman. • Allison, who led the series up until yesterday, was probably unlucky not to gain a Six point second place because he lost 43 seconds replacing a punctured rear tyre and that gave Murdoch all he needed to trail Smith home. But the joke of it all was that Robertson did not even appear until Smith had run 12 of the 41 laps and all he had to do was drive gently round to pick up his money Love made the rolling start but disappeared for a considcrable time, then came back in his car, which carries a "for sale" sign to trundle around and collect $900 for finishing seventh WISDOM His pit crew showed wisdom br putting out sign which read The dav was enlivened by professional saloon car driver, Allan Moffat, with his Chevrolet Monza. who won two nine-lap races and beat the :100 miles per hour for the fastest lap. His main opposition came from ex-patriot Aucklander! Jim Richards in a Mustang. But like Timans Leo Leonard. who also drove a Mustang. he could not foot it with the flying Australian in! the races that really mattered. The Formula Ford race,! : which on paper locked like: i being close. did . not turn outi that way. The Aucklander David McMillan strengthened his hold on the championship! series when his main oppon-l ent, American Peter Lissuicki (Eagle), was hit by another competitor at the hairpin bend! in the first lap. There was some excitement: the race for GTX-type saloon cars. It was narrowly! won by Ian Tulloch although ¡Art Mckee chased him all the way and the crowd obviously enjoved the close racing pro vided by the Comaro drivers. APPLAUSE But an indication of the strength of the racing was the! applause from the crowd for! those who contested the six-i ¡laper for historic cars. Hastings sheep farmer and former New Zealand champion, Angus Hyslop, drove a 1953 Cooper Bristol to a narrow win. For long-time • Wigram patrons that was the race of the day for it was a re-enactment of what racing at Wigram used to be, even if the contestants acted the scene out ita onlinor tha mastino 20-1-76 Future of Wigram race in doubt (By RUSSELL JONES) The Motor Racing Club, promoter of the Lady Wigram Trophy Race, might have to consider withdrawing from the Stuyvesant series next year—if there is one. Although the attendance figures for the Wigram meeting on Sunday were not available last erening the secretary of the club (NIr Gordon Sheppard) said he estimated the crowd at between 12.000 and 14,000 -a bit down on last year. ¡moved from the infield, near the start, to the outfield, near the hairpin. The main advantage for the drivers was that they could leave the circuit to work on their cars at will, instead of waiting for the track to be cleared. Many spectators, howerer, enjoyed watching the activity in the pits. This year the spectators were too far away to see. Some drivers complained The club relies on gate takings to finance its activities, and as it usually runs only one meeting a year it is hit harder than other promoters by a financial loss. if the coffers run low, the amount of prize money offered also falls — and the class of car attracted to the meeting might noi be good enough to attract the crowds needed. The Stuyvesant series has been rather less than a success so far. Sunday's race was robned of most of its interest only a few minutes after the start. and the Rothmans company can bel expected to look hard at the: substantial amount of mone! it puts up. If the Wigram race wert removed from the series fewer drivers could be persuaded to compete, because the airfieir circuit is the fasiest in Australia and New Zealand and drivers look forward to racing there. The Motor Kacıng Club was formed in 1950 to run international motor racing meetings, so many members would see no point in carrying on if there were no international race to organise. The cluh tried a number of new ideas at this vears meeting The nite I'ATA Te. •labout bad organisation during practice on Saturday, and Mr Sheppard admits that the organisers had some prob lems, but everything ran more smoothly on Sunday. The visiting English driver, Brian Redman, made the point that the practice sessions for the Trophy Race cars were far too short. Compared with two sessions of :25 minutes at Wigram, drivers are given two sessions of three hours to prepare their cars for the circuits Redman races on in the United States. If teams could have approached practice in a tho- ¡rough way many of the problems which arose in the race - such as the failure of Red-: Iman's motor - might have: been avoided Some members of the club feel the decision to exclude motor-cvcle races this year was a bad one. The motorcycles usually attract spectators who would not go to watch cars, and this шау explain the fall in attendance. Nothing could detract from Ken Smith's win on Sunday '- he looked a winner from the start - but the thous- : ands of spectators who paid $3 each to watch most of the ¡top arivers pull out after a (few laps could not help but ¡be disgruntled The club is keen to hear from spectators with suggestions for improving the racing or the spectator facilities.