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23-1-82
Roberto Moreno with his Ralt RT4 in Christehureh yesterday
Moreno
faced
with three-pr
By JOHN FRIDD
Three on to one does not
sound like a fair fight, but
those are the odds that the
Brazilian racing driver, Roberto Moreno, will have 10
face in the Lady Wigram
Trophy races tomorrow.
Moreno will have three top
New Zealanders, all driving
cars vitually identical to his
owe KB Ralt RT4, breathing
down his seck on the highspeed airfieid circuit, and
each has his own reason for
thinking that he should win
- Steve Millen has proved
the fastest New Zealander in
the series in his Tullen RT4,
David Oxton beat Moreno at
Manfeild in his Pye car and
Dave MeMillan is a Wigram
specialist.
Moreno has the added
disadvantage of never before
saving rated at Wigram, and
challen
will have only today's
official practice to set up his
car for the demanding circuit.
The curly-haired Brazilian
admitted yesterday that he
may not be on the front row
of the grid for the first heat
of tomorror's two beats.
"We will tave to work hard
to set up the car in one day
but it will be no problem —
we'll be O.K. for the race,"
he said. He was pleased to
hear that the Wigram track
is wide enough for safe passing manoeavres.
Both Millen and Oxton
said yesterday that they fear
McMillen more than Moreno.
Oxton said that McMillan's
car is stronger than any of
the other RT4s, having been
set up to specifications
drawn up by the former
world champion, Alan Jones,
ge at
Wigram
when Jones raced in Australia.
"Dave's had a poor run so
far, and it's his turn to do
something." said Oxton, adding that he felt the two heats
could produce close battles
between the top four drivers.
McMillen has switched
back to nis Citizen Rat R14
as he felt it would handle the
bigh-speed bends on Wigram
better than his Datsunpowered Ralt RT1, which has
"ground-effects" bodywork. This week he has been
testing the RT4 at Ruapuna
to settle back into the newer
car after taking the RTl to
fourth place in the second
beat at Manfeild last Sunday,
after being pushed into a
wall at the start of the first
beat.
Another Ralt RT4 driver,
Robert Handford, of Australia, will be worth watching, as he scored a shock
second over all at Manfeild
last week-end after a poor
start to the series. His compatriot, Graham Watson, and
the American, Mike Rosen,
are also due for better showings in their RTs.
The weather could aiso
play a vital part in finding a
Wigram winner - strong
winds could produce disastrous high-speed spins, particularly on the frightening
220 km/h Bomb Bay Bend,
and if the showers that are
forecast eventuate the
winner could be the man who
makes the right guess about
when and if to pit for rain
tyres, or whether or not to
start on rain tyres if it is
onged
raining when the race starts.
It appears that there will
be 14 Formula Pacifies at
Wigram, in the fourth round
of the Aurora AFX series
and third round of the international Pacific Basin championship. Two Americans,
Jobn Briggs and Peter
Greenfield, will not start,
having gone back to the
United States, and an Australian, Ron Barnacle, is also a
non-starter - however, these
three were not top-runners.
Two Dunedin drivers, Ross
Cameron (March 77B) end
Chris Read (Chevron B29),
Pacific
"circus for its southers colr,
which will end with Union
Travel domestic championship rounds at Teretonga
(January 31) and Timaru
(February 7).
Summaries and tables are machine-read from the scan and may contain errors: the scan is the record.