State title: Supermodified 1973

Recount of the Super modified 1973 State Championship.

This is from the memory of Bruce Robertson.

I was 16 at the time and it is still one of the most vivid memories I have. The race was fought between Phil Herreen in his 318 Valiant powered "Sophisticat" Supermodified and Bill Wigzell and the 427 Chevy powered Suddenly 88 car.

These 2 drivers started the race in their usual rear of field positions. Bill made a great run through the traffic with lots of power being applied while the track was wet and freshly graded. Phil was held up for quite a few laps and steadied his progress through the field. I think that Wigzell bolted fairly quickly to the front of the field in a matter of 4 or 5 laps which was quite well done. Eventually by the 16th lap point Phil had made his way into second place. There were no stoppages and the volume of traffic had started to lay considerable black lines down on the racing surface and the moisture was drying up.

Wigzell was having more difficulty applying the massive horsepower of the big block Chevy to the ground and was starting to display the familiar extreme angles of oversteer that car was capable of. Phil caught him fairly quickly by the 18th lap but had a lot of trouble finding a passing place because Wigzell was taking up most of the track. The crowd on the Coglin Street hill were quite beside themselves by this time.

Wigzell was starting to enter the corners sideways with massive smoke pouring from the tyres. Phil's car was steady and handling very good as we had a Hydraulic weight jacker and a hydraulically adjusted wing so the car was always good in its handling. For the next 2 laps they raced at full speed with Phil's right front wheel placed inside the gap between the side nerf and the left front wheel of Wigzell's car. Then Phil had to back off because Wigzell went into the ambulance corner (turn 3 ) backwards! Phil said after the race he couldn't believe the angles of oversteer of Suddenly.

Obviously a different plan was needed to pass Bill so Phil lowered the angle of attack of the wing and that enabled him to oversteer the car more and he then ran for the next 3 laps absolutely wheel to wheel with Wigzell. Wigzell's car was revving harder than ever with tremendous exhaust noise and smoke from the tyres, Phil's car was rubbing tyre sidewalls on both front and rear tyre at the same time. The whole of the Rowley Park crowd were standing and cheering for these 2 drivers.

Eventually Phil inched his way past Bill sufficiently to hold Wigzell high on the exit of turn 2. This was the time to pull the hydraulic lever for the wing angle of attack and add an extra 300 pounds of down force to the rear tyres. As a result the car shot down the straight a full car length ahead of Suddenly. In the next 2 laps he stretched out a half lap advantage on Wigzell and cruised home to win the State Championship.

After all these years it still holds to be one of the most exciting races ever seen at Rowley Park.

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