14-9-87 Sponsor secured for motor PA Auckland The five-race international motor-racing series in January will offer almost $300,000 in prize money and is expected to cost $950,000 to stage. The leading sponsor for the series, the richest run in New Zealand, will be Wills New Zealand, Ltd, which, under the Benson and Hedges banner, has for 25 years sponsored long-distance production saloon racing. Wills says it chose to make the switch after other events in New Zealand and overseas squeezed the previous three-round long-distance senes to just one meeting for this year, to be raced at Pukekohe on November 1. In addition to over-all sponsorship, it will back the Group A saloon races, with prize money of more than $130,000, which will -racing decide the New Zealand touring car championship. The search is apparenily still on for a sponsor for the $100,000 Formula Pacific series, which includes the New Zealand International Grand Prix at Pukekone. The series organiser, Global Sports and Promotions, said yesterday that negotiations were well advanced for 10 top drivers in the American Formula Atlantic series to compete with New Zealand and Australian single-seater drivers. Names would be announced within a month. The Australian Formula 2 championship leader, Mark McCormack, will be in the field, while Mike Finch, a former New Zealand Formula Ford champion now resident in the United States, will return, along with Paul Radisich. The promoters expect a full field of at least 25 series cars for the Pacific races, which have recently drawn disappointing fields. Two , races, of 20 laps and 30 laps, will be held ai each circuit. Next year will be the first time the enlarged Levels circuit at Timaru will be included in the series. The Group A series will see two one-hour races at the Mansfeild, Bay Park, and Pukekohe meetings, with two half-hour races at Wigram and Timaru. The January Mansfeild round will also be the third round of the South Pacific touring car championship, with the final at Pukekohe on January 17. A separate class will be held for under 2-litre Group A cars, with extra rounds at Teretonga on February 7 and Ruapuna, Christchurch, the following week. 20-11-87 Continental flavour to Formula Pacific racing series For the first time in many years, New Zealand's Formula Pacific international motor racing series may have a Continental flavour about it, as the Schnitzer BMW M3 driver, Austrian Roland Ratzenberger, has evinced an interest in racing Ken Smith's Ralt RT5 in the five race series at Manfield, Bay Park, Pukekohe, wigram and Timaru. Ratzenberger, winner of the 1986 Formula Ford Race of Champions at Brands Hatch, England, and now an established Formula 3 racer, drove a Schnitzer BMW M3 Australia and in the Nissan Mobil 500 Group A World Championship Touring Car round in Wellington recently. Smith has a couple of Rait RT4s available for the Benson and Hedgessponsored Formula Pacific series, but for the first time in many. years, it appears he will not be contesting New Zealand's only open-wheeler international series himself. He underwent successful heart surgery recently and has decided on a thorough and extensive recuperation before getting behind the wheel of a race car again. Smith, a successful race horse owner as well as racing driver, has had some great days in his colourful career. The next one will be November 20, when the Governor-General, Paul Reeves, will invest him a Member of the British Empire, an honour Queen Elizabeth bestowed upon him in her birthday honours for services to motor racing. Ratzenberger's engagemeat for the series has yet to be confirmed, but already there are definite American starters. This year's North American Formula Atlantic Champion, and the runner-up, Johnny O'Connell and Dean Hall, respectively, are booked to race here in January. They are forceful 20year-old drivers and will be joined by the 23-yearold winner of this year's Honda American Challenge, Parker Johnstone, and Dave Simpson, son of the well-known United States racing personality, Bill Simpson, who raced in New Zealand, with a Formula 5000 Eagle at Bay Park back in 1970. Bathe Formise, The opening round in the Pacific series will be at Manfield, Feilding, on January 2, with races at Bay Park, Pukekohe, Wigram and Timaru following on successive week-ends. According to Brian Lawrence, motorsport manager of Global Sports and Promotions, the company running the series on behaif of Benson and Hedges, about 20 openwheelers are expected to participate in the series. If such proves to be the case, it holds promise of the best Formula Pacific racing this country has seen in years.