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I have mentioned before my racing enthusiast friend in Devonshire - he is the rising-80 former headmaster who sent me Nuvolari's obituary. Tonight I got this from him:
"I've just acquired a short compilation video of events at Donington, pre-1939. I read a book about the 2 pre-war British Grand Prix at Donington which were dominated by Mercedes Auto-Union. The author mentioned this short video, which I'd never heard of. So I wrote to him, he put me in touch with the guy whose firm had produced the video about 25 years ago, and he very generously got his men to run me off a copy free of charge! It's composed of bits of amateur film, old newsreel footage, etc. but does give an idea of what it was like in the old days--very amateurish indeed! It was quite interesting to see what Donington used to be like, heavily wooded and with herds of deer wandering around the infield. Interesting too to see my boyhood heroes, Norvolari and Co. in action again."
So it is possible to recapture the Old Days even now. I will find out what book this is and all the details in case I can get a copy of that video too.
But why do I watch modern F1? (1) Because my friends do and the next day we all talk about it; (2) in case CrankyMika falls off the track and has hysterics again; (3) in case Frenzy wins; (4) to see how many laps the Prosts will do; (5) because I've got money on it.
But actually CART has better racing for 1/3 the price.
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