One last trip... to the TT

One last trip… to the TT

Sir,

I read with fascination Ed Foster’s article ‘This Island Race’ (September). For 15 years in the 1960s and ’70s I travelled the continent reporting for Motoring News and Autosport. I covered such amazing circuits as Rouen, Lake Garda, Chimay, Caserta, Barcelona, Vila Real — all real road circuits like the Isle of Man. Formula Junior, F3 and F2 was my speciality. I even hitched the odd ride to circuits; money was tight and my average fee was £20 a race. I am now 73 and almost never go to a motor race as it all seems rather tame. But reading this article, in spite of it referring to bikes and not cars, brought it all back. I went to F1 races at circuits like the real Spa, Clermont-Ferrand, Niirburgring and Montjuich, and I cannot help comparing them with what we have today. F1 now seems to me a puerile, technical exercise on mostly dull circuits, employing few real characters. Money has changed everything. I’m off to one last race in 2012 — the Isle of Man TT. Paul Watson, Halstock, Dorset