Four N.Z. drivers picked

Press, 21 December 1977, Page 36

Four N.Z. drivers picked

By RUSSELL JONES Four of the top motor-rac-ing drivers in New Zealand have been guaranteed starts in the five-round Peter Stuyvesant series next month, along with eight overseas drivers.

The remaining eight places on the grid for each race will be decided by qualifying races at the meeting — the first is at Bay Park, Tauranga, on January 2. Dave McMillan, Richard Melville, Steve Millen and Ken Smith, all of Auckland, were chosen in a ballot among the promoters of the meetings and a number of journalists as the resident New Zealand drivers who deserved guaranteed starts.

Another New Zealander, Brett Riley, has been included in the list of overseas drivers because he has been racing in Britain for the last few seasons.

Keke Rosberg, of Finland, who won the 1977 series, will be joined on the grid by Bobby Rahal and Danny Sullivan (United States), Larry Perkins, and lan Grob (Britain), Pierre Dieudonne (Belgium) and Andrew Miedecke (Australia). Other New Zealand drivers who are likely to earn a place on the grid include David Oxton, Robbie Francevic, Ross Stone, Steve Emson, Reg Cook, Norm Lankshear, Eric Morgan and Hugh Owen.

Apart from Rosberg and Miedecke, none of the overseas drivers has raced here before and some of them are unknown quantities in Formula Pacific cars. But Perkins and Sullivan are top drivers in Europe and Riley, who won the New Zealand Formula Ford championship before leaving for Britain, has performed very well in Formula Three. No matter how well the overseas drivers perform it is certain that the resident New Zealanders will feature. Last season McMillan proved to be almost as fast as Rosberg in practice, if not in the races, and he, Melville and Smith should do well.