Unsung Ambassador

Sir,

I know you like to beat the drum for Britain when it is justified, as in your November editorial.

I also know that you can’t include everyone in these days of wide-ranging sporting activity.

There was, however, an important omission from your list of British heroes of 1986. In the toughest-ever FIA (formerly `European’) Touring Car Championship Win Percy not only took the title for TWR and Rover — albeit by a single point after dropping his four worst results — but he led from the front (always a difficult thing to do, as Nigel Mansell found from mid-season) and was the clear winner on total points scored.

It could be argued that because Group A racing gets relatively little media coverage (so far) in the Northern Hemisphere, the top touring car drivers don’t have the psychological pressures of the F1 men. Even so, Win Percy’s combination of talents — speed, mechanical sympathy, sportsmanship, and team spirit, to name a few — must place him firmly on a similar pedestal to that of Derek Bell.

ANDREW WHYTE Ettington, Warwickshire