American dominates Lady Wigram race

Press, 20 January 1986, Page 3

American dominates Lady Wigram race

By

JOHN HAWKINS

The American driver, Jeff MacPherson, clinched the New Zealand international Formula Pacific series with two emphatic victories at the Wigram airfield circuit yesterday. After a comfortable win in the preliminary heat over his team-mate, Paul Radisich, it was the Ralt Australian duo which once again dominated the Phillip Mills Luxury Cars Lady Wigram Trophy Race, with MacPherson thirteen seconds ahead of Radisich’s similar Ralt RT4 at the finish. It was a decimated field which faced the starter for the trophy race. An Australian, Bob Creasy, and the Canterbury man, John Crawford, played no part in the meeting after engine failures during practice and on the warm-up lap the American, Steve Bren, an expected front-runner, pulled off the track with a malfunctioning fuel pump. Ted Prappas, of the United States, who was expected to provide MacPherson with his biggest challenge, struck distributor problems on the grid and barely sputtered away at the back of the field. Although Radisich was fast off the grid, MacPher-

son gave him no chance, and quickly established a lead he was never to lose. At the end of the first lap of the 30-lap race, MacPherson led from Radisich, who held an already comfortable second position ahead of the battling trio of Cary Bren, Ken Smith and Brett Riley. Smith seized his opportunity to pass Bren on the fifth lap. Always the master under braking for the hairpin, Smith slipped cleverly down the inside of the American to take third place. Riley tried an ambitious move on Bren at Polytechnic Corner on the same lap, but was forced to drop back. He eventually overtook Bren on lap nine, and driving well, demoted Smith to take third on lap ten, which was the final passing manoevre of the race. At about half distance, Radisich closed the gap to MacPherson, but the American was well in command and in spite of difficulty selecting third gear he eased away from Radisich again. On the fifteenth lap, Cary Bren retired from the race after clipping a marker tyre. He left the field to run out the race well spaced out in the order MacPherson, Radisich, Riley, Smith and

Dave MacMillan, with Peter Haskett in his elderly Chevron a further lap down. A delighted MacPherson appologised to the crowd after the event for the “boring” race and said that apart from the gear selection problem everything had run to plan.

What did it feel like to have his name added to the likes of Jim Clark and Jackie Stewart on the Lady Wigram Trophy? “Just great, but there is always another race next week. Try to make it to the Wellington street race, that should be a really great race,” he said. A nine-car field came to the grid for the earlier 20lap preliminary event which produced a more absorbing race. Although MacPherson got away cleanly to head the field at the end of lap one, Prappas was well in touch, followed by Steve Bren, Cary Bren, Riley and Radisich. Steve Bren was in for the first of a series of pit stops to try and cure a misfire on lap two and it was only on the sixteenth lap, when the battery was changed, that the car ran cleanly, although many laps down. Meanwhile, Radisich quickly moved past Smith and Riley while these two

took up the battle with Cary Bren in an interesting struggle for fourth place. As MacPherson settled in at the front, Prappas mounted an unsuccessful challenge from laps eight to thirteen but thereafter looked to have settled for second position, will clear of Radisich. Having repulsed the Prappas challenge, MacPherson held a steady but never comfortable lead over his compatriot, while most interest was in the battle for fourth position between Cary Bren and the New Zealanders, Smith and Riley. Smith finally succeeded in passing Bren in a brave passing move at the hairpin, and Bren then came under renewed pressure from Riley, who locked up his brakes on more than one occasion at Polytechnic Corner. MacPherson’s victory was made certain on lap 18 when Prappas suffered the cruel misfortune of breaking a battery lead only two laps from home and coasting to a halt. This left Radisich 21 seconds behind MacPherson at the chequered flag with Smith leading a still-scrap-ing Bren and Riley home in third place.