Guardian against disaster

Sir,

With reference to Adam Cooper’s excellent feature about Jochen Rindt in October’s Motor Sport, and further to Malcolm Ginsberg’s letter the following month, I was living in Italy at the time of that tragic GP at Monza, and much was written in the local press. It transpired that the reason the crash was fatal was not so much hitting the retaining post of the guard rail but the fact that there was only one layer of barrier about 50 centimetres above ground. The Lotus 72’s wedge-shaped nose simply pushed into the gap with devastating consequence. Had there been a double layer of guard rail, even at the high speed at the braking point for Parabolica, the accident would surely not have caused Jochen’s death.

The following March, I was at Monza for the first round of the European touring car championship and, of cotuse, a double-layer guard rail had been erected.

On another note, the Targa Florio articles were excellent. Can we now have something about Mugello? Not the current track but the old road circuit in the same area. I saw the last four races there and would say they were at least as good as the Targa, but were probably more dangerous (if that’s possible!) due to the number of trees lining the circuit.

I AM, YOURS ETC,

Roy Pagliacci, London