1966 Round 4
Teretonga

Jackie Stewart made it a clean sweep for BRM in the New Zealand section of the Tasman Championship by finishing 18.8 sec ahead of Frank Gardner in the Teretonga International at Invercargill. The next three places were taken by Jim Palmer, Dennis Marwood and Roly Levis, all of whom finished two laps behind. Sixth was Ken Sager another lap back. The race was marred when Bill Caldwell's 1.5 Brabham-Ford plunged off the track in the Esses during the unfortunate driver's thirty-third lap. Caldwell and two boys among the spectators died from their injuries. The race was stopped when Stewart and Gardner had completed forty-six of the fifty laps. Stewart who in his preliminary heat had set a new circuit record of 61 sec, or 88.5 mph, won at an average speed of about 84.5 mph although he had the use of only third gear on the tight, twisting 1.5-mile circuit for the final fifteen laps. Again there was trouble soon after the start. Within seconds of flagfall Spencer Martin, Richard Attwood and Red Dawson tangled in the first turn, the Loop, and all shot off into the undergrowth. After winning his preliminary heat, Jim Clark led the race into the fourth lap when he spun off the track and went out with a damaged radiator.

There was a good crowd at the track for the 1.5 main race heat next morning and here it was Sager for the six laps with Lawrence in second position. Levis, prominent early, faded with a misfiring engine and Dene Hollier (Lotus-Ford) finished third, with Thackwell fourth.

The second heat for the Tasman Formula cars was more interesting. Although Gardner made the best start, Clark soon hit the front to put in an opening lap of 68.5 sec. He held off Stewart though the timekeepers could not separate them at the finish, both being given 6 min 6.2 sec. It was in this heat that Stewart set the 61 sec lap record, 0.7 sec inside Clark's 1965 time. Clark's best lap was 61.1 sec. These two were followed home by Gardner, Martin, Attwood, Palmer, Dawson and Marwood with John Riley a lap in arrears.

Gardner shaded Clark off the line while Dawson came through quickly to be prominent also. Then before anyone realized what was happening, came the mix-up in the Loop, it looked much worse than it turned out to be, and Attwood, Martin and Dawson were off the scene, claiming the same bit of track at the same time. Martin slid, Dawson hit him and Attwood sailed over the top of both, ending upside down and trapped under his BRM. Attwood was slightly injured in the accident.

Clark, with the bit between his teeth, managed to draw out a few lengths on Stewart who, in turn, maintained a similar distance over Palmer and Gardner. Then there was a gap back to Buchanan, Riley, Sager, Lawrence and Levis.

Stewart drove consistently at about 62.5 sec while Gardner was about a second slower and Palmer was in the 64 sec range. Buchanan was fourth with Riley, Levis, Lawrence and Sager next in line. Next time round Levis took Riley, who began to drift back. At the end of ten laps, Stewart's advantage over Gardner was about 8 sec and he increased this to 10.6 sec five laps later. By the end of twenty-one laps, Stewart had doubled the field, except Gardner, Palmer being the last to receive this treatment. Lawrence was having ignition problems and finally retired on lap 23.

There was some excitement in the thirty-first lap when, as Stewart flashed past the timekeepers' stand, the BRM jumped out of gear. For the next few rounds the car sounded rough and Stewart's lap times began to fluctuate. Despite his having the use of only third gear he quickly settled down once more and it became clear that he was not going to give anything away.

Dennis Marwood (Cooper-Climax) managed a good fourth placing.

9th Teretonga International

Date: 29th January 1966
Venue: Teretonga Park

46 laps of 2.4138kms (111.03kms)