N.Z. driver wins Aust. class

Press, 13 June 1977, Page 30

N.Z. driver wins Aust. class

NZPA Sydney The top New Zealand singleseater motor-racing driver, Graeme Lawrence (Triumph Dolomite) won the up-to 2000 cu cm class in the Rothmans 500 race at Oran Park, near Sydney, yesterday.

Lawrence, co-driving with a local driver, David Seldon, completed 216 laps of the tricky 2.6 km grand prix circuit, five laps ahead of the second place-getter, Stephen Evans, and Joe Butta (Morris Cooper S). Lawrence finished only six laps behind the outright winner Warren Cullen and Brian Sampson, of Melbourne, who drove a Holden Torana L 34. Another New Zealand driver, Jim Richards, never got to race when his local co-driver, Dick Johnson, crashed their Ford Falcon GT on the first corner of the 222-lap event. Johnson was unhurt in the 180km/h crash but the car was too badly damaged to continue. Richards broke the lap record in practice. The five-times winner of New Zealand’s Benson and Hedges 500, Leo Leonard (Falcon GT), was forced from the race while leading at the three hour mark when the car blew its engine. Leonard, who had been driving with the local ace John Goss, looked a strong contender for victory when the breakdown occurred.

The over-all winners, Warren Cullen and Brian Sampson, won the race by more than a lap. Cullen and Sampson outdistanced Kevin Bartlett and Bob Forbes (Torana L 34) by 40 seconds on the road. But the BartlettForbes car was penalised one lap for push starting after its first pit stop and dropped more than a lap behind.