9 replies to this topic

[Dave Wright]

Track-maps of Wigram are a little vague on the layout of the hairpin at the end of the runway portion of the circuit. They seem to indicate two possible layouts. We have a photo of Wigram in 1951 which shows the configuration as option A, but some layouts can be interpretted as being like option B on the photo below.

Can any one familiar with Wigram as used in the Tasman races in the late 60s help in determining the layout of this part of the track?

[bill moffat]

At risk of upsetting my Antipodean friends I'll have a go at this one. All the contemporary maps (eg Georgano p.153) show a tight hairpin that is virtually a 180, before opening out on the run down to Vickerys. In which case I guess option B.

Either way seeing Jochen Rindt lapping this place at an average of 105mph must have been quite something....

[David McKinney]

Yes, Option B is approximately how I remember it from 1960s through '70s and '80s - though I wouldn't swear to it being exactly the same each year ;)

Bill M: that hairpin was the only really slow part of the circuit, though the "chicane" on the opposite side wouldn't have been a lot faster. Otherwise it was pretty much a flat-out blast around the whole two miles

[Mac Lark]

Originally posted by bill moffat
Either way seeing Jochen Rindt lapping this place at an average of 105mph must have been quite something....

At Wigram in 1969 there was a race for local 'specials'. A young lad by the name of Norm Smith had a champion beach racing 'special' that looked a bit like the progeny of a 1940s style Indy 500 roadster and a Massey Fergusson tractor.

Lotus had flown in a new 49 to replace the one Rindt put a little dent in at Levin the weekend before. To give him a chance of bedding the car in, Rindt, as I recall Norms story, was permitted a few laps behind the 'specials'.

Norm was entered in the 'specials' race. No one had mentioned that Rindt would be out, and if they did, then Norm didn't hear about it.

Norms story is that he was storming along, just trying to keep the contraption under control on the straights! It was early in the race and Norm was running last so he had every reason to expect nothing would be behind him as he veered the thing into one of the corners. At that very moment, Rindt - in a state of the art F1 car remember - flashed past.

Norm can only presume that the Austrian assumed that the pilot of the old beach racer had more control than he actually did. Norm has always claimed that it was a very close thing.

Had Jochen collided with Norm, and in doing so damaged 2 49s in successive weeks, then I'd love to have seen the look at Chapmans fac e when he saw what he'd hit!

[Dave Wright]

Thanks for the replies. We have managed to track down a photo of the hairpin from 1969 which doesn't appear to be either of the two options above - more like a simple sharp left turn.



and the photo from 1951



Just in case either jogs any memories.

[Mac Lark]

The first photo features a couple of Kiwi legends with Roly Levis in his BT23C-FVA leading Graeme Lawrence in a M4A-FVA.

They finished in that order in the 1968/69 Gold Star series after which Roly all but retired. He was 45 then - who knows how good he could have been had he started 20 years earlier?

As for the second photo - it's over to you David McKinney...............


No sign of Norm in the Stuart beach racing 'special' in the photo

[David McKinney]

I've deliberately refrained from comment till I have more time to look into both pictures.
The 1969 one surprises me, as it doesn't ring true at all - I want to dig out other pics from that year (and nearby years) to compare
Likewise I can't identify OTHOMH which XK120 driver features in the 1951 shot (Roycroft or Tutton?) or the locally-built car behind

[Dave Wright]

Originally posted by David McKinney
I've deliberately refrained from comment till I have more time to look into both pictures.
The 1969 one surprises me, as it doesn't ring true at all - I want to dig out other pics from that year (and nearby years) to compare

It certainly puzzled me - not that I've ever been to Wigram - but it doesn't correspond with either representation of the hairpin on the track-maps.

[David McKinney]

My initial thought was that it's not the Hairpin at all, but the exit to the Loop at the opposite side of the circuit. Except I don't think that 'run-off' road would have been evident in such a shot. Which is why I want to check other photos - I can remember the detail of the circuit quite well, but not all the adjoining bits

[Dave Wright]

While welcoming any further thoughts or photos, we think we have solved the mystery. My previous aerial photo was based on a fairly recent photo of Wigram. We didn't know the runway had been substantially widened, and junctions with taxiways altered. Wigram museum have kindly sent us a copy of an aerial photo from 1967 which shows the runway was much narrower (probably 60 ft rather than 100 ft) and in 1967 there were two separate entrances to the taxiway. In the image below the second part - the hairpin - is pretty dark but it is just visible.