Rough rider Rosberg

Sir,

It amused me to read the advice Keke Rosberg gives to his kid.

During a Can-Am race at Riverside, I happened to be at Turn Seven when Keke, none too gently, ‘eased’ poor Geoff Brabham off the track. Geoff was driving a VDS-bodied Lola. This was the second iteration of Can-Am, which specified a full-bodied car with central seating, a 5-litre engine limit and not much else. Most of the cars were rebodied Formula 5000 machines.

At the end of the race, I was in the paddock when Keke returned with his mount His car came to a halt with a thin mist all around it and, as the mist dissipated, I swear I heard the car whimper, as it seemed to settle to the ground. One front fender was missing, as were the two sidepods, exposing the sliding skirts. The two rear fenders were gone, and the rear wing sat about 4-6in lower than when the car had started the race. Each vertical wing strut had a Z shape in it, so the wing was still relatively horizontal. The car looked as though, as they say out west, “She rode hard and put up wet”. It had finished fourth in spite of all of Keke’s `encounters’ on the way.

I thought to myself that this guy was going to make it big or die trying! Fortunately for all of us, he made it really big!

I am, yours etc,
Richard Yagami, Norwalk, Connecticut, USA