Daunting task ahead of John Crawford

Press, 14 December 1983, Page 72

Daunting task ahead of John Crawford

JOHN FRIDD

The Christchurch motorracing driver, John Crawford arrived home yesterday with his Formula Ford racing car a tangled wreck but glad that his own body was still in good working order. Crawford had been heading for a. good win in the first round of the national Formula Ford championship at Pukekohe on Sunday when he collided with a slow back-marker and his Van Diemen flipped six times — four times sideways and twice end-for-end. Although there is barely a straight rail on the car and each of the four “corners” is badly bent, the strong construction of the driver’s cockpit saved Crawford from injury. “I gripped the steering wheel very tightly and avoided having my arms flailing around, risking breaking a wrist or arm. If I’d broken anything it would have stuffed my champion-

ship chances,” said the plucky driver yesterday. Crawford and his team manager, Larry Mulholland, now face the daunting task of completely stripping the car and rebuilding it with new parts in Mulholland’s BMC Transmission Services workshop in Carmen Road. The engine, which was brand-new before the Pukekohe race, will also have to be stripped to check it for damage. Mulholland said yesterday he hoped that certain parts such as the brake-calipers and discs could be salvaged, as they were hard to come by in New Zealand. In the spectacular highspeed crash even the fueltank which sits under the driver’s seat, was split, so Crawford had to scramble quickly from the car when it came to rest. It was the first time the 24-year-old Christchurch driver had flipped a Formula Ford, although he had been “over” in a kart before. This week

he will borrow a friend’s Ford to put in some laps at Ruapuna to ensure that the will to race fast is still there.

The crash, which came after Crawford had set the fastest time in practice and was leading the 12-lap race by the length of the pit straight after six laps, has been a bad start to the curly headed driver’s bid to win the national title and give himself a good chance of winning the Formula Ford “Driver to Europe” award, which will see a New Zealander driving in the tough World Formula Ford festival in Britain.

However, if the crumpled Van Diemen cannot be fixed in time for the second championship round at Bay Park on January 2 Crawford will have the use of a Bowen in the North Island and another Van Diemen in the south, so it is likely that he will open his points account at Bay Park.