Death in Motorsport

This weekend another driver died taking part in motorsport, a talented young who could have become a big star in the future, a winner at the highest level. It is, of course, a human tragedy but, in motorsport it is something that can happen at any race, at any level of the sport and on any given day. It is upsetting, yes, but everyone involved knows that the risk is always there.

Nearly forty years ago I was a young driver fighting for success as you, my loyal reader, well knows from never missing a post, and death was part of my life. This was in an era where motorsport deaths were far from unusual and we felt the shadow of risk every week - this is, in many ways thankfully, no longer the case. Racing cars and circuits are much safer these days, sometimes even at the cost of reducing the excitement for spectators but this is largely an acceptable cost; life is precious, after all, and should not be thrown away stupidly.

Motor Racing is dangerous, REALLY DANGEROUS, has always been so, and it is possible to lose one's life quite easily; even a trivial little incident like banging wheels can have serious results. On Easter Monday 1980 I had a 'silly little' accident at Thruxton in an FF1600 race while running just outside the top 10, losing control in a fast corner round the back and spinning off harmlessly into the greenery, as I thought. Alas I hit the marshalls' post going backwards at over 100mph, was unconscious for over 10 minutes and, were I driving a less robust car than the PRS I may well have died on the spot. As it was I survived with aches and pains, and was back in a racing car within two weeks.

I know people unconnected to motorsport cannot understand this, how in the face of death or serious injury drivers come out week after week to race, to attempt to win, to achieve our dreams, whatever they may be. It's not about money, as in most racing categories outside the very top drivers are unpaid and even often have to cover their own expenses. It's more often than not an intangible, different from person to person, that pushes us; of course, we all also love motorsport, competition, the excitement.

Is death a price worth paying? I know without a shadow of a doubt that in my day, sadly now part of the distant past, it absolutely was. Despite all the hand-wringing and wailing we hear now, the 'it shouldn't be allowed to happen' voices,  the tears shed when it does happen death is still part of what makes motorsport what it is. Remove it and all motorsport becomes is an amusement park game, sterile and graceless.

No driver wants to die, but most of us accept it as a possibility, as part of pursuing something we love above all else. The old photographs of my racing days that accompany this post are, of course, out of date and I'm still around, if unfulfilled - see my post of  earlier in the year - when many friends and others are not. Shedding a tear for the young ones killed in the last few days, I salute them and live on with, like them, acceptance and no fear.