Half sports-car field has to retire

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32461, 23 November 1970, Page 26

Half sports-car field has to retire

(By our motor-racing reporter)

With only eight of 18 starters finishing the 30 miles, the sportsracing car feature race at Ruapuna Park yesterday proved that these cars could provide exciting racing, but that many of the current sports-racers 'in the country sadly lack reliability.

Three of the 10 Cars which retired provided excitement . by pulling off the track on fire. But the extinguishers of ! marshals, and those carried . in the cars, quickly put out > the flames in all cases. The field comprised both > North and South Island cars, ■ and victory went to the Auck- ! land driver, G. Harvey, in his i 6-litre Elfin, after his fellow , Auckland driver, G. Pedersen, • relinquished the lead he had s held for 27 laps when the i oil pressure in his 4.5-litre Traco-Oldsmobile fell to noth- ■ ing. ' Slowed by failing brakes, ' Harvey had held second spot, ■ up to 20sec behind Pedersen, throughout the early part of

the race. But these two were so far ahead of L. Johnson's U2, in third place, that Pedersen was able to complete the three remaining laps at a crawl and still finish about three laps up on the U2. Pedersen shot away at the start of the race With Harvey close behind. D. Taylor’s 5.9litre Mcßegg stayed on the line and was last away by a long chalk, but then started to move rapidly through the field. The first two cars remained ' close for the first six laps, ■ pulling steadily away from > the rest of the field, and lap- '■ ping the tail-enders after I about three laps. The two big machines were a stirring sight as they thunt dered round the track, but as , Harvey’s brakes wilted, Pedersen pulled steadily away, i until by the ninth lap he had ’ an apparently secure lead of , more than lOsec.

By the tenth lap, Taylor had managed to move up to third spot, ahead of Johnson, D. Waldron (U2), D. Wallace (Lola Climax), and the beau-tifully-prepared and neatlydriven Lotus 238 of the only woman driver in the field, Miss I. Stephenson.

But soon after this the, McBegg started dropping oil and running roughly, and it retired on the eighteenth lap. TWELFTH LAP By the twelfth lap Pedersen and Harvey were the only cars on the same lap, Taylor was still third, then came Johnson, P. Stewart (RobatMantis), R. Elshaw (Lotus), R. Stirling (Mini Sports) and the rest of the steadily-thin-ning field. L. May (Mcßae U2) fell out with a sick engine, May soon joined him in the pits, Taylor pulled off and on. the twentieth lap, Stewart left the Robat-Mantis in a hurry when an under-bonnet fire started. By this time, Pedersen had a handsome 20sec lead over Harvey, and seemed set for a win. Harvey closed up a little in the next few laps when Pedersen had to slow while marshals did Rome clearing up at the Castrol hairpin, where Waldron’s U2 had stopped on fire. By the twenty-third lap the first two were three laps up on the rest, vdio were led by Johnson, Elshaw, then Wallace, Miss Stephenson, P. Holland (Lancer) and D. Joyce (Joytune).

But the Traco-Oldsmobile had been smoking for some laps, and now Pederson started to slow drastically as the oil pressure disappeared. ' Harvey, who had been hoping for such an occurrence, quickly saw his chance and made the most of ft. He took over the lead with three laps to go, and was able to continue to an untroubled win—failing brakes and all. Pederson, however, won the eight-lap scratch race for main-race cars earlier in the day, in spite of a first-lap accident that left a ' large graunch in the side bf the Traco-Oldsmobile. Going into the S-bends on the first lap he and Harvey came together, but neither car was badly damaged. Harvey dropped well back m the melee, but managed to get going again to come second. I. Bisman (Begg T.C.), and A. Rhodes (Brabham) put on some . first-class and highlyprofessional racing in the single-seater events, particularly in the main scratch race. For the full eight laps they fought wheel-to-wheel, passing and repassing at different points around the

circuit. It was a really thrilling battle, and it ended with Rhodes getting the jump in traffic and finishing 2.ssec up on the Begg. R. Noble (Valour Ford) was a good third, after D. Evans (Lotus 27) had lost all chance of taking the place with a spin in the hairpin. LEAD CHANGED A. Dickie (Anglia Corvette), P. Kocis (Anglia GT) and R. McPhail (Lotus Farina) had a similar conflict in‘the main saloon scratch face, exchanging the lead time and time again. After some first-class racing, it was Dickie who took the flag first, only a few feet ahead of McPhail and Kocis. Further back, A. Prattley (Mini Cooper S) won his private battle with N. Orton (Minisprint) to come a welldeserved fourth. Result* of the main race were: N.Z. Racing Drivers’ Club Sports-Racing Car Championship Race (30 laps).—G. Harvey (Auckland), Elfin, 1; G, Federson (Auckland), Traco-Oldsmobile, 2, L. Johnson (Christchurch), U 2,3, R. Elshaw (Christchurch), Lotus, 4; D. Wallace (Taupo), Lola Climax, 5.