27-1-77 LADY TROP WIGRAM HY RACE TER SI Close racing expected in supporting events The feature event on the Christchurch M be the 155.76km international Lady Wigra round in the annual $60,000 Peter Stuyvese pleasing saloon car races and twe motor-cy Opening event will be the 42.48km, 12-lap Castrol GTX Championship series round for production saloon cars, which will be run in two en gine classes - up to 3000cc, and 3001-6000cc. While the bigger engine capacity class is dominated by the sieek American Cherrolet Camaros, the up to 3000cc category inevitabiy attracts drivers with cars more readily available in New Zealand showrooms, such as the rotary engined Mazdas, Datsuns and vari- ous English Ford modeis, as well as a number of other popular makes. Castrol's series does allow some minor modifications to saloon cars but, nevertheless does give the everyday motorist some pointers as far as production car reliability and durability are concerned. Twelve laps of the Wigram circuit which, incidentally, Is not as kind to suspension and transmission systems as some motoring buffs might think, could be quite easily otor Racing Club's Sunday programme will m Memorial Trophy race, the fifth and final nt series, but it will be supported by six crowd. cle races. the equivalent of a year's motoring for the everyday motorist. The GIX race will be a yardstick for the man who motors on New Zealand's highways and byways, but the Shellsport championship series race over nine laps is going to be, almost certainy, an entirely different bal game. Shellsport saloons, no matter what the regulations say, are outright, tailormade racing cars and the men who drive them make or break their race driving reputations on the race circuits because in just about every respect they are professionals rather than the production • tracient siastic saloon amateurs. The Shellsport series is split into three engine capacity classes up to 1300cc, up to 4000cc, and up to 6000cc. This sort of set-up enables the driver of a car with capacity of 1300cc, or less to clean up any of the cass in the bigger engine capacity classes, but with cars in the up to 6000cc, class such as the 5.9 litre Chevrolet-engined Vauxhall Victor of Aucklander Jack Nazer and the supert b-litre Mustang I built by the Christchurchbased PDL Racing Team and driven by Timaru's Leo Leonard, drivers of the smaller engine capacity cars must inevitably set their sights on engine capacity class wins. That is easily understandable when it is taken chief, Christchurch industrialist and motoring enthusiast reckons the Mustang II will, with the right gearing for Wigram. enable Leonard to clock 320kmh on the long back straight. If the retiring but hardcharging Leonard gets within 10kmh of that figure on Sunday next he will have surpassed by far the ultimate speeds achieved by a myriad of world class Grand Prix drivers in world class single-seaters in the Lady Wigram • Irophy race over the last decade. One thing seems certain: Although the lap times of the trophy race Formula Pacific single-seaters wil less than those of the Shells port saloons, the rip-roaring "tin tops" will run much faster on Wigrams flat-out straight stretches. Motor racing purists revel in the sheer talent of the single-seater race car de signer and driver, but they and the people who enjoy racing as a spectacie and straight entertainment almost inevitably get the maJor share of their money's worth from the intrepid saloon car drivers who are not unwilling to rub door handle to door handle when the chips are down. For the "tin-top" drivers Wigram can be a flat-out blind, but talent blended with a tactical sense and sheer courage are the winning ingredients. Wigram patrons will see the recipe in Sunday's Aucklander David McMillan, who is driving a Rait RTI, has kept New Zealand in the Stuyvesant picture, drawing upon his Formula Ford experience as mell as his vast mechanical knowledge gained as a top racing mechanic in New Zealand and North America. Last year's Lady Wigram Trophy race winner and Peter Stuyresant champion, Aucklandeer Ken Smith one of New Zealand's most successful racing drivers, but in this Stuyvesant series he has been mostly off the pace in his March 76B.