LADY WIGRAM TROPHY

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28179, 18 January 1957, Page 12

LADY WIGRAM TROPHY

ENGLISH DRIVERS ARRIVE In a week the third international Lady Wigram Trophy race will be held in Christchurch, and already three of the British drivers who will take part have arrived in the city. They are Reg Parnell, Peter Whitehead, and Horace Gould. Their cars will be unloaded from a coastal vessel at Lyttelton this morning and then stripped and repainted in preparation for the Wigram race.

Parnell and Whitehead said last evening that they were very satisfield with the performances of their privately-raced works cars. The two Super Squalo Ferraris had so far proved absolutely reliable. but might have to be fitted with different gear ratios to counter the threat from New Zealand drivers on the Wigram circuit, which is faster than Ardmore.

Whitehead recalled how In last year’s race he had been lucky to,win the Lady Wigram Trophy, for at the finish a rear tyre of his Ferrari was found to have picked up a large diameter screw. Had the race continued for a few more laps, the screw would have ~ a used a blow-out. Parnell, a veteran English racing motorist whose career started with E.R.A.’s in 1935. will drive a much faster car than the Aston Martin he used in last year’s event. The Super Squalo has already given him victory in the New Zealand Grand Prix, and he wants to prevent Whitehead from winning the Lady Wigram Trophy for the third time. Horace Gould, one of the few British racing drivers who pained points on the World Championship points table last season, is new to Wigram. but said last evening he was looking forward to the event. His 250 F Maserati is one of the fastest cars in the race, and with his experience last year of racing in nearly all of the events counting for the world championship his challenge to Parnell and Whitehead must be very much respected.