1969 Round 4
Teretonga

Round Four: TERETONGA  12th Teretonga International

Piers Courage dominated the Rothmans Teretonga International 100 on 25 January when he grasped the lead from Chris Amon on the third of the 62 laps and increased it as he liked to bring home the Frank Williams 2.5 Brabham-Ford BT24 V8 at a race record 97.38 mph and 18.4 sec clear of Graham Hill, who turned out to be the sole Gold Leaf Team Lotus contender in the final New Zealand round of the Tasman series. Third, only 3 sec back, was Amon and next, a lap down, was Frank Gardner. A further lap behind came Derek Bell. Roly Levis was sixth with 59 laps. Having set a 99.48 mph lap record in the morning preliminary, Jochen Rindt looked the favourite in pole position, but he saw none of the action as a driveshaft broke when he let in the clutch at flagfall. Bell cleared the Lotus out of the way with three hard pushes, the last of which damaged a nose-spoiler; it was removed at the end of lap 1 and thereafter he drove magnificently from the tail of the field for fifth place. Courage made fastest race lap at 99.39 mph. As the 1968 race was two laps shorter, there was no basis for a winning speed comparison.

Courage (Brabham BT24) passing Dawson (Brabham BT7A).

The only real change from Wigram in the Teretonga entry was a new car from George Begg. It was a Begg-Ford twin cam 1500cc that was entered for Barry Keen to drive.

The Brabham's of Murdoch and Hawthorne in close company.

Race day proceedings opened with the two 10 lap heats, the first being for serious Tasman contenders and the second the penultimate round in the National Formula series. Rindt had pole position and shot off to win as he liked, with Courage tagging along in workman like style. Amon held third place all the way, with Bell and Hill disputing fourth. Gardner was content to keep with it and watch the action and must have been as surprised as Bell when Hill, in the final round, faded badly; the trouble was lack of fuel. So the finishing order was Rindt, Courage, Amon, Bell, Gardner, Hill and Lawrence and Levis. Rindt averaged 97.05 mph, established a 57.9 sec lap record, obtained pole position for the bit that mattered and looked favourite, particularly after his Wigram win seven days earlier.

Amon trying to catch Hill in the closing stages.

Rindt, with his pole position for the final New Zealand Tasman round, saw no more than a convulsive shudder from his Lotus 49B when the flag dropped. He had broken a driveshaft and traveled only a few car lengths. Courage, wheels spinning, went off in a cloud of smoke and was shadowed by Amon.

Courage made his ninth lap the fastest of the race at 58.0 sec and it was evident that the Frank Williams entered car was more than a match for the Ferrari. McCully was out on lap 15 when he found he could not select any gear in his Hewland. By the time 18 laps had been completed the gap between Courage and Amon had widened to 8 sec. Three laps later it was 11 sec, meanwhile Hill began to close on Gardner, but the Australian was not giving anything away and it was not until lap 33 that the world champion finally slipped into third place. On lap 22 Lawrence retired on the back of the track with no clutch. Courage and the other front-runners had begun doubling some of the better placed residents, including Brownlie who was filling seventh behind Levis.

With 44 laps gone, Courage was 21.2 sec ahead of Amon and Hill made his move. Under pressure Amon began to hurry up and whittled the margin to Courage, but Hill was not to be denied and moved into the Ferrari's slipstream around lap 47. Amon held on until the end of the 53rd lap when Hill finally took him. There was no question of Hill catching Courage, who proceeded to lap Gardner at the end of his 58th lap. Then the order was Courage, Hill, Amon, Gardner, Bell a lap behind the Australian, Levis now well ahead of Brownlie who had lost time in an off-course excursion. Oxton headed the rest, some way ahead of Hawthorne. That was the way they finished, Courage scoring his only Tasman win and, indeed, his last points in the series.

Rindt qualified on pole, but to no avail.