TERETONGA VICTORY

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30045, 1 February 1963, Page 7

TERETONGA VICTORY

’THINGS are definitely x going to plan now, and the international race at Teretonga Park resulted in a trouble-free win for me with the Cooper. Everyone was kind to us in Invercargill except the weather. It poured with rain all Thursday and Friday. This was a blessing in disguise for us, as my mechanics had rebuilt the engine after Wigram and stripped and checked the gearbox, and we arrived in Invercargill on the Wednesday to run the car in on the circut.

The Cooper was really ready to race on Wednesday night before the rain arrived. For the next two days any hopes of water ski-ing or jet boating were postponed and we had time to check thoroughly through the single seat Cooper and the hardworked Morris Mini Cooper. Welcome Break

When the pressure is on and we are dashing from race to race the mechanics are often working long hours, and a couple of days to take things at a more sensible pace is a real tonic.

Race day started early with the official practice at 8.30 a.m. The 15 fastest cars were to be chosen for the race from two six-lap heats. I managed to win the first heat, but only after a tussle with Innes Ireland in the Ferguson. It goes off the line like a shell. To hear Innes describing all four wheels biting and scrabbling away at the track is quite amusing. It is one of the few pre-sent-day racing cars in which

the driver sits almost upright. We have a strong suspicion that if the seat was reclined to the near lying-down position of our cars, the acceleration off the line might shoot Innes out over the tail! The second heat was a ding-dong battle between Brabham and Surtees, with Jack just holding the advan-

tage. But what worried me was that they were lapping nearly a second a lap faster on average than I had been. In the big race I made a perfect start—at least for the first 20 yards—just squeezing the throttle so as not to have too much wheelspin, then promptly made a botch of selecting second gear and was about eighth into the long loop.

Fortunately for me it took only a few laps for the race to settle down. Jack in the Brabham, John Surtees in the Lola and myself were having a tussle until John was unlucky enough to spin in a tight left-hander. Even on the warm-up lap I nearly spun on this corner.

There must have been a patch of oil there, and I thought then that this would catch someone out So now I just had to get by Jack, bat this was going to be difficult as there was a fair amount of oil on the track.

There was only one place where I could take him—that

is unless Jack made a ’t>lue,'

which was highly unlikely. But after 10 laps of trying, he entered the loop just a little slower and a little wider than usual, which let me get on the inside of him. When he went to lock over and cut the inside of the corner. I had my front wheels fairly and squarely in his way.

About 10 laps later, when I had made up a few seconds on Jack, he started to notice bits of rubber flying pest his ears. With oil on the inside of some of the corners we had been forced to use the coarser surface on the outside which had torn the rubber off our tyres. Before the end of the race Jack had

worn his right rear tyre right down to the air. After a consistent drive, Tony Maggs came in second, Innes was third in the Ferguson, and Jack came limptag along on the rim in fourth place. End Of Season So now it’s off to Australia. The involved business of packing, shipping, clearing customs, and retting up the next month’s accommodation arrangements begins again, and for us the New Zealand season is over. Angus Hyalop has won the Gold Star and we have seen a very high standard of driving by our New Zealand boys. I would particularly mention Angus Hystap, Chris Amon, Tony Shelly Jimmy Palmer and David Young as stagle-eeaiter drivers of high class.

With the latest cars from England the international

drivers tend to overshadow the efforts of the local men, but in my opinion, if we were to climb into their cars we wouldn’t be able to do any better. In the sports car field Barry Cottle with his Lola showed similar form. Two young men I would like to see in faster cars, but who are driving saloons at the moment, are Kerry Grant and Denis Marwood. There are others I should have mentioned but these stand out, and this season they have played a major part in maintaining the high standard of motor racing in New Zealand.

BRUCE

McLaren