VIII TERETONGA INTERNATIONAL
 Location - Teretonga Park NZ  Laps - 50  Distance - 120.70 km  Date - 30/01/65  Weather - Overcast
ENTRY LIST
No. DRIVER ENTRANT MAKE ENGINE
24 Frank Gardner Alec Mildren Racing Brabham BT11A Climax FPF
41 Jim Palmer George Palmer Brabham BT7A Climax FPF
9 Bill Thomasen Corsair Racing Brabham BT4 Climax FPF
14 Kerry Grant Lesco Racing Brabham BT4 Climax FPF
12 Roly Levis Roly Levis Brabham BT6 Ford 1.5
8 Andy Buchanan Andy Buchanan Brabham BT6 Ford 1.5
21 Graeme Lawrence Graeme Lawrence Brabham BT6 Ford 1.5
7 Ken Sager J.H. Sager Brabham BT6 Ford 1.5
47 Bruce McLaren Bruce McLaren Racing Cooper T79 Climax FPF
48 Phil Hill Bruce McLaren Racing Cooper T70/79 Climax FPF
4 Bruce Abernethy Rothmans Driver Scheme Cooper T66 Climax FPF
15 Red Dawson Red Dawson Cooper T53 Climax FPF
49 Peter Gillum Peter Gillum Cooper T65 Ford 1.5
25 Rex Flowers Rex Flowers Lola T4 Climax FPF
1 Jim Clark Team Lotus Lotus 32B Climax FPF
17 John Riley John Riley Lotus 18/21 Climax FPF
16 Bryan Thomas Bryan Thomas Lotus 27 Ford 1.5

THE hat trick and a further Tasman Cup event to mark up was completed by Scotland's Jim Clark when he won the Teretonga International race, marking the tenth anniversary of the Southland Sports Car Club's debut in international motor racing. Racing, sports and saloon car records were all rewritten at the meeting on January 30 which attracted a record entry. Teams began arriving in Invercargill early in the week after the long drive from Christchurch, and busied themselves with preparation in many of the garages in the industrial town. A new seal had been recently laid on the twisty Teretonga circuit and one Sunday a few weeks prior to the meeting the public was invited to drive around the circuit to help settle the surface. Early in the week sweepers were clearing the track, while the McLaren team began practicing as early as Wednesday.

Clark attacked the existing record of 1m 3.6s set by Brabham in 1963, and hurled the Lotus around in 1m 2s during an unofficial run on Thursday, but practice proper did not commence until lunch-time Friday. The surface of the track appeared very much improved and this was soon apparent as the lap times began to drop. Jim Clark finally recorded the best lap in a scorching lm 1.2s, with McLaren next best at lm 2.5s. In a later unofficial session, Bruce did clock lm 2s dead. Phil Hill was down to lm 2.8s, and local champion Jim Palmer really got down to business, clocking 1m 3.5s lap before coming unstuck out of the loop. His blue Brabham hit one of the posts off the circuit and there was considerable damage suffered by the front right-hand suspension. This resulted in an all-night effort by the Palmer team to have the car ready Saturday morning. Other quick times were Kerry Grant ( lm 4.4s), Roly Levis (lm 5.6s) and Andy Buchanan (lm 6s). Both Rex Flowers and Kerry Grant had trouble with their cars and a new set of rings was fitted to the Grant Brabham before the race, while the Lola was suffering with too much oil pressure.

Race day was windy and miserable, but the many colourful trucks lined the circuit as usual with their home-built stands and hundreds of Southland spectators. Clark led heat one throughout, with Phil Hill occupying second position and Grant's red Brabham third. Clark soon pulled a gap on the American driver while Bill Thomasen, with smoke pouring from the Brabham closed in on Buchanan's smaller Brabham. Back in the minor placings, John Riley's 2.5 Lotus just passed Graeme Lawrence in the 1.5 Brabham at the finish.

As expected, it was McLaren who hit the front in the second preliminary heat and he was followed at the start by Roly Levis, Rex Flowers and Red Dawson. By the second lap Jim Palmer had moved into third position, while Roly continued to circulate extremely fast in his small Brabham. By the fourth lap Palmer had eased up in the Brabham as he was minus a petrol cap, with Flowers and Dawson filling third and fourth placings at the end.

There was some frantic work in the McLaren Equippe shortly before the start of the big race when a broken locating clamp in the steering on Phil Hill's car was discovered. It is felt that this trouble could have been partly responsible for the handling difficulties with his Cooper throughout the New Zealand season.

EIGHTH TERETONGA INTERNATIONAL
Starting Grid
Pole
CLARK, McLAREN, P. HILL, GRANT
LEVIS, BUCHANAN, THOMASEN
FLOWERS, DAWSON, RILEY, LAWRENCE
PALMER, SAGER, GILLUM
ABERNETHY

A minute's silence in memory of Sir Winston Churchill was observed just before the start of the Eighth Teretonga International. Once again it was Clark who was first off the line and into the corner followed by McLaren, Levis, Grant, Riley and Hill.

Buchanan then a crossed up Levis Sager is outBruce was hard on the Scotsman's tail as the field came by at the end of the first lap, with Grant up in third position followed by Phil Hill and Levis who was gamely holding on to the bigger engined cars. Next time round the two leaders had opened a gap on the challenging pair of Grant and Hill. Lap three, and the American was through to third position which he never lost throughout the 75 mile race. Behind Grant came Palmer who had just passed Levis and then Thomasen, Flowers, Riley, Buchanan, Dawson and Abernethy. By lap 5 Clark had 3.5 seconds on McLaren's Cooper while Ken Sager had spun off the circuit. Andy Buchanan made the first of many pit stops with a slipping clutch on his Brabham. Then Rex Flowers stopped at the pits with a jamming accelerator, the Lola seemingly unable to ever finish the race. The order remained the same but by lap 8 Riley, Dawson and Abernethy were all together enjoying a scrap. One circulation later Abernethy was past Dawson, and he then took Riley a few minutes after this move. The two leaders continued to lap around the 1m 3s mark, while Clark had already put in his fast lap for the race in im 1.8s, leaving the new lap record at lm 1.7s which he recorded in the first heat.

By the 18th lap McLaren had closed in on Clark and was only 1.8 seconds in arrears, while there was a 23 second gap to Phil Hill. At the half-way mark the order was the same, with Levis not far behind the larger Brabham of Jim Palmer.

At this stage Dawson led Riley in the minor placings but on lap 30 the red Lotus was through again and this time Riley continued to increase his lead until the end of the race. On lap 33 Clark had 8.5 seconds on McLaren, but the Lotus was having water temperature misdemeanors and later in the race the temperature gauge actually blew, giving the former world champion a few anxious moments until he finally saw the chequered flag.

On lap 38 Clark lapped Phil Hill, making McLaren and he the only cars on the same lap, and on the 45th circulation McLaren doubled Hill. Clark eventually took the flag some 14 seconds ahead of McLaren. Kerry Grant drove a particularly good, steady race in fourth position, perhaps his best singleseater drive to date, with Jim Palmer fifth, Levis sixth and Abernethy seventh.
 
RACE RESULTS
POSITION LAPS TIME
1. Clark 50 52'58.4 FL:1'01.8
2. McLaren 50 53'12.4
3. Hill 49 .
4. Grant 49 .
5. Palmer 48 .
6. Levis 48 .
7. Abernethy 48 .
8. Thomasen 48 .
9. Riley 47 .
10. Dawson 47 .
11. Lawrence 45 .
Gillum 30 DNF:Engine
Buchanan 30 DNF:Clutch
Flowers 6 DNF:Stuck Throttle
Sager 5 DNF:Spin
Written by Donn Anderson for Motorman Magazine. Article submitted by Milan Fistonic

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