21-9-88 Group A racing very pop To many spectators at Wigram during the weekend the most familiar category will be the Benson and Hedges Group A Touring Cars. Group A racing has enjoyed enormous popularity in Australasia through the medium of television, with races such as Bathurst and the Wellington street race enjoying extensive coverage. This week-end's Group A racing will include a one hour event on Saturday which will add spice to a day traditionally given over to practice and qualifying sessions. second race for the Group A cars will form part of Sunday's гасе programme. An interesting field has contested the Group A championship to date, headed by an impressive trio of BMW M3S, led by Christchurch's Trevor Crowe. Spectators who wit- Messed Crowe's battles with the Australian, Bob Tindall, during last year's Wigram meeting will have a good idea of Crowe's superb car control, and indeed, Crowe must be ranked alongside the Aucklander. Robbie Francevic as New Zealand's top saloon car driver. Crowe's car and that of John Sax and Graham Lorimer, who are likely to alternate drives, is an ex Australian JPS team car. The other M3 is the former Italian Ci Bi Emme team car driven by the Auckland businessman, Mark Petch. Petch is well known as an entrant for drivers such as Francevic, but is keen to become recognised as a driver in his own right. Petch's efforts to come to grips with the potent BMW have been hampered by broken ribs un the result of a boating accident, but both he and Sax, who is in his first full season of motor racing. have performed creditably in the M3s which require a skillful driver to extract the limit of their performance. Graeme Cameron's Holden Commodore has been the biggest threat to the BMWs in the series to date and the Commodore is a car which should be well suited to the fast, open Wigram circuit. Several Dider BMWS ular have contested the series, the fastest of these being the 635 CSi driven by 17year-old Australian, Graham Gulson, who lays claim to being the world's youngest Group A driver and undoubtably has promising future ahead of him in the sport. An interesting car is the Mustang of Robbie Ker. This car was formerly raced by Dick Johnson and Ker has finally had a good run with the car during the Benson and Hedges series after a couple of abortive attempts at the Wellington street race. Spectators watching the Group A races should be aware of a race within a race, as the Group category is run in two sections, in New Zealand these are 0 - 2000 cu cms and 2000 cu cms and over- At 1998 cu cms, the Amon developed Toyota Celicas of Dave Barrow and the former single seater ace, Brett Riley. would look to have an edge on the rest of the field which consists mainly of 1587 cu cm Toyota Corollas. 52572 DEN Sports sedan racing events are always a popular attraction at South Island events. Sports sedans excitement assured Sports sedans, in their various guises, have long Deer a favourite with South Island race fans. This year's inaugural Sun Valley fruit drinks sponsored national championship promises to bring together New Zealand's top V8 powered cars on the wide open spaces of the Wigram airfield circuit this Sunday. Nicknamed, perhaps a little unfairly, hand grenades by the ielevision commentary people because of their propensity to blow their highly tuned engines, some of the vehicles are weird and wonderful Creations shaped in steei and fibrt• glass. There can be littie else in motor racing to equal the sight and sound of a big field of V3-sngined saloons bellowing their war around the hangars at wigram, and some epic bartles have taken place there in the past. The former motorcycle champion, Rodger Freeth, looks to be the man to beat in the series with his Oldsmobile V8 engine Starlet, formerly driven by Trevor Crowe. The top Christchurch O.S.C.A. drivers, John Osborne with his Spirit of Christchurch Mazda Chev and Rob Kennard, Cortina Ford V8, will be out to make sure that Freeth does not take all the 5:01 y. sennard in particular will have a point to prove after a North Isiand campaign plagued with mechanical woes. Other top Sports Sedan drivers entered in the Sun Vailey series incide lan Algie (Alfetta Chev), Gler. Jones (Commodore Chev!. Bred Willis (Commodore Chest. and Don Grindley (Niazda Buick). Among the other classes being raced at Wigram me Motorcraft Formula Fords always provide slip streaming battle wit the result often being it? doub: until the last lap