Hulme set stiff task

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32406, 19 September 1970, Page 48

Hulme set stiff task

(N.Z.P.A. Staff Correspondent) WASHINGTON. The tenth race of the 1970 motor-racing season, the Canadian Grand Prix, at Mount Tremblant, Canada, tomorrow, is vital to the chances of the New Zealander, Denis Hulme, regaining the world championship. The top McLaren team driver, he needs either a win or a second placing to keep his claims alive.

Hulme is lying fourth in the drivers’ championship. The late Jochen Rindt earned 45 points by winning five of the first nine races. The defending champion, Jackie Stewart (Scotland), and the veteran Australian, Jack Brabham, have 25. Both Stewart and Brab-

ham require two seconds and a win to beat Rindt’s tally. Hulme, however, needs two wins and a second in the remaining three events, a tough assignment which at this stage is likely to prove beyond him.

Hulme, however, has an impressive record in the Canadian, American and Mexican grand prix, a background factor which motor racing authorities believe points to him being close ,at the finish on Sunday.

In fifth and sixth places in the points' table are Clay Regazzoni (21 points) and Jackie Ickx (19 points). Only three successive victories could bring these drivers the world title.

It was reported from Mt Tremblant yesterday that Ickx recorded the fastest practice time and broke the track qualifying record by I.4sec as he raced his

Ferrari around the 2.65-mile track in Imin 32.45ec. Ickx was half-a-second faster than Henri Pescarolo (France), driving a MatraSifiica, and l.lsec quicker than John Surtees (England), in a Surtees TS7, and the Frenchman, Jean-Pierre Beltoise, in another MatraSimca.

The four fastest drivers in yesterday's practice all broke the track qualifying record of Imin 33.8 sec set by Rindt two years ago. Hulme, Imin 34.1 sec, and Stewart had the sixth fastest time, Imin 34.35ec in his March 701.

N.I. Squash.— The New Zealand team captain, L. M. Greene (Hamilton), heads the small but talented men’s entry for the North Island Squash rackets championships. He is followed in the men’s A grade seeding by T. Johnston (Rotorua), J. Isaacs (Mitchell Park) and S. O’Dwyer (Henderson).