July Editorial

Another delayed editorial, Startline's readership have my apologies. Its not that I had not written an editorial earlier, more that the editorial written was deemed to be too mean to the MSA, and must remain unpublished. Thus readers will miss my comments on Wombledon's traditional lack of UK finalist, it being some 73 years since Fred Perry won the title for the third time back in the last millennium, 1936 to be precise. In motor racing terms this is back in the era of Tazio Nuvolari and beam axles on GP cars. Attitudes were different then, after winning one of his championships, an English official told Fred Perry that "The better man had lost", the better man being a German Barron, think about it, it was the mid 1930s.......... Fred was obviously not considered to be 'a gentleman'. Something he proved after his third championship by emigrating to USA, and making money, the cad.

You will also have to miss the anecdote about my niece, a girl who used to swim to national team standard but found that she was offered better training conditions when on holiday in Australia, where she was offered a trainer and coach. It is difficult to believe that in the last 73 years, the gene pool in England/Britain has been unable to supply an individual capable winning the men's tennis championship, my hypothesis is that the failure lies with the tennis authorities who have failed to identify and nurture the individuals with the necessary innate talent.

Despite the ‘Blue Book’ being somewhat obscure about the situation that the MRC found itself in, Simon Davey has successfully navigated his way through its requirements, and the MSA have permitted us to replace the lost championship round with another championship round at Donington Park, the best possible outcome in the circumstances. MSA regulations impose a bureaucratic hurdle, but they accepted the waiver that all MRC competitors sign when they register for the championship ‘ Competitors agree to rounds being substituted in the event of a cancellation’. I always considered this phrase somewhat high handed, now I appreciate its importance.

Unfortunately, it is inevitable that some will be disadvantaged by a change in the calendar. There is simply no way of being fair to all competitors all the time. To paraphrase a well known saying: you can be fair to all competitors some of the time and some of the competitors all of the time, but you cannot be fair to all competitors all of the time. One notes Tristan's gracious comment on the Forum. A star driver and a star thespian, the lad is just too talented.

A secondary category of those who will potentially find the change in date difficult is represented by my fellow editor, I am talking about those who were unfortunate enough to damage their cars at the non-championship Mallory Park round. They have less than two weeks to effect a repair. An additional problem is that these competitors may arrive at their next meeting with a repaired but untested car. Experience has shown that this is a recipe for a less than satisfactory race; there frequently being some small but important factor that has escaped notice during the rebuild. Still, I am sure that Tony, Graham, and others have their respective situations under control. (No - TC)

As well as Simon Davey, Startline wishes to thank all those involved in replacing the lost meeting with an equally prestigious event, notably Peter Whitmore of the MRC and Drew Furlong of the BRSCC. One must however still note the reservations expressed earlier with reference to the day's timetable, and hope that the weather and other factors co-operate on this occasion.

Patrick Huston
11/07/09

Fred Perry, a great tennis player before being the man behind the mods' shirt of choice

Tazio Nuvolari in 3.9l Scuderia Ferrari Alfa Romeo 8C, Vandebilt Cup, Roosevelt Raceway, NBY, 11/10/36

Tristan is a star thespian. Ellen Degeneris and Sandi Toksvig are 2 other well known thespians.

pics BBC.co.uk, soldadosgalileo.com.ar, cardevotion.com, fota.com.uk, modelfoxbrianza.it