25-1-79 UnION oint of the Manfeild meeting was the clash between the big saloons PDL Mustang) left, and tim etichards (Australia, Falcon. At Wigan this week-end Leonard will attempt to break the outright saloons record. PDL wants Wigram The only outright saloons lap record in New Zealand not held by the awesome PDL Mustang I amazingly enough, the Wigram one. However, the Christchurch-based PDL team is determined to put this to rights this weekend, as both Leo Leonard the car have never been in better shape. Leonard will have to streak around the fast 3.5km Wigram airfield circuit 0.3sec faster than he has ever gone before to beat the Imin 17.6sec record set by the classy Canadian-Australian, Allan Moffar, three years ago in a Chev Monza. As this may be the last Wigram meeting, the PDL team is very anxious to take the record and complete the record-book. Leonard will race oniy one event at Wigram - the flying farewell for saloons. He will start haif a lap • behind the rest of the field, which will be made up of Open Saloon Car Association and Shelisport cars. SO will have to fly if he wants to win as well as break the record. Over the winter the PDL team has built a more efficient nose for the big: orange Mustang, improved its suspension and also fitted a rear wing, which improves the car's braking and high-speed stability. Unfortunately, Leonard will not have Jim Richards' new Falcon coupe :) race against, as he did at Pukekohe and Manfeild. Richards has Formula 5000 commitments in Australia and cannot appear at Wigram. However. Southland's Inky Tulloch will keep Leonard honest in his newly developed Hiab Cranes, Capri Chev, which is based on Paul Fahey's Cologne Capri. Tulioch is favourite O.S.C.A. honours, although at Teretonga last weekend he was hard-pressed by lan Munt, of Christchurch, also in a apri, but Ford-powered and backed by Hamilton's Brushes. In the first race at Teretonga Munt led for eight of the 10 laps before Tul- loch got past. Unfortunately. Tulloch did not start the second race, haying engine problems, and Munt went off the track during the race and broke a shock-absorber, but both will have their cars back in tip-top order for Wigram and a grand battle is possible. There will also be an O.S.C.A. championship race, and Tulloch Will be anxious to pass Munt, the leader, on over-all points table. Tulloch, however. leads the big-class table, from Munt and Alex Dickie (Christchurch, Victor Chev), who probably will not race at Wigram. The consistent John Haszard, of Dunedin, is third in the over-all championship with his Raro mark Mazda RX3, and Kevin Ryan (Timaru, Californian Chicken Escort FVA) 15 behind him after early-season problems. However. Ryan had a good run al Teretonga and actually leads the b class, for cars with motors from 2000 to 4500 cu cm, from Haszard and Bryan Hesse! (Christchurch, Hurst Wreckers Escort 2000). John Dymand and Gary Love (Motormarket Datsun coupe team) lead the C class, for small cars, but they are facing. a strong challenge from an up-and-coming Dunedin driver, Max Crawford, also in a Datsun coupe. Crawford took maximum points at Teretonga after both Dymand and Love were non-starters with sick engines. GREEN S Grant Campbell (Auckland, Chevron B39) about to be lapped at Manfeild by Larry Perkins (Australia, March 77B), Dave Michtilan (Auckland, Ralt), and Brett Riley (England, March 77B). Two Datsuns for Cook The volatile Aucklander, Reg Cook, is making all-out effort to win this season's Shellsport twolitre saloon-car championship. Cook is so serious about beating his arch rival, Bryce Platt (Auckland, Fountain Escort TC) that, he has iwo fully prepared Datsuns to choose from. He now seems to prefer his new two-door 160J, which has a two-litre motor, but in case he strikes problems in practice with the new which is still under development, he has a 1300 cu cm Datsun 1200 coupe as a back-up. Cook has had the edge over Plait in recent races, and has a hand! points lead going into the ram round. The main modifications to the Datsun are better suspension, bigger radiator and an oilcooler. The based on the Datsun m010 180B'S engine, produces about 205 h.p. and is mounted under the car's dash to improve the handling. Вгусе Platt has done little to his Escort since snatching victory in last year's Shellsport cham- pionship from under Cook's nose. He is relving fine-tuning of the Escort's suspension and a rear spoiler to keep his car competitive, and Manfeild he was only Dis behind Cook in practice, although he finished second to Cook in both races. Another Auckland driver, Rex Findias, 15 third on points and will be trying Wigram 10 get his Datsun coupe's nose in front of either Cook or Platt. Another top Aucklander, Roy Harrington, may not make the trip south with his Escort, which will eliminate one of Grant Aitken's main competitors. Aitken, press-on driver from Dunedin, destroyed • his Datsun 1200 coupe in a pre-Christmas race at Pukekohe and is developing a new car, based on 120Y coupe. Trevor Crowe is not contesting the Shellsport championship this season sn Christchurch hopes ies: on John Dymand, in his Motormarket Datsun 1200 coupe. So far this season Drmand has dominanted the smali-car class of the O.S.C.A. championship