Pit Stops

Press, Volume C, Issue 29553, 30 June 1961, Page 9

Pit Stops

An economy run for standard Volkswagen cars over a 70-mile course, which was held by the Canterbury branch of the Volkswagen Owners' Club last Sunday, was won by R. L. Sigvertsen. with a fuel consumption of 47.30 miles a gallon. D. W. Moore was second with 42.69 m.p.g. and R. A. Barker, with 41.72 m.p.g. was third. Before starting, all cars were examined to ensure that factory specifications were adhered to, and an observer travelled with each competitor to check for breaches of road rules and club regulations.

| The South Island cham- ! pionship car rally last | week-end ranks among | the most successful yet I held. Thanks to snow and | ice which covered large 1 parts of the route through ! Central Otago, the event i was made extremely ini ter esting for competitors. lA. N. Boustridge, of | Greymouth, who was prej viously the top-placed I South Island competitor | for the title this year. ? failed on this occasion and I was well down in the fini ishers. T. D. Craig's ef- • fort in taking his Mini- | Minor into sixth place | was one of the outstandI inig efforts of the event, | since fairly high averages | and tough hill coun’ry f placed advantages with | more powerful models. Ja»<'«o<>a»'HaHW»oaO‘ IOROH »«■»■<

When tlie French Grand Prix is held this Sunday, the Ferrari drivers will enter the contest with justifiable confidence. The cars have shown they are far ahead of any other Formula I machinery this season, and Ferrari drivers hold a monopoly over the major placings for the world drivers’ championship title. Only Stirling Moss, who has 12 points, is a really serious contender at this stage, and Moss’s luck in recent seasons has been anything but good. Last year's winning Coopers are having a disastrous season to date, Jack Brabham’s car exploded dramatically during the Belgian Grand Prix, and Bruce McLaren’s car was sick from the start.

The sport of car rallying is progressing at a rapid rate. A few years ago, organisers in Canterbury found the greatest difficulty in attracting sufficient entries to make the events worth running, but the position has changed greatly. For at least one rally to be held later this year, more provisional entries have been received than the maximum number which will be permitted to start