To the racers the spoils
In our series of Best of 2005, this is Nigel Roebuck's column from Autosport Magazine, which was published on October 13th 2005.
Back in the days when the Long Beach Grand Prix was a Formula 1 race, it was our invariable custom, the night before the race, to go to Ascot, where the sprint cars were doing their thing. This was motor racing at its most primitive, its most raw, and Denis Jenkinson was entranced by it.
'Jenks', the sport's most celebrated journalist, was never one to turn up his nose at anything but F1. He adored the immediacy of sprint car racing, its sheer violence, but also appreciated the throttle control of the best drivers, and relished the absence of mirrors on the cars: "That's why you don't get bloody baulking..."
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