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Seventy-five laps completed and Palmer's lead had extended to 65 seconds. He was ten laps in front of McNair's Mini 850. Harrington was beginning to have braking dramas again and he spun his Torana be-fore Tappenden corner on lap 79, losing time as he tried to restart the engine. He stopped to refuel and moved on to his own pit where the brakes were investigated. The GTR XU I did not rejoin the field.

There were practically no changes in the final 20 laps as the incident-free event drew to a close. Palmer continued his steady drive, easing his lap times slightly to about lm 14s, but never in any danger and always more than a lap in front of Brocklehurst. Both Toranas sounded in fine form at the end and, in fact, reliability was a feature of the event. On the last corner of the last lap Lou Reidt's Mini had a puncture and biffed the bank. After a delay Reidt limped across the line to be classified as a finisher (and in the class money).

Our reckoning had the Porsche in third, followed by the two Capellas of Shiells and Neil, Brickley's Monaro and Carroll's Torana. The Torana GTR XUIs are ex-tremely impressive sports saloons, represent-ing good value for money in New Zealand, and Palmer again proved he is still one of our best drivers.

Supporting race entires were far from inspiring, although three trophies were at stake. There were no big saloons and the 4.2 litre touring car class was led by Jim Richards who put his Willment Escort TC around in lm 6.0s. The Halliday Escort returned lm 6.6s, and Rodger Anderson made a reappearance with the Cambridge BMW 2002 Alpina to post lm 7.2s. The engine had been rebuilt since the Pukekohe GP meeting in January (its last appear-ance).

Fastest one litre time of lm lOs went to David Waugh, followed by Rex Hart (lm 10.7s) and Jim Richards (Im 11.8s). The first two were Mini-mounted, of course, while Richards was in the familiar 998 Hillman Imp. Jim Murdoch's Titan recorded 1 m 6s for fastest Formula C time (the same as the Richards Escort), followed by Dauntsey Teagle's Merlyn (I m 6.2s) and the Titan of Bryan Scobie (Im 8.Os). Rob Allen had his rebuilt Begg FC, now with slightly longer wheelbase and revised radiator cowls. Jeremy Gough led a good field of Formula Vees with a time of lm 14.4s, which was equalled by Stuart Currie. Third best time of lm 16.2s was awarded to Steve Clare.

Richards led Hart and Waugh at the start of the William Hill trophy which attracted only 11 starters. Mid-season blues. Hart tried hard on the opening lap to take the lead, and at the end of the first round was tucked in behind Richards. Waugh ran third, with a gap to Moss Tait's Imp, Kevin Rand (Cooper 999S) and Warren Reid (Cooper 998). On the second lap Hart took the lead, and pulled out 3.4 seconds before the finish at five laps. Just under 3 seconds behind the Imp was Waugh with a delay to Tait and a dice between Rand and Reid which was won by the former. Hart had the fastest lap of lm l0s.

The Cooper 998 of D. Faulkner led from start to finish in the IOOOcc handicap event, the back markers failing to overhaul the scratch man. John Miller's similar car occupied second place for most of the distance until Reid, John Le Baige (Imp) and Tait came on the scene. Tait moved into second place on the fifth lap but could not quite catch Faulkner before the finish. The Radio IZD Cooper of Waugh improved from eighth on lap 2 to third on the fifth round, followed by Jim Rich-ards (imp), and the close bunch of Reid, Le Baige and Hart.

There were only eight starters in the second round of the John Ward Memorial Trophy for 4.2 litre cars. Richards roared away from the similar Escort TC of Halli-day, Anderson's BMW and Stan Baird's Escort TC. Poor Max Pennington had an unhappy weekend. His Escort caught fire when a carburettor union came adrift dur-ing practice, and he came to a halt on the opening lap of this race. By the end of the first lap Richards had pulled out 1.2 sec-onds on Halliday who was a similar dist-ance clear of the BMW. Nothing else happened, the Hauraki Escort completing its six laps 3.6 seconds in front of Halliday. After the third placed BMW came Baird and a gap to Colin Baynes (Escort TC).

The 4.2 handicap provided the best fin-ish of the day. Brian Green's Escort TC led for five of the six laps after starting almost a lap in front of Richards. After three laps he was 19 seconds clear of Baynes, Baird, Anderson and Richards. The Cambridge BMW was through to second on the fifth lap and Richards really tried on the final tour to catch the German car. At Tappenden he closed right in on the BMW and the two leaders excited from the final corner locked together. The pair crossed the line side by side to the delight of the crowd and the result was declared a dead heat. Baird finished third, followed by Halliday and Green.

The Formula Fords, usually good, failed to arouse much enthusiasm. Dauntsey Teagle led from start to finish, setting the fastest lap of Im 5.2s, one-tenth of a sec-ond outside the class record held by Peter Hughes. Jim Murdoch challenged the Mer-lyn on the opening lap but gradually lost ground and finished 2.1 seconds behind. The second Titan of Bryab Scobie occu-pied third for the entire distance, and was followed home by Robbie Booth (Lotus HCM), Bob Allen (Begg) and a gap to Ross Stone (Cuda) and Eric Anderson (Brabham). John Hyde retired the Valour with gearchange problems.

Scratch man Eric Anderson led through-out the handicap Formula C event. He was followed for the most part by former Mini driver Gordon Edwards in the Titan formerly raced by Pierre Phillips, but on the final lap Edwards was relegated to fifth spot. Booth improved from fifth to second on the final lap in a close tussle for the place between Scobie and Murdoch. Allen came home sixth.

Eighteen starters lined up for the Form-ula Vee race, the most closely fought event on the programme. Pole position man Jeremy Gough was pushed from the grid when his car refused to start while Steve Clare buzzed away from Stuart Currie, Barry Munro and a close bunch. At the end of the opening lap Russel Orsborn had moved into the lead, and pulled out 2 seconds on the close Clare, Munro, George Hetterscheid and Eric Brock. Het-terscheid improved to third on the second lap, and next time round the three leaders were neck and neck.

Four laps gone and only 2 seconds separated the leading five cars. This time Hetterscheid had forced his way into the lead and Orsborn held second from Brock, Clare, Munro, Currie and Trevor Larsen. Brock iust managed to take Orsborn on the finish line for third, and Currie finished fourth with Clare fifth. A first class event. John Hyde led the first two laps of the handicap event, before John Flavel took command. On the final lap Ray Whiting and Ian Chouston moved into the lead and diced out the number one position, the result just goin¢ to the former. Hetters-cheid went from eighth on lap 4 to fourth on lap 5 and third at the finish. Neal Lowe finished fifth with Currie sixth and the fastest lap time of Im 14.7s to his credit.

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