Pit Stops

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31564, 29 December 1967, Page 5

Pit Stops

A major gold star rally will be run on June 1. 2 and 3, 1968, by the Northern Sports Car Club, which will be celebrating its 25th anniversary. The event will be called the Castrol 1000 rally, and will include hillclimbs, forestry sections, special stages, driving tests, and speed tests on racing circuits. It will start from Taupo at two minutes past midnight on June 1, and there will be an overnight stop at New Plymouth on the Saturday evening. The second overnight stop will also be at New Plymouth, and the finish will be at Pukekohe. The total prize list is expected to be about S2OOO. :;s * s>s The next Lupp Cup inter-club rally will be the Rallies and Trials Enthusiasts’ Club’s event on Saturday, February 24. Sj! The first Ruapuna Park race-meeting of 1968 will be held on Sunday, February 11. The feature race will be for group five saloons.

It has been confirmed that R Franicevic will drive a 2-litre B.R.M. in the Tasman series. The car will be sponsored by Rothmans with the assistance of the Parnell Racing Team, and is the V 8 car driven here last season by Jackie Stewart. Franicevic, aged 26. was the New 7 Zealand saloon car champion last season. He will also drive a Ford Fairlane in saloon events this season. ❖ ❖ 5£ The former racing driver, Innes Ireland, has been appointed sports editor of the British magazine “Autocar." * « # The annual meeting of the New Zealand Racing Drivers’ Club will be held in Christchurch on January 21, the day after the Lady Wigram Trophy Race. & A new South African land speed record has been set in a P 4 Ferrari by David Piper, who averaged 189.4 m.p.h. on a road in Bloemfontein in November.

Twenty-four competitors took part in the Canterbury Car Club’s Duvauchelle hillclimb earlier this month. Fastest time of the day went to N. Smith (Stuart Ford) with Imin 44.185ec, and this was the fastest time in the racing car class. G. Smith (Lotus Seven) won the sports-car class with 2min 2.465ec, D. Eggleton (Anglia G.T.) won the under 1500 c.c. saloon class with Imin 52.135ec, and P. Read (Jaguar E-type) won the over 1500 c.c. saloon class w 7 ith Imin 46.005ec. ❖ ❖ #

The new formula one McLaren-Ford V 8 will have its first test runs in February. s-c $ »c

Le Mans in 1968 will be restricted to 3-litre group six cars. 5-litre group four sports cars, and unlimited capacity group three G.T. cars of which at least 500 have been built. The group six cars are sportsprototypes. ❖ 5jC >JC

A. Densham driving a 7.9-litre Ford has set new standing start world 500 metre and quarter-mile records in Britain. His time for the standing quarter was B.9lsec. an average of 100.96 m.p.h., and his time for the 500 metres was 11.20 sec.