THE LEADING DRIVERS

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30962, 19 January 1966, Page 12

THE LEADING DRIVERS

In the last year in Europe one driver has rocketed from relative obscurity to the very front line of pre-sent-day drivers. He is JACKIE STEWART, a 25-year-old Scot from Dumbarton, and a driver who is picked as a future world champion. In his first season with the B.R.M. team Stewart has amassed a formidable record, and he finished third in the world championship—this racing often on circuits he had never seen before and against grand prix stars who had been established for years.

Stewart’s interest in racing started early, and his older brother was considered one of Britain’s most promising drivers until an accident caused him to retire.

Stewart’s first race was at Chartherhall in 1961, when he drove a Marcos GT. During the 1961 season, racing anonymously because of parental opposition, he gained two wins and was placed at each meeting in which he competed. In 1962 he gained three wins from four meetings, and in 1963 he was asked to test a Tojeiro Jaguar for the Ecurie Ecosse team.

Stewart took the car around the Snetterton circuit within a second of the lap record, and it was not long before he was getting some drives from the Ecurie Ecosse team. Stewart became better known in 1964, when he drove formula three cars for the Tyrrell team. That year he won 11 international events and set numerous new lap records. Before long Stewart was signed up by the B.R.M. team as number two driver to Graham Hill, and it was with this team he spent 1965, also driving the RoverBRM turbine car at Le Mans with Graham Hill and driving several races in sports cars and saloons, as well as formula two cars. In the first world championship race of 1965, in South Africa, Stewart was

sixth after a smooth and steady drive. He was first ip the Silverstone international trophy race, third at Monte Carlo, second at Spa, second in French G.P., fifth in the British G.P., second in the Dutch G.P., and at most meetings was on the front row of the grid. Expert observers say of Stewart that he shows all the attributes of a world-

champion driver, and that he may soon be giving Jim Clark serious opposition. Britain's leading motor racing writer. Denis Jenkinson, says of Stewart: “There is no doubt about the fact that he is a natural high speed driver, born with all the faculties required of an outstanding driver. Like Fangio, Moss and Clark he is obviously blessed with good judgement, sharp reflexes, outstanding eyesight, and sense of balance.”

Before he took up motorracing Stewart was an expert at clay-pigeon shooting, and was in the running for a place in the Olympic clay pidgeon shooting team in 1960.

Stewart was married in 1962, and has one child The Australian driver SPENCER MARTIN is aged 25, and drives for the Australian Scuderia Veloce team run by David McKay. Martin joined the motor trade when he left school. He started in racing with a small fibreglass sports car he built himself. Later, when racing a “Prad” sports car, he was noticed by David McKay. In 1962 he drove a Holden in saloon car races with great success, scoring 12 wins and two seconds in 16 starts. McKay offered Martin a drive in a Repco Brabham at the end of 1963, and it was not long before his driving was keeping him well up in the fields. \ Martin was mechanic for Graham Hill in the 1964 and 1965 Tasman races and in 1965 he won the New South Wales road racing championship, the Governors’ Trophy, the 1965 Queensland Tourist Trophy and several major sports car races. Martin may go overseas and try racing in Europe soon.

New Zealanders saw Martin in action for the first time at Pukekohe this year, when his practice time was fast enough to place him on the front row of the threecar grid. Unfortunately he spun off the track and out of the race on the first lap.

FRANK GARDNER has been racing cars for more than 10 years. He made made a name for himself in Europe, and was one of the overseas drivers to race in New Zealand last season. An Australian, his first sports were boxing, swimming and rowing. He did some motor-cycle racing on a Manx Norton, but turned to cars in 1954, his first competition car being a Jaguar XKI2O. In 1956 he won the Australian sports car championship with a C-type Jaguar, winning 28 races in 34 starts. The next year he raced a D-type Jaguar, and again won the championship.

He went to Britain as a mechanic for the Aston Martin sports car team, and later worked as a mechanic at a motor racing school. He did some competition driving in the school’s cars, gaining several wins, and subsequently Jack Brabham signed him to build and race the first formula junior Brabham. Since then he has driven both sports cars and singleseaters in Europe, and last year took part in several formula one events with a 1964 V 8 8.R.M., owned by the Willment racing team. Recently Gardner has also raced for the team owner Alex Mildren in Australia, and last year Mildren bought one of the latest 2.5-litre Repco Brabham Climaxes for Gardner to race in the Tasman series.

JIM CLARK, present holder of the world driver’s championship, winner of the Indianapolis 500, and winner of the Tasman championship last season, is known the world over, and generally acknowledged the best driver on today’s Grand Prix circuits.

Clark is now aged 28, and has won the world champ*mship for Lotus twice, in 1963 and 1965. It is only seven years since he came on the racing scene. His first race was at a local race

track ... he was aged 20 and used a borrowed DKW. The next year, in spite of parental opposition, he raced, a Porsche, and consistently \won his class in events in,Northern England and Scotland. He first attracted widespread attention when he became associated with the Border Reivers team in Berwickshire, and it was in the team’s D-type Jaguar that he scored his first major wins.

He was signed to drive for Aston Martin in their formula one team, but a car was not available for him and he secured his release and signed with Colin Chapman to drive Lotus formula junior and formula two cars during the 1960 season. He visited New Zealand for the first time in 1961, and came sixth in the Grand Prix at Ardmore. He was already proving himself a first class driver, and in 1961 also won the unofficial fromula three championship in Europe.

His big formula one opportunity came in 1962 when, as number one driver for Team Lotus, he won his first world championship event at Spa, in the Belgian Grand Prix. That year he lost the championship to Graham Hill (8.R.M.) in the last race of the series, in South Africa, when a drain plug dropped from his gearbox when he was well in the lead. In 1963 he won the championship in no uncertain manner, but he was not quite so fortunate in 1964, mechanical troubles robbing him of the championship, Last year, however, be again won the championship in a convincing manner, and also won the famous Indianapolis 500 race in the United States.

RICHARD ATTWOOD is little known in New Zealand, but his reputation in Britain has been growing steadily. He is aged 25, and in theEuropean season which has just finished he scored world driver’s championship points in two events, in the Italian and the Mexican grands prix. Attwood has done considerable driving of sports cars, formula two and three cars and also saloons. Last year he won the Rome Grand Prix at the wheel of a formula two Lola owned by the Midland Racing Partnership. Attwood was an apprentice with Jaguars for four years, and the 1965 season was his first as a full-time driver. He drove the LotusB.R.M.’s of the Parnell team, but unfortunately the cars were not competitive. Richard Attwood’s first racing experience was in 1959, when he drove a Standard Eight. In 1960 he started racing a Triumph TR3, and then he did a considerable amout of formula junior racing, and had the occasional driy* for *

works team, including drives for B.R.M. This European season Attwood is likely to drive for the Cooper works team, and he has already been testing the team’s Vl2 Maserati-engined 3-litre car. JIM PALMER, aged 24, is New Zealand’s national single-seater champion, and has held the championship for two years in succession. Palmer, who comes from Hamilton, has been driving since he was 15. He Is a son of the veteran racing and speedboat driver, George Palmer. He started racing with a Ford-engined Buckler, and then competed with a Lotus 11. It was with this car that he had his first major successes. He raced it throughout New Zealand in the 1959-1960 season, finishing the season with three wins at Levin.

Since those days Palmer has remained closely associated with Lotus cars, and his next car was a Lotus 15, a former works car with a

1960 c.c. Coventry Climax engine. With this car he finished seventh in the New Zealand G.P. of lf'o, and took fifth place on the New Zealand gold star table.

His next car was a formula junior Lotus 18. It did not perform as hoped during that season, and Palmer finished in seventh place on the gold star table.

The next seas< u he drove a Lotus 20 with a 1475 c.c. Ford engine, and once the car was going properly he scored a fourth at Teretonga, second at Dunedin, and first at Waimate. He finished third on gold star points. He improved again the next season, finishing equal second on the gold star table, and the next season, driving the Cooper 2.5 litre previously raced by Angus Hyslop, he won the championship, a performance he repeated last year in a Brabham. Now driving the Lotus 2.5 litre previously raced in New Zealand by Jim Clark, he is well on the wky to winning the New Zealand gold star for the third successive year.

The best New Zealand sports car driver and likely winner (for the second time) of the New Zealand Racing Drivers' club sports car championship is the Auckland driver JIM BOYD, who will race the Lycoming Special. Boyd started racing in 1952 with a Morris Minor. He was then aged 26. He also drove in hillclimbs and rallies, but his main interest was racing. After the Morris Minor he drove a Ford VB, a Singer sports, and a TR2, and in 1956 he won the New Zealand sports car championship in a Buckler. In 1957 he drove a HWM, and then gave up racing for three years. He returned to hillclimbs with a Cooper Holden, coming second in the 1962-63 hillclimb series. He drove a Valour in 1963 and 1964 and last season drove the Lycoming, one of the most successful New Zealand specia#.

With this car he not only won the sports car racing award but a , '-o gained numerous hillchmb records throughout the North Island.

SHELL AV/