10-8-00 Motor-racing great The big blue V-12 Ferrari howled down the long back straight at Wigram at more than 250kmh. The international field behind was in a state of shock, struggling to stay in contact. Not even Englishman Peter Whitehead, in a Super Squalo Ferrari, or Australia's Jack Brabham, in his rearengined Cooper T41, could match the 4.5-litre racer. For eight laps of the circuit, the elderly Ferrari 375 Fl held a top field at bay. This was New Zealand motor-racing great Ron Roycroft at his best. The year was 1957, and the race was the 14 Lady Wigram Trophy classic. In the end, suffering from he fatigue, he had to settle for thi Ron Roycroft at the wheel of his Ferrari 375 Fl 45-mile In 1949 he won the Lady Wigram handicap in an Austin 7, and was sixth eat and over all. In 1951 he was second in a ird, but Jaguar, and in 1953 won the race out- he had shown that keep pace with the Ron Roycroft die but his deeds on the stuff of which leger it was possible to • world's best. ed in May, aged 82, e race track are the nds are made. In the 1950s, Stirling Moss, a regular visitor to New Zealand, said of him: "We will have to watch him if he ever gets into good machinery." Two weeks before the Wigram race, Ron Roycroft had put the 1950 Ferrari on pole for the New Zealand Grand Prix at Ardmore, the first local to achieve this honour. He led the race for 10 laps, before exhaustion forced him to stop after 63 laps. In 1958, he finished third in the Ferrari in the New Zealand Grand Prix. In the Lady Wigram Trophy race he was always a major drawcard. right in an Alpha Romeo P3. Mr Roycroft was also synonymous with the old Mairehau circuit, and in 1951 won the New Zealand road race championship in an XK120 Jaguar. He won again at Mairehau with the Alpha P3 in 1953 and 1955. He gained six New Zealand titles in a career which began in 1933. Latterly, Ron Roycroft lived at Glen Murray, south of Pukekohe, where he drove the local school bus. The Ferrari was restored by enthusiast Gavin Bain, who sold it after 24 years to a Swiss collector. Rod Dew • Ron Roycroft, born Auckland, June 1917, died Auckland May 21, 2000, survived by his former wife, Betty, son Terry, and daughter Deanne.