No Measham

Sir,
Your comment on the cancellation of the V.S.C.C. Measham Rally because of snow implies that vintage motorists have become considerably softer than their cars. Far from there being “a spot of snow” to add spice to the competition, 90% of the planned route was completely blocked, including main roads. The cancellation decision was not undertaken lightly by those who had spent many hours of hard work in preparing the event.

Another point is that, with the future of rallying in the balance, the unleashing of a horde of rally cars to add to the difficulties of those who were trying to keep the main roads clear would hardly have endeared this club either to the R.A.C. the general public, or to other clubs dependent on the latter’s goodwill for the continuance of road events.

So far as this last aspect is concerned things are not, alas, what they were in your youth!

P. M. A. Hull.
Hon. Press Secretary
The Vintage Sports Car Club Ltd.
Longstanton

[I intended my note about cancellation of the Measham and other rallies due to neige to be wistful comment on the fact that, as Mr. Hull observes, things are not so free and unfettered as they were in my youth, not as criticism, which Mr. Hull and the V.S.C.C. President appear to have read into it. Before receiving the above letter I heard Mr. Kenneth Neve take me to task in his Presidential Address at the V.S.C.C. Marshals’ Dinner—a commendable annual institution to which I was invited because very early one cold morning last year I set out in my vintage car and drove many miles to help marshal the Pomeroy Trophy contest, and not, as Mr. Neve appeared to think, just because I happen to be the Editor of Motor Sport!

It occurs to me that if rally drivers want to win some esteem in the eyes of those through whose country their events pass, they might profitably go out on the occasions when snow stops their sport and render what help they can to farmers, tanker and lorry drivers, police, hospitals, old-folk and others to whom snow represents a far greater menace. I hasten to add that this humble suggestion is not directed only at the V.S.C.C.—Ed.]