Won Race With Overheated Motor

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31340, 10 April 1967, Page 15

Won Race With Overheated Motor

(New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, April 9. Driving with an overheated engine and a broken water pump from start to finish, the New Zealand saloon car champion, R. Franicevic, won one of the most exciting motor races of the season when he crossed the finishing line in the Dunlop 30-minute all-comers’ event at Pukekohe on Saturday.

About 7500 people saw Franicevic take first place by only three or four feet fro P. Fahey (Ford Mustang) after a race-long battle in which the lead was constantly changing. J. Ward (Ford Lotus-An-glia) was third, about half a lap behind. Franicevic, who was driving his seven-litre Ford, said after the event that it was one of the closest races he had driven in. “I broke the water pump in practice, and we had to remove the smashed impeller to get any circulation at all,” he said. His engine was boiling only

a few minutes after the start, and he drove the rest of the race with the temperature gauge showing about 230 degrees.

The race, whic/i carried £2OO in prize money—more th«n any other saloon car race apart from the Wills sixhour event—was the perfect end to the 1966-67 motor racing season. It was also one of the last major allcomers’ races that will be seen in this country. Next season, the saloon championship will be open only to cars in group five, which allows no body modifications and imposes strict limits on engine sizes.