Look out, Andretti!

Press, 25 September 1978, Page 28

Look out, Andretti!

! Christchurch’s budding Niki . Laudas had a ball yesterday at Ruapuna Park as national motorsport week-end drew to a close. I i i i j

A mini race meeting In which anyone could partici* pate drew about 80 drivers — in cars ranging from Mini vans to Jaguars — and after a few laps of the track and a bit of tuition from local racing drivers all had the chance to experience the “real thing,” a race. There were some frantic wheel-to-wheel dices between drivers who had never been on a track before, and some drivers of bigger cars found to their embarrassment that it takes more than cubic centimetres to win a race, as smaller cars darted past them under braking. A sprint meeting on Sat* urday drew a similar number of drivers for a series of timed laps and standing 400 m drags and an autocross — racing — meeting at West Melton had 30 entries. Fifty drivers got their cars into impossible situations at the grass gymkhana at Yaldhurst yesterday as they found that speed is not everything. And a one-hour trial starting at Riccarton Mall yesterday saw about 250 car-loads turn up to have a bash, and most went well, despite the constant interference with one check-point by some mindless individual. Probably the most exciting

event was Saturday’s rally stage at Yaldhurst, in which members of the public went for rides with local rally drivers. One of the first passengers was the Mayor (Mr Hay), who was treated to a fine display of driving by the dynamic Trevor Crowe, in his wife’s little Datsun 1200 coupe. “That was tremendous," said Mr Hay after Crowe had set the fastest time of the day. The Mayor, showing no outward signs of trepidation after his high-speed sortie around the shingle-pit, keenly quizzed Crowe afterwards about the spdrt of rallying, and asked Crowe if cars with automatic transs mission would be suitable. However, it is doubtful whether the citizens of Christchurch would sanction the use of the Mayoral Daimler in the next local rally. A film evening on Friday drew 300. The week-end’s activities were all to do with promoting motorsport and attracting new members by giving people a taste of the action. Mr Barry Higham, the coordinator, said the participating clubs were very pleased with the turn-out, and added that there would almost certainly be a similar promotion next year.