22-1-94 Smith confident of 21- 1-94 Murphy best by John Hawkins Although form will be an unknown quantity until the cars roll out onto the Wigram cireuit on Saturday, the responsibility for upholding New Zealand's honour in the three-round Peter Jackson Series looks likely to rest largely with 21-year-old Greg Murphy from Havelock North. Of the once all powerful New Zealand triumvirate of Craig Baird, Paul Radisich, and Ken Smith, only Smith remains. The 52-year-old Smith has widened his motorsport activities this year, but will run his familiar Formula Atlantic Swift DB4, and may be distracted from a concerted Peter Jackson campaign. Murphy, meanwhile, has taken the plunge and decided to lease one of the Australian Formula Brabhams, which are admitted to the series for the first time. Murphy is the the field to cc Brabham. While both Atlantics reluctant to prec faster. only New Zealander in ommit to Formula he has experience in and Brabhams, he is dict which car will be bet of Kiwi contingent Greg Murphy "You can get the Atlantic more sideways, and with 10,000 rpm available you can control the car on the throttle. The Brabham has more punch, but with the engine limited only a short power set the car up f traction." Murphy is expe Paul Stokell, to be to 6750 rpm there is band and you have to or the best possible ecting his team mate the fastest of the five strong Australian contingent. Although Murphy has only driven the Formula Brabham once, at a test session at Mallala near Adelaide, he does not feel too much pressure to uphold New Zealand fortunes against the experienced Australians. The cost of campaigning the Shell Reynard 90D in the three-race series is estimated by Greg's father, Kevin, at about three eighths of what it cost to run last year's five-round New Zealand series with a Formula Atlantie car. According to Murphy senior a properly set up Formula Brabham could be purchased for around $80,000. The pair are hopeful that eventually allow r be able to compet seater series and the possibility of year's Australian the new formula will more New Zealanders to te in our premier single they are investigating Greg competing in this semes. swift performance by John Hawkins Kenny Smith, winner of the 1976 and 1991 Lady Wigram Trophy Races, yesterday discounted suggestions that he was making less than a concerted effort to win the Peter Jackson Series. Like most of the other contestants in this year's series, Smith is unsure how the familiar Formula Atlantics will compare against the newly introduced Formula Brabhams, but he is confident that his Swift DB4 Ford will be competitive. "I still want to win and I believe I will win," said Smith as his crew prepared the car for today's practice sessions on the Wigram circuit. Smith, who had the option of racing a Formula Brabham in the series, decided to stay with the known quantity. Surprisingly he considers Englishman James Taylor, who drives a late model Formula Atlantic Rait RT40, to have improved considerably as a driver since racing here last season and feels that Taylor has the ability to surprise many of the more fancied contenders. The six-strong Formula Brabham contingent, with New Zealand's Greg Murphy and five Australian drivers, did not take part in yesterday's test sessions at Ruapuna because the cars were not unloaded in time after being freighted from Australia. The Australians are all aware of Smith's formidable record and feel that his Swift may have an edge on the fast Wigram circuit. Paul Stokell, Steve Cramp, Kevin Weeks, Chris Hocking, and Graham Watson, are keen to see their Formula adopted by New Zealand, to enable an interchange of drivers between the countries. Only Watson has raced at Wigram previously and the Australians are concerned to be able to set their cars up within the short time allowed by today's practice sessions. Cramp, who finished fourtn behind Weeks, in the Australian Grand Prix support race, expects ai even competition between the Brabhams and the Atlantics. *We know the Brabhams should be outright contenders in this series, but the Formula Atlantic cars are very quick and obviously the drivers know the circuits better than we do," said Cramp. Both Graham Lorimer, teamn manager for German Michael Grat, and Alister McNeill - who runs American Buzz Calkins - have brought their charges to New Zealand to gain more mileage before next season's German and American campaigns, but they feel that their drivers will run competitively. The Wigram meeting will also incorporate rounds of the various national championship series. In the Hitachi Home Entertainment Systems Touring Car Series the performance panel has decided to attempt to equalise the BMW and Holden contenders by stipulating the same minimum weight of 1450kg for both cars. In the TraNZam class the panel has once again been active and the addition of 200kg to the cars of championship leaders Kayne Scott and Kieran Wills may provide Christchurch's Don Grindley with an excellent opportunity to excei in the Goodyear TraNZam series races.