MOTOR RACING Four English Drivers In Lady Wigram Trophy Race

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28154, 18 December 1956, Page 21

MOTOR RACING Four English Drivers In Lady Wigram Trophy Race

With New Zealand motor races proving a treasure chest and providing overseas drivers with competition during the European off-season, the 1957 circuit of international events at Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin and Invercargill has attracted several .wellknown English and Australian drivers. The Motor Racing Club in Christchurch has announced that the Lady Wigram trophy race on January 26 is assured of having the entries of Peter Whitehead, Ken Wharton, Horace Gould and Reg Parnell, all from Great Britain. An Australian, J. Brabham, may also take part. The New Zealand entries for the race will be announced later this week. Most interest in the race will centre in the performance of the two old Italian rivals—Maserati and Ferrari. Gould and Wharton will drive Maseratis, while Parnell and Whitehead will endeavour to uphold the proud tradition of Maranello. No doubt, the Maserati factory is remembering the success of both Prince Bira and Stirling Moss in their cars in the last two New Zealand grands prix and are anxious to continue their record. But Ferraris have had two wins at Wigram in two starts and the tussel for the Lady Wigram trophy should be keen. The Motor Racing Club has made no pretence that it is providing world champion drivers at Wigram, but it has endeavoured to select interna-tionally-renowned drivers, who can be relied upon to be of a fairly even standard. As a result, the race should be close throughout, and it is unlikely that any one car will leave the rest of the field far behind. Parnell to Retire For Reg Parnell, Wigram will be one of the last events of his motor racing career, for he will take over

the position of racing manager for Aston Martin when he returns to England. A driver for more than 20 years, Parnell drove in many of the famous duels at Brooklands before the last war. and he undoubtedly has more experience than any of his compatriots racing, today. Parnell has announced he will retire after the race at Invercargill on February 16. Few of the famous marques of racing cars are new to Parnell. In 1950, when Alfa Romeo took the British Grand Prix, Parnell was third in his team position behind Farina and Fagioli. In the same year he won the Richmond Trophy with a Maserati and Goodwood Trophy with a B.R.M. During his leadership of the Aston Martin sports car team as number one driver from 1950, Parnell won the British Empire Trophy and Goodwood Nine Hours in 1953, the International Trophy at Oulton Park in 1955, and perhaps his best drive was fifth place in the Mille Miglia in 1953—still the highest place achieved by a British driver with a British car in this event.

Holder of the lap record at Wigram in the fabulous but ill-fated 16-cylin-der supercharged 8.R.M., the English driver Ken Wharton will take part in the Wigram race for the second time—on this occasion in a latest model factory Maserati. Although Wharton will be one of the favourites for the event, he will have tough

opposition from his two compatriots— Parnell and Whitehead —both of whom drove at Wigram last year. From 1951 to 1954 Wharton was an official works driver for 8.R.M., and in 1955 he drove a Vanwall at Silverstone and was badly burned when the car crashed off the circuit. Holder of Wigram Trophy Peter Whitehead, the holder of the Lady Wigram challenge trophy, is no newcomer to Wigram, having won the event twice before. A farmer at Reading, he began motor racing in the 1930’5, and, with Peter Walker, became known as “the terrible two” because of their slides on corners. During the last war he was a member of an armoured unit in North Africa and later Italy. Parnell has been placed second twice in the French Grand Prix, and his duel with the French champion, Louis Chiron, in 1948, is still talked of. Together with Peter Walker, he won the Le Mans in 1951 in a C-type Jaguar. pie French ace, Louis Rosier, was originally entered for the events in New Zealand in a 1956 Maserati, but recently he was badly injured in an accident at the Montlhery circuit, near Paris. As a result of this withdrawal, Horace Gould was invited to compete. Gould could not get a boat from an English port for his Maserati, so he took the car to Rotterdam and put it on a ship there. He then flew back to England. Just as he arrived back in England he was forced to return to Rotterdam because the ship was not leaving in time to get the racing car to New Zealand before the races. The car is now expected to arrive on the Ceramic early in the New Year.

Although the Super Squalo Ferrari was the product of several years research at the Maranello factory, it has shown itself up as a car / better suited to high-speed circuits than shorter courses such as Wigram. Top European drivers, Farina, Castellotti, Trintignant and Frere, have all driven these cars, but its only real success was at the hands of the Englishman, Mike Hawthorn, in the Spanish Grand Prix.

In general, the fat side-tank Ferrari proved to be underpowered and was dropped by Enzo Ferrari last year. In spite of its shortcomings and radical design, the car could be a potential winner at Wigram if Parnell and Whitehead can handle its tricky habits on the corners. The Maserati which Wharton will bring to New Zealand is similar to that which Prince Bira, of Siam, won the New Zealand Grand Prix at Ardmore in 1954. The car has been fitted with a 1956 engine and should be one of the fastest taking part. These models have proved particularly successful, and are sitll being raced by the factory with minor modifications. They are internationally renowned for their supreme handling qualities.