7/1

Amateurs All.

IT is a had day for any sport when it passes entirely into the hands of professionals. There is always bound to be a considerable number of men who make their living by their skill at the game, and this is especially true of motor sport, where the professional driver has to be very good indeed, if he is going to make a financial success of it. This ensures a high standard, but to keep any sport really live it is necessary to maintain a steady influx of amateurs. . It is proof of the very healthy condition of the sport in this country that the amateur and professional element mingle so freely and without any of the absurd

which divide the two classes in some other sports. The reason for this is fairly easy to find. Nearly every newcomer to motor racing or competitions takes it up because he likes it, and later, finding that he has not the time for two different jobs, gives his whole time to the sport and gradually becomes a professional driver. There is probably no other Sphere of activity in which a man may gradually change over, and some people may hold that it cannot be so in this case, as the moment a man accepts anything as a reward for his skill, he is no longer an amateur. According to the letter of the law

this may be so, but the spirit allows some latitude. As there is no hard dividing line in motor racing events between amateurs and professionals, so there is no definite division between the status of one or the other:as individuals. Last month saw the annual reliability triali between Oxford and Cambridge, won by the latter, and this event showed where we will have to look for the further supply of drivers as the sport increases. Many of the entrants in this event were newcomers to the competition side of motoring, and while one saw a mixed display of driving ability both in the car and motor cycle class, the zeal and old spirit which have always been the fundamental and necessary ingredients of all sport, were there in abundance. If we were asked to define the genuine amateur in motoring we would say that the entrants in this event supplied the answer. Many of them will continue, and in doing so may find it economically advisable to make what they

can out of the game, and who will blame them ? In common with the majority of our well known drivers of to-day, they will always remain amateurs at heart ; and a sport of which this can be said can always look forward to a successful future.