Trophy tourists

Trophy tourists

Sir, Nigel Roebuck revealed that back in the 1970s Niki Lauda traded one of his Formula 1 trophies for a year’s free car washes at his local garage, much to the horror of Mario Andretti. I can’t remember the exact year, but my wife and I stayed at a charming village inn at Hof bei Salzburg in Austria on our way to the Brenner Pass and down into Italy. Our car needed petrol so I drove to the village garage to fill up, and on the way to the office to pay I noticed the showroom windows were full of large Formula 1 racing cups and trophies, so I asked the lady in the

so shop how she had acquired them. “Oh,” she said, “Niki Lauda didn’t want them so he gave them to us.” She then took me through to the back and pointed out the large house on the other side of a golf course where Niki Lauda lived. I am now 94 but have never forgotten it. Some years later while on holiday in Devon we went to the Nigel Mansell Museum and

were taken on a conducted tour by Nigel in person. There were some interesting cars but what really impressed were three or four large rooms crammed with Nigel’s memorabilia. Everything from his interesting life was on display including his truncheon and whistle from when he was a Special Constable on the Isle of Man. Nigel showed us an enormous glass trophy he won in Hungary; he dropped the original at the presentation and saw it shatter into a thousand pieces, but the organisers had a replica made and this was what we were looking at, so all was well. Nigel was obviously so proud of all he had won.

I side with Lewis Hamilton. The driver should keep the originals. Trevor Gifford, Bishops Stortford, Herts