Lauda pleased with his N.Z. 'spannermen’

Press, 16 July 1979, Page 22

Lauda pleased with his N.Z. 'spannermen’

From

BRUCE BATTEN

“Everything works smoothly, so to me the prepartion is perfect.” Twice world driving champion. Niki Lauda, was talking about the BMW Ml sports saloon car he is driving in a new European championships called the Procar series. The car is prepared by two New Zealand mechanics, Dick Bennetts from Dunedin and Kevin Weston from Auckland, and judging by Lauda’s comfortable victory at the Monaco Grand Prix meeting, the team is a successful combination. The Procar series is a supporting act to eight of the European Formula One grands prix this season. It’s partly a promotion for BMW’s new sports road car, the Ml, partly an opportunity for top drivers to boost their pay packets, and partly to added spectator attraction. It features 20 identical models of this sleek, twodoor, two-seater saloon entrusted to drivers from Formula One, Formula Two and European Touring cars. The races, each 80 to 100 kilometres long, are run the day before each grand prix.

When the series was first mooted, early in the year, Kevin Weston, 27, was looking for a change from the North American sports-car racing he was involved with last year. He worked on the McLaren team which prepared the car driven by an Englishman, David Hobbs, to fifth place in the American I.M.S.A. championships. Dick Bennetts was also looking for a new challenge. He had spent the last two years working on Formula Atlantic and Formula Two cars, including the Chevrons campaigned successfully in New Zealand by Keke Rosberg, and the March BMW which

took Eddie Cheever to fourth place in last year’s European Formula Two championship. Cheever’s car belonged to a team called Project Four Racing, managed by an Englishman, Ron Dennis, and i was he who organised the entry of Niki Lauda in this year’s Procar series. He heeded mechanics to maintain the car, so he called on Bennetts, whose

work in Formula Two he had greatly respected. At the time, the 31-year-old South Islander was considering a proposal to join Rosberg’s team in its bid to win the North American Can Am sports car title. The handsome salary that went with the North America series appealed, but in the end Bennetts chose the Procar venture because of

its novelty. An assistant was also required to look after the BMW, and through some Kiwi collaboration, Weston was hired. Sa the Procar series became the answer to both mechanics’ search for “something different” in motor-racing. "That's not to say that this is a light-hearted effort,” explained Bennetts. “When Ron Dennis first discussed the idea with me, I said I was interested only if it was a serious project. He assured me it was. so I said ‘Okay’.” Although Lauda’s major interest is naturally in Formula One, he too is resolved to giving his best the Procar races. “We’re not here just to enjoy ourselves. We’re here to get the most out of it, so it’s important for me to win,” he said. And win he did, in a door-banging duel with Clay Regazzoni in the second round of the series on the confining streets of Monte Carlo. Back in the paddock, the bold black smudges of rubber along the fluorescent orange-

and-white panelling told how Lauda had been forced to scramble by the wily Swiss driver before opening up a three-second winnings margin. The result brought some relief to the team as the car’s crankshaft damper had come adrift at the opening round in Belgium and most of the engine’s water had flushed on to the track.

The team took possession of the car from the Munich factory only shortly before the Belgian race, so Bennetts and Weston had not had the opportunity to scrutinise it as thoroughly as they normally would. “But we’ll be going over everything with the BMW technicians before Monaco,” Bennetts said then. Their thorough approach quickly paid

dividends. Weston and Bennetts find Lauda polite, efficient and appreciative. That adds to the satisfaction of their work, which takes them to the Formula One meetings without involving them in the oftenexhausting pressures exerted on the grand prix teams. For them, this is the perfect compromise. While shunning the limelight that bathes the Formula One camp, they are able to work with a driver described by another former world champion, Jackie Stewart, as “technically the best driver racing today.” They have in their care an exhilarating car which develops 460 b.h.p., nearly as- much as a Formula One machine. And their work is completed the evening before each Grand Prix, enabling them to watch the world championship races at their leisure. No doubt, they have only one further wish ... that the Procar series becomes a regular feature on the European motorsport programme.