Chch driver to appear in Formula Pacific

Press, 15 January 1986, Page 32

Chch driver to appear in Formula Pacific

During the early years of the Trophy Race, local competitors made up the majority of the field driving mainly sports cars and home-built specials. Since the advent of the Formula Pacific class, however, Christchurch representatives have been few and far between. On Sunday, spectators

will have a Christchurch driver to cheer as the New Zealand Formula Ford champion, John Crawford, makes his first appearance at the wheel of a Formula Pacific in front of his home crowd.

Although a quick glance at the programme will reveal that Crawford will be at the wheel of a Dart rather than a Ralt, as used by the majority of his rivals, his car is, in fact, more of a Ralt than a Dart. The chassis has been leased from Crawford’s mentor, Dave McMillan, of Auckland, and a lot of time has been spent making sure there has been no repeat of earlier problems that were apparent with the tub when it appeared in McMillan’s hands.

The running gear including suspension is mostly Ralt and Crawford found that the car was the equal of the Ralts in the handling department during the first two rounds of the international series at Bay Park and Pukekohe.

Crawford is running on what is perhaps the smallest budget of all series competitors, and it quickly became apparent at the North Island rounds that his home-built engine lacked considerable power when compared to most of his competitors. In light of the financial

situation and with an eye on performing well on his home track, at Wigram, Crawford made the decision to return home and to prepare for the Wigram meeting. “The car handled and braked well and I drove carefully to avoid damaging the car. The only trouble was that we were being blown away on the straights so I returned home to try and get some more horse ?»*er from our one engine, he only trouble is it’s hard to build a powerful engine with no money,” said Crawford.

Aged 26, Crawford is at a crucial stage of his career. At the other end of the scale is McMillan who, with many successes behind him including a victory in the United States championship, could be considered to be m the twilight years of his single seater career. Although now living in Auckland, McMillan was born in Christchurch and raised on the Wigram Air Base, so he has nostalgic reasons for wishing to do well on Sunday. A past winner here, he should not be discounted and always goes well on fast tracks.