Audi Racers and Writers

I was delighted, recently, to receive an invitation from Audi to their "Racers and Writers" dinner, held at Goodwood House earlier this week. Although I have been to the Goodwood Revival race meeting in the past, I had never set foot in the house - and a very splendid place it is too

The "Racers" element of the guest list read like a who's who of folk who have raced Audi cars over the years, including Tom Kristensen, Allan McNish, Oliver Jarvis, James Weaver, Andy Wallace and Richard Attwood. Then there were rally drivers Stig Blomqvist and Harald Demuth. From the engineering side were Howden 'H' Haynes, Leena Gade and Kyle Wilson-Clarke. Finally, masterminds of organisation Dr Wolfgang Ullrich and John Wickham were also present, but both refrained from providing any management input!

The evening was organised in great style by Audi, yet was an informal affair. We were offered a brief tour of the house - which was fascinating. Although I am not a student of fine art, it was impossible not to be impressed by paintings from Canaletto and Stubbs, by 18th century tapestries from Louis XV and by the superbly well-preserved ambience of a 300-year old stately home filled with period furniture.

Lord March was also present and gave a welcoming talk, dinner was superb (salmon followed by sirloin steak) and a great time was had by all. I have to admit that I spent most of time enjoying myself, rather than trying to pick any great secrets out of anyone - it was super just to be able to talk about cars and racing until the small hours of the morning.

I was surprised, though, to learn that at Le Mans this year the Allan McNish Audi e-tron quattro will not be engineered by Howden Haynes. This will be something of a departure, since H has worked on the car of McNish, Kristensen and Capello for the last five years. This year, though he will be working on the R18 ultra of Oliver Jarvis, Mike Rockenfeller and Marco Bonanomi. The full list of assignments goes like this both for Le Mans and for Spa:

Number	Car	Drivers	Engineer
1	R18 e-tron quattro	Fässler/Lotterer/Tréluyer	Leena Gade
2	R18 e-tron quattro	McNish/Kristensen/Capello	Dominic Zeidtler
3	R18 ultra	Duval/Bernhard/Dumas	Kyle Wilson-Clarke
4	R18 ultra	Jarvis/Rockenfeller/Bonanomi	Howden Haynes

There doesn't seem to be anything particularly sinister or conspiratorial here - it is merely that H found himself working more on the ultra over the winter, whereas Zeidtler (an experienced race engineer from Joest) has spent more time with the hybrid. It does, however, raise an interesting question for the race in June. Since the Le Mans 24 hours is a round in the WEC, a tactical, (double) points-scoring finish might be attractive to those with World Championship aspirations. For H and his team of 'young chargers', points will not mean a thing. For H, Le Mans is and should be 'win or bust'!

As for news about Timo Bernhard's recovery, following his testing accident at Sebring, I was unable to discover anything. However, it struck me as significant that the nominated reserve driver, Marc Gené, will join Dumas and Duval at Spa. But Jarvis and Bonanomi will race at Spa as a two-driver team, as Mike Rockenfeller is occupied with the DTM at Lausitzring. Interestingly, in conversation with Haynes and Jarvis, H said that he saw it as a good thing... one less driver meant one less thing to worry about. And over six hours, the strain on the driver is not nearly so great as at Le Mans. Obviously, Jarvis and Bonanomi will benefit from the extra seat time, neither having raced an Audi prototype before. But there would be no point in putting Gené in the car at Spa unless there was at least a small chance that he would be racing at Le Mans as well, is there?

One other highlight of the evening is worth a mention: the presence of the Le Mans-winning Audi R18 TDI outside the house - I had known that it hadn't been cleaned since its victory; and there it was, shipped over from Ingolstadt especially for the occasion and still looking very scruffy. One day it will have to be scrubbed up, but not just yet.

Graham Tyler

Graham and I have known each other for a long time. I became aware of him at Le Mans in 1990, when he first worked officially as a ‘spotter’ for Radio Le Mans. He would go off into the countryside to sit beside the track with a walkie-talkie radio and send in messages about cars with problems, or in qualifying he would spot which cars were about to set a fast time. He’d first gone to Le Mans in 1980 (the year before me) and inevitably, been bitten by the bug. When Radio Le Mans arrived in 1987, Graham would make a point of listening, and periodically would pop into the studio caravan with a piece of paper with various notes that he’d made - many of which would answer questions that had been posed on the radio - in those days without wall-to-wall TV coverage, no in-car cameras and little in the way of media information, piecing together what was happening on a minute-by-minute basis was far from simple.

As a result of that contact, I asked him to assist me doing lap charts when I was doing circuit commentaries, not just for endurance races, but also for plenty of other meetings - including the British Grand Prix - not only Silverstone, but also at Brands Hatch, Donington and elsewhere. At lap charts, as with almost everything that he undertook, he was thorough and meticulous - not to mention jolly good company.

Over time, Graham and I became good friends. He had his priorities well-sorted, and having spent so long in the background of Radio Le Mans, I was pleased when he stepped forward to become one of Radio Le Mans pit lane commentators in 2002. Memorably, his first interview on raceday was with Jacky Ickx and any nerves - on either side - were not apparent; Graham’s naturally engaging character was well-suited for talking with drivers and other personalities. His style is easy-going, but he never shies away from ‘the big interview’ and is invariably in the thick of the media scrum that surrounds the winners at the end of the race.

There are times though, when he surprises me. Graham thinks carefully about what he does, but that doesn’t stop him from taking what may sometimes seem to be spontaneous decisions when his dreams beckon. I didn’t expect him to embrace the opportunities for travel that first the ALMS, then the FIA GT series offered him. Indeed, I will admit to some twinges of jealousy as I focussed on my own life and my new family while Graham was travelling to races in far-off and exotic places.

In addition to the ALMS, he covered the FIA GT series for TV, forming a popular double act with Richard Nichols between 2005 and 2008.

And he surprised me again last week, with an email announcing that he would not be part of the Radio Le Mans team for 2012. “It hasn’t been an easy decision,” he wrote, “but I truly do feel it’s the right one.” So when I rang him and asked him what I could do to make him change his mind, I already knew what his answer would be.

“If I can’t give of my best, then I’d sooner open the door to someone new who can.” Well, the purpose of this article is not to open a discussion about who that should be, but rather to give a little respect to someone who has done an outstanding job for Radio Le Mans in the past twenty years.

I’ve tried to get to the bottom of Graham’s decision - and it is not any one thing in particular. Partly, it is because Le Mans is not what it once was, neither the race nor the place. The changes to the track and its surroundings have undoubtedly been necessary, but they have changed the character of the place. Safety regulations being what they are, there is a tendency for circuits to become more and more homogenised. In Graham’s own words: “I reached the point where Le Mans didn’t feel magical any more, […] that’s what Le Mans should be - magic.”

Graham hasn’t quite embraced the new breed of prototype, either. “The diesels, though fantastically efficient, are about as exciting to listen to as my little Vauxhall Corsa, and that hideous dorsal fin now proscribed for all of them on safety grounds, simply destroys what would otherwise be a deliciously swooping profile on almost any chassis you care to name. In short, somehow they just don’t stir my soul, which racing cars really should,” he says.

In some ways, I can understand his decision, although for my own part I am not about to make a similar one. I’m hoping that he will take a year or two away, find that he misses it all dreadfully, and then makes a return. It would seem that for 2012 at least, his approach, insight and understanding will not be a part of the Radio Le Mans broadcast - which is a shame, don’t you agree?

Lap Charts

Following my post about getting started in commentary, inevitably, someone asked about lap charts. In the old days, the raceday programme that you bought when you were at the track always contained a blank lap chart template, and it was this that got me started in the first place. The image below is from a Thruxton programme in 1977 - unfortunately the BARC lap charts only allowed you to record the cars in the top six positions though.

There is a book called "How to Watch Motor Racing" by Stirling Moss, (it's available second hand from Amazon) and although it is terribly out of date now, it is a jolly good read. In it are (amongst other things) instructions about how to keep a lap chart. In essence, all you do is to write down the numbers of the cars each time they pass you. Write them down in a column, starting a new column each time the leader comes past. Here is a photograph from the relevant page in Stirling's book - you can see how number 7, having led the race until just after half-distance, drops out, and number 17, starting from the back, comes through to finish on the podium.

This is what I call a "block chart" - it is a term I learnt from Mike Eyre, a chief RAC timekeeper in the 1980's. It is also sometimes these days called a "position chart", in that it gives you the position of each car on each lap. If you look on the TSL Timing website, they provide an electronic version of this after most major events in the UK where they are officiating.

This chart is very useful, and relatively easy to produce for short races. It helps if you can write quickly, legibly, and in a straight column, without having to look down at what you're writing.

Note though, that when the leader starts to lap the backmarkers, you have to record the backmarker in a previous column - he has not, after all, completed the same number of laps as the race leader. This is where it gets difficult with a long-distance race: the leaders will lap slower cars many times and even the mid-field runners will lap those at the back. Here is my block lapchart for the 1000km race at Brands Hatch in 1986.

This is just the first 50 or so laps of a 236 lap race - so there is a lot of paper to the right of the photograph!

Things to note (you might have to expand the photo):

horizontal (green) lines dividing the positions after every five cars... this is useful to quickly be able to see who is running in, say, 12th place.

vertical (green) lines - these show the start and end of safety car periods. As the race goes on you can observe how these lines spread across several laps, showing how the field gets spread out as the backmarkers lose more and more laps to the race leaders.

circle around cars when they make a pit stop - apart from anything else, this also makes it easier to find when it rejoins, probably losing places as a result.

The trouble with trying to keep a block chart going is that you will often get three cars crossing the line close together, all on different laps, and by the time you have found where they all belong on the chart, another two cars will come past and you easily get lost.

The answer is to have an assistant, doing a "running chart". This merely records the number of each car as it comes past, in the order that the cars are running on the track. Don't worry about which cars are a lap behind, just make sure that you record each car. Start a new column every time the leader comes past, just because it is a good check on how many laps are completed. In the early stages, of course, before the lappery starts, it will closely resemble the block chart, but as the race develops, it provides the raw data input required to facilitate the block chart. Indeed, the first time I enlisted a helper to do this, I ended up spending more time looking at the running chart than I did looking at the cars on the track.

If you looked up TSL's website before (to look at a position chart) - look now for what they call a "Lap Chart", and look at the column containing the car number. This gives the order that the cars cut the timing beam, and effectively shows what the running chart looks like. Of course some columns are longer than others, depending who rejoins from pit stops, or whether the leader has stopped.

So to summarise (for the benefit of Chris, who asked the question) a block chart shows you at a glance the position of each car, and how many laps they have all completed; whereas the running chart just shows the order that cars are running on the track.

If you're quick, and have a stop watch, you can make notes on the running chart of the gaps between significant cars - this way you'll pick up who might be closing on whom, and whether a pass for position might be on the cards. Even with electronic timing, I still find a lap chart massively helpful, not only in following a race as it unfolds, but also to keep as a record of what happened.

BTCC at Brands Hatch

I had a marvellous day out at Brands Hatch on Sunday, watching the British Touring Car Championship with my 11-year old son. We went as proper paying spectators, thanks to the generosity of Peter Nally at Nally-Track & Corporate, who cut us a very reasonable deal on the hospitality and great views of the Indy circuit offered by his suite in the Brabham Centre, overlooking the straight of the same name.

There was a big crowd there, and we witnessed a pretty packed day of racing entertainment - Ginettas, Porsches and Renault Clios interspersing the three races for touring cars. Having arrived at 9:00am, I was expecting my son to get bored long before the end of the last race, but thanks to the comfort of the suite, the entertaining company and the thrills and spills of racing, we stuck it out until well past 6 o’clock before heading home (via an inevitable souvenir purchase at Alex Reade).

Although I am still as passionate as ever about endurance racing, the day was a good example of how to bring spectators through the gate and entertain them - not with off-track attractions like bouncy castles, Top Gear simulators and over-priced merchandising (all of which were at Brands and doing a roaring trade) - but with good, solid, proper motor racing.

Collard leads race 1

Get folk in with the ‘soap opera’ names like Plato and Neal; with cars that the public can relate to; keep the action rolling along, and they will learn how to watch a sprint race: it’s a formula that worked for me before I hit my teenage years, and it will encourage others nowadays. You don’t learn to read by starting off with Dickens, Shakespeare or Tolstoy. But the seeds of leisure reading are planted by making reading entertaining, and inspiring you to read more challenging stuff as you get older. If the thought of attending six, twelve or twenty-four hour races is too much for you, go and see the BTCC, and see what it leads to.

One thing that I was very aware of at Brands was that despite the presence of a TV screen in the suite, nobody was watching it - the view out of the window at the real thing kept people spellbound. Long may it be thus - watching racing on a screen just isn’t the same. You have to be there to get the full experience.

Plato on the way to victory in race 3

Live motor sport - unbeatable!

Starting out in commentary - my story

I am often asked how I got into commentary in the first place, and it is a tale I have told, in varying degrees of detail, on many occasions. As I explained a while ago, (here) I first went to a motor race when I was ten years old, with my parents. As I grew up and became more independent, I began to take myself along: at first on public transport, which was a nightmare, with Sunday bus and train schedules and the remoteness of most circuits making visits to anywhere except Crystal Palace a near-impossibility. I did make it to Brands Hatch a couple of times, but once I was old enough and more importantly, able to drive, then having my own car opened up a world of possibilities.

Through the late seventies then, I drove all over the country to watch Formula 3, Formula 2, Touring Cars, Sports cars, and of course, Formula 1 - I would attend not only the British Grand Prix, but also any other F1 race that might take place within these shores. By the time the British Grand Prix came around in 1980, I had been to Silverstone, Mallory Park, Thruxton, Oulton Park and Donington; as well as Monaco, Monza and the Österreichring.

As far as possible, I would always position myself as close to a loudspeaker as I could - and I would always keep a lap chart, in order to keep on top of what was going on. I nearly always attended race meetings on my own - so the commentator came to be my friend. One of the first things that I would do on buying the programme would be to look to find out who the commentator was. So if I did not know the faces of Brian Jones, Norman Greenway, Neville Hay or Peter Scott-Russell, I certainly knew their voices. The presence of Anthony Marsh meant that it was a major meeting, and if Jean-Charles Laurens was there, to inform the “French-speaking spectators”, then of course that added a very exotic, foreign flavour and you knew you were at a truly International Event.

So it came that at the British Grand Prix (at Brands Hatch) in 1980, I became increasingly irritated with Brian Jones as he failed to provide the information that I wanted. So irritated did I become, that I decided to put pen to paper and write to him. (On a whim, I also sent a copy to Motoring News, which published it in the week following the Grand Prix.)

All credit to Brian, then, as he replied within a week or so to my letter - defending himself in some areas, and admitting fault in others - and trying to explain the complexity and pressure of his job. He also invited me to see him, in the commentary box, at some point when next I would be at Brands.

As things turned out, I didn’t go back to Brands for the rest of 1980, but in May 1981, I phoned up in order to try and organise a corporate event at the Motor Racing Stables skid pan. In those days, Brian’s day job was taken up running Motor Racing Stables, and I of course instantly recognised his voice as we talked about how and when we might be able to organise something. We agreed that he would send me some information, and he asked for my name and address.

“Paul Truswell,” I said.

“Paul…, wait a minute,” Brian replied and in my mind’s eye I could see his pen pause in mid-air. “Weren’t you the chap who wrote me that snotty letter after the Grand Prix last year?”

“Yes, that was me,” I replied.

“And I sent you a reply, didn’t I?” Brian went on.

“You did,” I said.

“I invited you to come and see me in the commentary box, didn’t I?” Brian said.

“Yes, I know,” I said, “but there just hasn’t been the opportunity since.”

“Well, what are you doing this weekend?” asked Brian.

“Coming to Brands Hatch?” I suggested. Before the deal was fully done, I had to undertake to make myself useful, doing lap charts, helping sort out paperwork and so on, and as a result, Brian organised that passes be sent to me, and graciously allowed me to spend the whole day in the commentary box with him. We got on extremely well - having spent the better part of ten years listening to him commentate, I knew instinctively what he was about to say, and tried to provide him with the appropriate piece of paper at the appropriate time, in order that he might not be left with an unfinished sentence. For more than a year, I helped out with lap charts and so on, without having any ambition to pick up the microphone myself.

However, the layout of the box at Brands Hatch meant that the commentator had to descend a ladder, walk through the timekeepers’ box, and then go down a further two flights of stairs, to interview the winners after each race. Brian thought it would be a good idea if I could “fill in” for him, while he was out of the box, by reading out the result of the previous race, or reading out the grid positions for the next race. As the absence of any such information being read out over the PA had been one of the reasons for my letter the previous year, I was happy to do so, on the understanding that by the time the next race started, Brian would have got his breath back and be ready to talk again.

Brian had other ideas though, and encouraged me to keep the headset on and commentate on a race on my own. Gradually I began to do more: either he and I would share a meeting between us, commentating on alternate races; or I would go out to Westfield Bend and commentate from there when the Grand Prix circuit was in use. But at the bigger meetings, when a more experienced commentator went out to Westfield, then I would return to lap-charting duties. As my circle of contacts increased, so I found myself more work, and started doing lap charts at Silverstone, for Ian Titchmarsh.

I must admit, I was inspired to a certain degree by Jeremy Shaw, who proved to me that it was possible to do a “block” lap chart at a long-distance race, provided there was someone else helping by doing a “running” chart. In the days before electronic timing, and computer screens providing the positions in real-time, an up-to-date lap chart was the only chance for the commentator to be able to follow what was going on in the six hour, 1000km races - even into the mid-1980’s.

When Jeremy emigrated to the USA, I was one of very few who was prepared to take on the challenge of a long-distance lap-chart, and I even managed to ‘sell’ a couple of them to Quentin Spurring, to assist him in writing his race report for Autosport.

Ian and Brian are very different types of commentator, with very different ways of working, but I learnt a lot from both of them, and received a huge amount of help and encouragement too. After Keith Douglas retired from commentating, I took over at Stowe Corner for Silverstone Grand Prix circuit meetings. I also worked a lot with Robin Bradford, who at that time was organising a good deal of motor racing commentary in the UK.

When Radio Le Mans started looking for experienced voices to cover the twenty-four hours, it was a logical choice to use Ian Titchmarsh and me as a double-act - by that stage we would cover nearly all the endurance sportscar races in the UK - Ian with volumes of paper and reference books to complement his encyclopaedic knowledge, and me with my stop-watch, exercise book and lap charts.

So thanks, then to all those I have named above - for encouragement, advice and inspiration. It was never an ambition for me to do what I do - rather I just stepped in, listened and did what I felt needed doing. I think it was all worthwhile - and I hope you agree!

Postscript - on the subject of thanks, there are two others who deserve mention: firstly John Hindhaugh, who has continued to invite me to participate in Radio Le Mans broadcasts; and secondly my wife, who has allowed me to continue to indulge in my hobby despite the increased responsibilities brought about by household and family!

24hours - One team. One target.

A film by Tim and Nick Hahne, presented by Stereoscreen.

I recently came across this DVD, and I am so glad I did. First and foremost, there are so few films about the Nürburgring 24 hours, and with the ever-increasing profile of this race, it is about time someone stepped in to fill the void. The trouble is that Tim and Nick Hahne’s film sets the bar at a pretty high level and I fear it might discourage others from trying.

The film tells the story of the Schnitzer BMW team, as it faces its big target: winning the 24 hours at the Nürburgring in 2011. Having won the race the previous year, expectations are high, and without wanting to spoil the plot for you, it was always going to be a big challenge for Charly Lamm’s team in the face of the competition from Porsche, Ferrari, Mercedes and Audi.

The film follows the team through its preparation: testing at Imola, in the workshops at Freilassing and finally at the Nürburgring for qualifying and the race. We get ‘at home’ glimpses of life with the Priaulx family in Guernsey, see Jörg Müller and Augusto Farfus tearing up the streets of Monaco on their scooters and hear Dirk Adorf explaining his passion for the race as he prepares his tea.

Best supporting actor is race engineer Jacques Hendrikse; the Dutchman playing a role of which Jack Nicholson would be proud - grumpy, but wise; a father figure in whose hands the team can safely place its trust.

The Oscar performance though, comes from Charly Lamm. A familiar face, but beneath his craggy visage are a love and passion for endurance racing (proper racing) that shines out from the screen like xenon headlights piercing the dark of the Eifel forests. I defy you to watch to the end without a lump in your throat, if not a tear in your eye.

Musical accompaniment comes from Toussaint, supplemented by the vocal talent of Sara Lugo, which certainly adds to the atmosphere. Personally, though, I found the complexity of the score a little obtrusive and at times distracting; but that could have a lot to do with my own musical preferences, and certainly doesn’t devalue the quality of the show.

You can watch either with English or German narration, but in either case, you probably need to have the subtitles switched on, as so much of the film is spent with the likes of Lamm or Priaulx speaking their native languages. But it works far better to hear them speaking than to have their voices dubbed - to understand fully what they are saying you need to hear the excitement and emotion in their voices.

I have only one real warning and that is that the film is very light on technical detail - the depth of emotional content comes at that price. You are not really told at any point what the team is doing, or why. But this is not a film to give away any engineering or strategic secrets - rather it gets to the heart and soul of endurance racing in general and the Nürburgring in particular.

If your video and DVD collection contains too many Le Mans films (like mine does) then this is a wonderful addition to it. It may not be the best film you’ve ever bought (that is anyway a matter for lively debate) but I would be surprised if you don’t go back and watch it over and over again.

Find it on Amazon, or http://24hours-der-film.de. It is also available on Blu-ray if you are so equipped.

When you've watched it, let me know what you think below.

Heroes and winners.

A couple of things in this month’s Motor Sport got me thinking. The first was in Nigel Roebuck’s column: “Who was your personal hero?” he posed to drivers, in an attempt to find out more about the character of his interviewees. His underlying theme was that, these days, few drivers had personal heroes; instead they spent their formative years focussing purely on karting and the learning of their craft. As a consequence, they often lose sight of the bigger picture - and lack a knowledge of the history of the stage on which they perform.

It got me to ask myself the same question, though, and I couldn’t really find anyone in particular; certainly not one that inspired me beyond all others to acquire a lifelong interest in this sport. Probably just as well really, as with his passing, I would hate to think that I might not want to follow motor racing any more.

There are many candidates: stars of the motor-racing world while I was growing up and getting to know motor sport. I’m not sure that Jim Clark quite made it onto my list - he was killed when I was 11 - and unfortunately he wasn't at either of the Formula One races that I saw before that day in April 1968. But somehow he never really inspired me, not until later in life when I found out more about him. The problem for me as a “pre-teen” (not sure that was a term that had been invented then), was that Clark was too good. If other things were equal, then Clark would win; and where was the fun in that?

I was a big fan of the Lotus 72 when it appeared in 1970, and having seen Jochen Rindt triumph (somewhat fortuitously, I’ll admit) in the British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch, I was devastated when he was killed at Monza later that year. I’d seen Rindt in Formula Two races at Crystal Palace, where he was of course king, and had read of his supremacy in the category. To my simple teenage mind, that he would win a world championship in such a marvellous car as the Lotus 72 was only right and proper.

Emerson Fittipaldi was another of my first heroes. Having seen him race through Formula Ford and Formula Three at Crystal Palace in 1969, to have him seal Jochen’s championship by winning at Watkins Glen in what was only his fourth Grand Prix - that was wonderful. And it was in a Lotus. There was always something special about Lotus. Much more so than Ferrari. And at least one could realistically aspire to owning a Lotus. And so I did, later. I'm still saving up for my first Ferrari.

Inevitably, then, many of the heroes of my youth were Lotus drivers: after Rindt and Fittipaldi came Peterson, Ickx, Andretti: winners every one of them. I never really took to Mansell though, nor Hunt before him - my Englishness did not extend to jingoism. Then there was Senna. Ah, yes, Senna. By the time Senna arrived in the UK, I had already started my journey in the world of commentary, which provided me with greater opportunities to get to know the man behind the helmet; to see my heroes as human beings, that one could actually talk to... I did speak with Ayrton, several times, and he remained a hero - albeit not one without flaws: maybe genius would be a better term.

And as I got involved in the sport, so the people that I got to know became my heroes. Drivers that weren’t such household names, but ones that I could have a beer with and respect. People whose skill and craft I could understand: Gerry Marshall, Barrie Williams, Tony Lanfranchi, Karl Jones, Patrick Watts. As my knowledge deepened, so my taste for the history developed, and I found out more about Stirling Moss, Juan Manuel Fangio, Tazio Nuvolari, Jean-Pierre Wimille. Somehow the term ‘hero’ seemed far more appropriate referring to drivers of the 1930’s, 40’s and 50’s. Martin Brundle (also in this month’s Motor Sport) says “…the (Formula 1) cars (of today) are too … easy to drive…” To my mind, to be a hero, you have to overcome adversity, and somehow Schumacher, Alonso, Hamilton et al have all had it too easy. Like many of today’s celebrities, whatever their heights of achievement, they have not truly had to struggle.

And in that light, my own personal heroes shine less brightly. Motor racing is sometimes a small and insignificant world.

The other bit of Motor Sport this month that caught my eye was the letter from historic racer Malcolm Ricketts, in which he quotes the late John Dawson-Damer: “the better guys will always win, but the winners are those who can run their cars well, look good, sound good, enjoy themselves and be an entertainment to those who come to have a look. It is not racing, it is motor sport, and that is the difference.”

It’s an interesting thought, and I value it for its depth - for it is not obvious, and not, it seems to me, a view that many will agree with; today the perceived wisdom is that winning is everything and learning how to lose gracefully doesn’t seem to be a highly-prized virtue.

I believe it should not only be applied in the field of historic motor sport, but also to the contemporary scene. It goes at least part of the way to explaining why folk compete in an HRT or a Norma. There is something a bit special about the very activity of driving a car fast that starts the adrenaline - like going on a roller-coaster ride, you don’t necessarily have to win to get a rush from the activity. It’s the attitude of not giving up in an endurance race when you lose an hour repairing something and then go out and drive like crazy for the rest of the race in order to finish sixteenth. Or something like that. You don’t have to finish first in order to be a winner.