Australian upsets champions at Levin

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33426, 7 January 1974, Page 3

Australian upsets champions at Levin

(New Zealand Press Association)

LEVIN, January 6.

The Australian, J. Walker, beat the established professionals in the first round of the $lOO,OOO Stuyvesant Tasman Cup series at Levin today.

“I moved to fifth place and just sat there, and the four in front of me had trouble. I was just lucky to be going at the end — but that’s motor sport, isn’t it,” the jubilant 28-year-old driver said after the race.

It was Walker’s first race in New Zealand. He was matched against champion drivers from New Zealand, Australia, and Europe. G. Mcßae streaked away from his pole position on the grid, and steadily lapped the field until his 45th lap, when he overshot the pits and ran off the track. He had lost his oil pressure. The only sign of trouble in Mcßae’s car had been a few

puffs of smoke from his exhaust early in the race.

Mcßae had held a 30second lead over M. Stewart, who was in second place when he had to change a tyre in lap 40. That pit stop cost Stewart the lead he would have taken when Mcßae pulled out, and he finished only third, despite determined and challenging driving throughout the event. The Belgian, E. Pilette, underestimated the Rothmans corner in lap 19 when he passed the New Zealander, N. Doyle. Pilette’s Chevron 824 hit a fence, and the front suspension was damaged. Pilette’s team-mate, P. Gethin, of England, lost time [by spinning off twice at the [hairpin, and later entering the pits for a tyre change. Gethin finished fourth. Second place went to a New Zealander. A. McCully, of Invercargill, in an FMS. He is in his first season’s racing in New Zealand,

, McCully was driving in only his fourth Formula 5000 race, after several seasons driving in the European Formula Three championships. Another New Zealander, K. Smith, upheld the promise of his good practice times by beating cars with twice the engine capacity of his two-litre March 732 to take fifth place. At one point his car, the smallest in the series, was leading. But he lost ground when he ran off at cabbage tree bend.

J. McCormack (Australia) in an Elfin 68, retired, in the 40th lap when his oil pump failed. K. Bartlett (Australia), in a Lola T 330, finished ninth, and W. Brown (Australia),. in a Lola T 332, was sixth. D. Oxton (New Zealand),! Begg FMS, was seventh; R. Booth (New Zealand), Begg FM4, eighth; and N. Doyle: (New Zealand), Surtees,! tenth.