The BBC and Motor Racing 2

Sir,

May I make a plea concerning motor-racing on television, or do I mean lack of? I agree entirely with Mr. V. A. Winwright and Mrs. J. Colston (May letters), but please don’t waste your money writing to motoring magazines, as these are surely the converted. We all want to see motor-racing back on the television (except the hierarchy of the BBC), so I suggest that we write to our Members of Parliament and to the head of sports coverage, Sam Leitch, at the BBC.

I understand that we will only be able to see edited highlights of the British Grand Prix this year. No doubt this programme will be shown when there is some other major sporting event being shown on the other channel. I was very pleased when the IBA announced that they were going to show highlights of the United States Grand Prix-West. In fact, I saw the last five minutes of the programme, because my father wanted to watch the Grand National, sponsored by the News of the World and other organisations whose names we had rammed down our throats, during the closing stages.

I consider myself lucky to live within a few miles of Thruxton and Castle Combe motor-racing circuits, but what about those people who cannot get to race-meetings?

Need I go on, except to say that it doesn’t take much effort to put pen to paper and write to one’s MP, etc.

MICHAEL SUMMERFIELD Trowbridge, Wilts.