CLARK WINS LADY WIGRAM RACE

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31275, 23 January 1967, Page 15

CLARK WINS LADY WIGRAM RACE

Record Broken, But Oil Prevents lOOm.p.h. Lap

J. Clark of Scotland (Lotus Climax V 8) won the 101.2-mile Lady Wigram Trophy Race on Saturday in record time, after his main opponent, J. Stewart of Scotland (B.R.M. 2-litre V 8), retired on the fifth lap when hit by a flying circuit marker.

After Stewart’s retirement Clark was in full command and was not seriously challenged. Stewart’s B.R.M. team-mate R. Attwood (B.R.M. V 8) drove a magnificent race to finish second, 16.9 seconds back on Clark, and D. Hulme brought his ailing Repco Brabham 2.5 litre home in third position a lap behind.

Clark set a new race record of 63min 34.1 sec for the 44 laps, an average of about 96 miles an hour. The fastest lap, of 1:25, or 97.41 m.p.ib, was set by the Australian J. Brabham (Repco Brabham V 8). This equalled the record set by Stewart last year.

The question of the race was whether anyone would break the 100 m.p.h. lap-aver-age barrier, and win a prize of £4OO offered for the first to do so. Both Stewart and Clark bettered the mark in practice on Friday, but neither came near it on Saturday.

A crowd estimated at more than last year’s 20,000 watched the race in overcast but warm weather.

During the morning sessions a strong wind on the back straight reduced the cars’ top speeds and prevented the attempt; during the race the main factor was the track, made slippery by oil dropped from a competitor’s car. Clark said after the race that he did some exploratory faster laps—his best during the race was I:2s.3—but decided the track was too slippery, and eased off. Nor was the wind favourable. Split Hose The expected challenge from Brabham did not eventuate: he lost several laps repairing a split water hose, and returned to the field to attempt some fast laps late in the race. He was classified as finishing twelfth.

Many others suffered mechanical trouble, including the New Zealand champion, J. Palmer, who retired his Repco Brabham with a blown oil seal. The first New Zealander to finish was R. Levis (Brabham 1.5 litre), who was sixth, four laps back on Clark. The Australians F. Gardner and K. Bartlett, both in 2.5 litre Repco Brabhams, were fourth and fifth respectively, Gardner completing 42 laps and Bartlett 41.

The very fast 1.5-litre driver, G Lawrence, of Wanganui, had an unlucky race. His crew spent the previous night rebuilding his engine, which had piston failure in practice. But throughout the race he had overheating problems, and never really got going.

Led From Start The first five laps of the race were undoubtedly the most exciting. Stewart had pole position on the grid, the front row of which comprised Stewart, Brabham, Clark and Attwood, the positions having been decided by the preliminary races in the morning.

Clark shot into the lead on the first lap with Stewart right on his tail, and the first time round the order was Clark, Stewart, Attwood, Brabham, Hulme, Palmer, Gardner, Bartlett, Levis, I. Dawson (Repco Brabham 2.5 IHre), D. Hollier (Lotus 27), Lawrence, B. Stone (Repco Brabham 1.5 litre), D. Marwood (2.5 Cooper Climax), G. Harvey (Brabham 1.5), P. Yock (Brabham 1.5), J. Weston (Brabham 1.5), J. Boyd (Brabham), K. Smith (Lotus 1.5), and D. Macdonald (Brabham 1.5).

The first five cars were nose to tail, howling around within inches of each other. By lap four the order of the leaders was Clark, Stewart, Brabham, Hulme and Attwood, these four being ahead of Palmer, Gardner and Bartlett.

Then at the beginning of the next lap, on the control-tower bend, a circuit marker made of two sections of car tyre, painted yellow, flew up after being clipped by Clark's car.

One section struck Stewart’s 8.R.M., which was travelling at 100 to 110 m.p.h., and dented the side. The other broke the car’s windscreen, flattened the instrument panel, and bounced off the top of Stewart’s helmet.

Paint Off Helmet Paint was scraped from the helmet, and a broken pipe to the oil gauge shot hot oil into Stewart’s face. Fortunately he was wearing a mask and was not hurt. But his race was finished.

“A bit lower and it would have taken my head off,” Stewart said.

Stewart’s retirement left Clark with no pressing challenger, although Brabham, Hulme and Attwood were not far behind. By the eighth lap, Brabham had closed on Clark considerably, and after a gap Attwood, left alone to carry the B.R.M. colours, was challenging Hulme. There was then a considerable gap back to Palmer, who was nevertheless driving very well, and who was followed by Gardner, Bartlett, Dawson, then Levis and Hollier, who were, starting a good tussle. Behind them came Marwood, Stone (about to be lapped by Clark), Boyd, Harvey, Yock and Weston, also dicing, and finally, well back, Macdonald, who was very slow and unhappy and eventually retired By the 10th lap, Clark was about three seconds ahead of Brabham, and on the next Attwood, who was not far ahead of Hulme, started to challenge Brabham. Further back, Levis. Hollier and Marwood were enlivening proceedings with their own scrap.

On the 13th Attwood managed to get past Brabham, add moved up about 12 seconds behind Clark, with Hulme, then Brabham, in hot pursuit.

Mechanical Trouble A good battle raged between these three until the 19th, by which time there had been a spate of troubles and retirements, Palmer dropping out with a blown oil-seal, Lawrence calling at the pits with overheating, Hollier retiring with ignition trouble, and Marwood calling at the pits with a shortage of oil Marwood's pit stop was to prove contentious—a large quantity of oil was added, and the car, which had been blackflagged and inspected by officials for oil leaks, was sent out again. Losing Oil It continued to lose considerable amounts of oil around the circuit, to the great annoyance of other drivers, and the un. happy Marwood kept as far as possible off the main part of the track in an attempt to reduce the amount of oil encountered by other competitors. By the 30th Clark was lapping tn about Imin 26sec, and on the 22nd Brabham moved into third past Hulme, whose car was starting to sound ragged. Attwood was still driving magnificently, and was about 18 seconds behind the unflurried Clark, who was putting on a copybook exhibition of fast, neat driving, and was lapping in the 1:25.5-1:26 bracket. At the back Yock and Weston were having a really good private battle, sometimes one, sometimes the other, taking the lead. It was Yock’s turn in front from the 20th to the 27th, when Weston took over for a lap. 20sec Ahead Although the retirement of Stewart had taken the main interest from what in the opening laps had been a truly outstanding race, the event was certainly not dull.

Attwood did his best to catch Clark, and his driving was excellent. By the 23rd Clark was 20sec ahead of Attwood, who in turn was 6sec up on Brab-

ham, who was followed, four seconds back, by Hulme. Lawrence and Smith had come back onto the circuit by this time, but were both many laps behind.

Boyd started a tussle with Stone for eighth spot about the 25th, holding the position until the 30th, and Dawson was duelling magnificently with the flying Levis, who was doing very well in his 1.5 litre car. Howewer, Dawson was five laps back on Levis, having made an earlier pit stop with a faulty temperature gauge which led him to suspect overheating. By the 32nd Attwood had reduced the gap to Clark to 16 seconds, but the Scotsman was still in command. Hulme was holding a good third driving extremely well with a car which was misfiring badly throughout the rev. range. By the 35th Clark had lapped all but Attwood. At the back Weston and Yock continued to tussle.

Fastest Lap About the 34th Brabham came out again to try for some fast laps, and although he managed the fastest of the race, like Clark he found the slippery track prevented an attack on the 100 m.p.h. mark. The finishing order was Clark, Attwood, Hulme, Gardner, Bartlett, Levis, Boyd Stone, Dawson, Weston, Yock, Brabham, Marwood and Smith.

At the finish a very cheerful Clark said the race had been a smooth one all the way, and his car had gone very well. The only real difficulty had been the slippery track. Clark now leads the Tasman championship by 15 points to Attwood's 10 and Stewart’s nine.

Gardner has six points, Hulme has four Lawrence and Bartlett have two each, and K. Sager and Levis have one each. The preliminary races to decide main race grid positions were held in the morning. The first was mainly for 1.5 litre cars, and was led for the first six laps by Levis, with Hollier in hot pursuit and challenging. By the fifth Hollier was being chivvied by P. Bolton, of Australia (2.5 litre Brabham), who had come through from the rear of the field. Stone, in fourth spot, was being challenged by Lawrence. Bolton took the lead on the seventh. On the second-last lap Bolton dropped out with mechanical trouble and Levis finished ahead of his team-mate Stone, with Hollier a good third. The second preliminary was a really good race. Clark went past in front on the first lap with Brabham, Stewart and Gardner following him as closely as if he was towing them. Next came Palmer, Attwood, Hulme, Bartlett, Dawson, Marwood and Boyd.

Stewart moved into second place on the second lap and the first three opened a gap on Gardner, who was narrowly ahead of Attwood Hulme and Palmer, who were very close. On the fourth Gardner and Palmer started a fine tussle, but Palmer was losing ground on the back straight in spite of his excellent efforts elsewhere. Three Battles By the seventh there were three distinct battles: the three leaders, Clark, Stewart and Brabham; then Hulme and Attwood, then after another gap Bartlett, Palmer and Gardner, who was slowing. On the eighth Stewart took the lead and Clark eased slightly, after once nipping past on a corner to resume the lead. They finished Stewart Brabham, Clark, with Attwood and Hulme next, then Palmer and Bartlett. During the race Clark was thrice timed at 1:24.3, but strong winds on the back straight prevented the expected 100 m.p.h. lap.