N.Z. Championship

Sir,

Having received my airmail copy of your September issue yesterday, I have just finished reading every precious word between the covers and must applaud your excellent article on New Zealander John Nicholson (another example of a motoring Kiwi who gains little recognition in his own country).

However, my reason for writing is to correct an impression that you gave in the latter part of the article where it was stated that “the N.Z. Championship changed to Formula Ford”. From this it could be assumed that the N.Z. premier motor racing champion is decided in the comparitively ‘toy Formula Fords, this is not the case. The nation’s premier series is actually the Gold Star series, a Championship which is basically Formula 5000 with provision for Formula z cars and smaller. Last year’s Gold Star champion David Oxton has only recently returned to N.Z. after competing in the European F5000 series in his locally built Begg F.M.5.

Formula Ford is indeed very strong in this country, and does carry its own award, but the ultimate prize still lies with cars demanding much greater skill and experience. The confusion probably occurs due to the fact that at one time the Gold Star series was for the old tasman 2.5-litre cars, while a separate series was run for 0.1600 cc cars like Nicholson’s Brabham BT18. This second series did die out at the time when our Gold Star Championship changed to F5000 and F2, and Formula Ford became the less expensive way to go racing a single seater.

I look forward to the fourth of fifth of every month when your excellent publication arrives, and although I realise it is impossible to cover all aspects of our sport, I would be pleased to receive more coverage of F5000 events.

St. Heliers Bay, Peter Hill

New Zealand.