Throughout 1948 the Vintage Car Club and the Canterbury Car Club planned the first New Zealand Championship Road Race on closed public highways in the Waimairi County near Harewood. It appeared to be a recipe for success with plenty of driver and public interest meaning good crowds for what would be the nation's first all sealed circuit race.

All their careful organisation was nearly undone only 10 days before the event when police took action deeming illegal the closure of roads by county officials. Driver Pat Hoare and Prime Minister Peter Fraser are credited with saving the day when Fraser offered the use of the RNZAF Base at Wigram airfield near Christchurch for the Formula Libre race.

So New Zealands first road race became a 2.1 mile (3 km) temporary circuit laid out using straw bales and water filled drums on the abrasive runways of an operational air force base featuring a fast section past the hangers and control tower across suspension tearing drains and a 0.8 mile (1.3 km) straight culminating in a tight elbow connected with a few taxiway curves and bumps.

Morrie Proctor in a Riley 9 is recorded as the winner of the first Lady Wigram Trophy, held on a hot fine February day in front of 30,000 spectators, completing 50 laps (105.8 miles) in 1hr 35m 56s. Sybill Lupp driving an MG , a woman somewhat against the grain of motor racing culture, came in fifth beating a then unknown Aucklander, Ron Roycroft.

The following year organisation was taken over by the newly formed Motor Racing Club and soon became an international event , part of a series of races throughout New Zealand attracting the off season interest of drivers such as Stirling Moss in the Rob Walker prepared Lotus 21, Tony Gaze and Peter Whitehead in their Super Squalo Ferrari’s. Antipodeans based overseas like McLaren, Hulme, Amon, Brabham, and Gardner would return home to match it with the well prepared locals.

Even the cars taking part in Lady Wigram Trophy races were legendary, the Alfa Romeo Tipo-B P3 that Tazio Nuvolari had driven to victory at Nurburgring against the German Works teams of Mercedes and Auto Union was winning again 15 years later from 1951 to 1953 in the hands of Les Moore and Ron Roycroft .

The NZGP winning Maserati 250F’s of Stirling Moss and Prince Bira saw action again on the runways of Wigram in the hands of talented locals including a young Chris Amon. Unfortunately, although fast, the crowd pleasing 4.5 litre V12 Type 375 blue Ferrari in which Gonzales had scored the Scuderia’s first Grand Prix win at Silverstone in 1951 was never reliable enough to take Ron Roycroft to victory.

It was at Wigram in 1960 that Bruce McLaren was offered the technically advanced Ralph Watson engineered Lycoming Special to drive in the race when the engine in McLaren’s Cooper expired on the morning of the race. After fitting the racing Dunlops from his Cooper, McLaren drove to a strong fourth with failing brakes in the final stages. Most impressed with the car‘s ability, Bruce sent the owner, Peter Gill, a set of disc brakes by way of thanks.

By 1963 the NZ international races had evolved into the Tasman Series including 4 races in Australia. The F1 stars and their cars continued to make their way down under . Jochen Rindt, Jim Clark, Jackie Stewart, and Bruce McLaren added their names to the Lady Wigram Trophy.

In 1964 a loop was included in the course where the chicane formerly was extending the circuit by 0.2 miles, but it proved unpopular with drivers. Why slow up an already fast circuit, one asked rhetorically. At the old chicane there was only one bump, and now there were three, another said. By this time the cars touched 150 m.p.h. down the back straight.

1968 is probably best remembered for the first appearance of the Gold Leaf sponsored team Lotus cars of Colin Chapman and the last appearance of crowd favourite and series winner Jim Clark at Wigram.

Later the Tasman series went to F5000 and from 1971 to 1975 Graham McRae dominated at Wigram in cars he designed and built himself. In 1974 when the race was designated as the New Zealand Grand Prix, McRae said of his pole position he would start from the back of the grid for 1000 dollars and would start five seconds further back for another 1000 dollars. In the race two valve springs broke and McRae`s GM2 retired after 29 laps. He was 17 seconds in front.

Racing for the Lady Wigram trophy continued through various formula until 1994 with more well known names such as Ken Smith, Larry Perkins, Ross Cheever, Paul Radisich and Craig Baird on the trophy, the threat of housing development and lack of quality single seater fields in New Zealand saw the end of Wigram as an international venue.

The final race at Wigram was a crowd less mid week affair to satisfy safety laws for classic racers held early in 2000. Don Grindley recalled the early years when spectators at the hairpin held up a hand, giving the thumbs up for the drivers who braked late, and thumbs down for those who braked early. “It was the type of track where your mind told you to keep your foot in it, but your body said ‘no’!”

Footnote: The Motor Racing Club, custodians of the most prestigious trophy in New Zealand motor racing, the Lady Wigram Trophy, are pleased to announce that they will release the Lady Wigram Trophy for competition by the Toyota Tatuus Racing cars in the 2006 Summer Race event. “The Toyota Racing Series cars have clearly demonstrated they are worthy to compete for the Lady Wigram Trophy” says Roy Beecroft, Chairman of The Motor Racing Club who for almost 50 years ran the annual Wigram event. “We look forward to seeing strong grids and top drivers competing at Powerbuilt (Ruapuna) Raceway next year” he says.

And as an added extra I'll throw in a Frank Gardner story just for a laugh. (BJ)

There must be millions of funny stories about mechanics, but the funniest thing I ever experienced was down in New Zealand one year, in the Tasman Series. We were racing in the Lady Wigram Trophy, which is run on an operational airfield just outside Christchurch. The RNZAF allow the local club to move in there a few days before the race, they mark out the circuit with straw bales, and wheel-in temporary toilets and that sort of thing. The airfield itself is really spick-and-span, with these beautiful lawns, and part of the club’s deal is that they’ll leave the field in the condition in which they found it. So you mustn’t get oil all over the lawns, and in the paddock you’re given big drip trays to drain your oil into, or catch petrol if you’ve had an engine problem and you’ve had to wash it down. We had one lad working for us, an Australian ‘Mumbles’ we called him, because he talked with his mouth shut and spoke through his nose. We’d had a problem and had a tray full of oil sludge and petrol, and Mumbles was looking round for somewhere to dump it. Then, being a bright mechanic, he decided the temporary toilet was the place, and he trooped in there with his tray. It was a kind of a trench, with a long wooden bench with holes in it at the required intervals, all screened off into cubicles. Anyway, Mumbles tipped the lot in there, and then having an enquiring mind like any self-respecting racing mechanic, he dropped a match in to see if it would burn. It was a pretty hot day and there were plenty of fumes around so burn it did, going off with a most satisfactory explosion. Mumbles staggered out of one cubicle just as the door burst off the end one, and out shot the mightiest bloody Maori I’ve ever seen, looking pretty stupid with his trousers round his ankles but exceedingly irate. He was just composing himself to punch my mechanic’s head in, but Mumbles, being very quick on the uptake, pointed and mumbled ‘’Ere, you ‘aven’t wiped your arse’, and this Maori looked so sheepish you wouldn’t believe and backed into his smoking cubicle, muttering something about stupid people blowing up toilets…