Friends:
I'm usually just a lurker and I haven't weighed in on this thread, but it
seems to me that in this monthlong debate, first over Moss, and then mention
of Brabham, a big point is being overlooked.
When I first discovered vintage racing in the 1980s and wrote my book, what
everyone told me was that the stars are the cars, not the drivers. We love to
run these beasts now because they represent something from our past,
something different from the cookie-cutter race cars of today.
It seems to me that we cross over a critical line when we put real race
drivers in our cars. To theses guys, these cars we cherish are simply blunt
objects designed to get them to the winner's circle. That's how they treated
the cars when they were new, it's how many of them treat them now.
So how surprised should we be when Moss or someone else crunches a few cars
in a bid to be first into a corner?
And insofar as the thrill of being on the grid opposite the likes of Bobby
Rahal, who now apparently is a vintage race hired gun, I'll stipulate that he
can beat me hands down any day.
I didn't get into this because I felt I was some undiscovered Jeff Gordon or
Alex Zanardi. I got into it because I love the cars, the speed and, yes the
competition. But it's got to be competition with people who come at the sport
-- yes, I think it's a sport -- from the same perspective as I do, not some
retired race driver who's trying to relive his glory days.
OK, I'll go back to lurking.
Terry Jackson
Author, Vintage Racing British Sports Cars
Driver, 65 Mustang
Miami Herald television critic and automotive columnist
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