The first race was held in 1949, organised by the Canterbury Car Club, and the 2.2-mile circuit began to gain a reputation as being of a truly international standard with its long 0.8-mile straight and fast, sweeping corners. The first Lady Wigram Trophy, one of the country’s oldest and best known races, was held in 1951 and by the 1960s the place was beginning to attract teams and drivers from overseas as well as crowds of up to 30,000 at the larger events.
Jim Clark was the first man to break the 100mph lap speed while multiple NZ champion and local hero Kenny Smith remembers the high-speed nature of Wigram. “The main straight, which had been a runway, made for properly fast laps and a good exit from Bomb Bay Bend which led onto the straight,” he says. “No doubt, the place played a major part in the history of racing in New Zealand and was hugely popular with the fans through the 1960s and ’70s when drivers came from Europe.”
Like so many circuits that sprung to life in the years following the end of the Second World War, the aerodrome at Wigram was almost a ready-made facility for racing. Spectator viewing was excellent, and it soon became a firm favourite of the Kiwis. International meetings such as the Tasman Series brought big names from Europe, and even towards the end of its life Wigram hosted the popular Pacific championship and the annual Peter Jackson series which gave drivers and teams an opportunity to race in our winter, which, of course, was summer Down Under. In the 1990s the Formula Ford contingent included talented newcomers including Alexander Wurz and Luciano Burti to challenge the locals. An annual historic festival, too, was a draw.
Eventually, and inevitably, Wigram went the way of so many other ‘old-fashioned’ race circuits. The demise began with concerns over safety on the fast stretches. Then the land was sold to developers who planned a housing estate and the RNZAF moved out to a new base at Ohakea on the North Island to underline the end of an era both for the air force and the sport. The last race is now a distant memory but great days at Wigram will never be forgotten by the fans or, indeed, the drivers who raced there.
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