THE BROOKLANDS QUESTION.

THE BROOKLANDS QUESTION.

Sir,

May I suggest that there is a large number of people who would totally dissent from your proposition that “Nothing could be worse from a spectacular point of view than the ordinary B.A.R.C. meeting . .

I do not say that nothing could be better, but it is idle to speak of invisible starts and finishes. The starts are, indeed, unimpressive, as any handicap starting must be, but they can be, and are seen by a good proportion of visitors, who from the hill can see most of the track as well as the finish, and these visitors do not seem to me, as I move among them, at all” uninformed.”

Racing, after all, means covering the course at utmost speed, and for that reason the B.A.R.C, handicaps take precedence in my estimation over long track races, or semi-road races, useful and interesting as these may be, and sometimes are. But if these semi-road races are to be attractive, and I do not by any means wish to decry them, the cars must be real racing cars. It depends on them, not on the course. The British Grand Prix was a successful spectacle, though three cars only finished, because it was a contest to destruction between up-to-date racing cars. Had these been super-sports models with half their owner-drivers keeping one eye (I do not blame them) on the well-being of their car, how tame the affair would have been !

I wish to press the point that, for true sport in motor racing, you must have first-class cars, first-class drivers, and first-class prizes. This last is, perhaps, where the B.A.R.C. fails—but it is little encouragement the club gets, from a section of the technical press !

With your hopes for this introduction of a true road race, and the elimination of popular prejudice and judicial persecution, I am altogether in accord. Yours faithfully,

KEXEXI,XL.