Can Motor Racing Justify Itself?

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28973, 14 August 1959, Page 14

Can Motor Racing Justify Itself?

'J’HE recent deaths of the two noted racing drivers, Jean Behra, of France, and Ivor Bueb, of Great Britain, have once more focused attention on the dangers of motor racing. To some it may appear folly that man continues to tempt fate in an instrument of death hurtling around a track at speeds over 150 miles an hour, and these may hold the opinion that the sport cannot justify itself from the moral standpoint. This week, the former New Zealand champion driver, Ross Jensen, claimed that the large amounts of money involved in the sport and worries whether a driver would continue to be supported by sponsoring companies sometimes caused him to drive over the limit and make his existence even more precarious. Jensen is probably right when he says a driver should not have to race when he has these mental burdens, and that the present rate of accidents will continue while the stakes remain so high. Valid Sport

However, in spite of the many deaths which have occurred to drivers in recent years! and sometimes the massacre of spectators) motor racing remains a valid sport and deserves a thoughtful analysis of its merits and achievements. No-one knows better than the drivers themselves that the recent record has been a bad one, and organisers of race meetings are taking much improved measures to safeguard the spectator, who after all, is the innocent party sometimes involved in the mishaps. Does motor racing justify itself? Stirling Moss and other top drivers believe it does. They are always aware of the risks they, are running, but they also know their cars are an important research medium for ideas which later may be adopted on standard production cars and there save many more lives than those it snatched in its development. If a part is capable of withstanding the tremendous strains of the race track then it is certain to be a safe addition to a saloon or sports car which receives more careful treatment. Refinement

More efficient engines, better suspension, improved tyres, and braking systems are only a few of the many parts on the modern saloon car which owe their refinement to race track experience. National prestige was once a most important factor in motor racing, and although this aspect is dimmed at present, memories of the amazing propaganda achieved by the

three-pointed star of Mercedes are still vivid. Aston Martin considers 75 per cent, of its production car sales can be attributed to racing successes.

But in the final analysis, the racing driver continues in the sport in spite of the tragedies which may occur around him because he enjoys racing. With the top drivers it is a business (Moss has a company of his own

to administer his winnings, which are very considerable), and* they believe it is as good a means of living as there is. Causes

It is the driver himself who carries his fate in his hands. Some of the recent accidents have definitely been the result of impetuosity, of familiarity breed-

ing contempt. Others have been caused by factors outside the driver’s control. The driver must always weigh these dangers against his own skill and experience in the same way as a mountaineer pits his skill against an unclimbed peak. That some are killed in the pursuit does not quench the thirst; rather it heightens the desire of man to master the situation.