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FEATURE BY MIKE LAWRENCE
18/10/2016

By chance I learned the result of the Japanese GP before I could watch the race, so I read about it instead and do not think that I missed much.

It reminded me of how it was when I first followed motor racing in the 1950s. The BBC would typically televise three meetings a year: Easter Monday Goodwood, the International Trophy at Silverstone, and the British Grand Prix. You never saw an entire F1 race because coverage would be interrupted to take in a horse race.

Unless there was a fatal accident, most papers did not report a Grand Prix. It was a case of going to the school library on a Monday to read what one of the broadsheets wrote. Later in the week, it was a trip to the public library to see if The Autocar had covered it. Then it was a wait until the 1st of the following month when Motor Sport appeared and one digested every golden word of Denis Jenkinson, 'Jenks'.

Autosport had been published every week from 1950, but it was too expensive for my pocket money. I have since read every copy from the 1950s and it really was not very good, it had the air of a school magazine. It was said, not entirely joking, that races were covered from the club bar.

In the whole of the decade it published only one article of the quality we expect today and that was a four-part history of Gordini written by John Bolster.

A significant victory was when Tony Brooks in a Connaught won the 1955 Syracuse GP defeating a strong Maserati team. Since Mercedes-Benz had just withdrawn and Ferrari was chasing its tail, Maserati was the team to beat. Some newspapers published a 54-word account by Reuters, but Jenks was the only professional Anglophone writer to attend.

Autosport cobbled together an account by John Riseley-Pritchard, an amateur driver who had been at the race. It was his only attempt at journalism, and it showed. Riseley-Pritchard died of AIDS in Thailand in 1993 with the British and Dutch police anxious to interview him about child pornography.

In late 1957 came Motoring News, an inexpensive weekly newspaper produced by the publisher of Motor Sport. It had the influence of Jenks and it developed some outstanding journalists. Cyril Posthumus is barely remembered today, but he tutored a generation of fine writers.

There was also Motor Racing, far too expensive for my pocket money, but which was the first British magazine to have an international flavour largely due to Hans Tanner in Modena. It was also the first British magazine to conduct in-depth interviews with drivers and, in 1958, printed the first interview in English with Fangio, just as he was about to retire.

There was never an interview in English with such as Ascari, Farina, Nuvolari, Caracciola, Lang, Rosemeyer or Gonzales. With every F1 driver now equipped with an entourage, this seems barely credible.

Motor Sport magazine's coverage of club racing was limited to Members' Meetings at Goodwood. The Editor, Bill Boddy, could run his wife and daughters to the seaside and double back to Goodwood. The magazine did not employ freelances so Eric Broadley's sensational debut in the first Lola-Climax at Brands Hatch in 1958 went unremarked.

Photographs of the period are sparse and one reason is that photographers had their rolls of films strictly rationed. I am familiar with every British photo archive of the day and what is clear that is that the three or four photographers stuck together for company and shot from the same places. At Goodwood, they would shoot the start, walk to the chicane and then walk back for the finish. At longer races they would snap from the inside of Woodcote.

This is why there are only amateur photos of Stirling Moss's crash at St. Mary's corner, the few professionals never ventured that far. All the best photographs of testing at Goodwood were taken by a local publican, John Brierley, who was as competent as any professional. It was his snap of Ron Flockhart's BRM P25 with the front end twisting that alerted BRM to the fact it had a chassis problem.

John Brierley and Stirling were close friends (Stirling stayed in his pub) which is why he was able to snap Moss driving an Aston Martin DBR4/250 F1 car in an otherwise top secret test.

When I worked for Motor Sport, I wanted a photo of a 1952 Mercedes-Benz 300SL 'gullwing', which that year had won Le Mans and the Carrera Panamericana, an important car. The archive had not a single photo. Jenks had given Le Mans a miss that year, it may have clashed with a motorcycle Grand Prix in which he was competing, and nobody else with a camera had gone.

It was many years later that I discovered that Mercedes-Benz had made an open version of the 300SL which raced only in Germany.

Books were another matter. After Lewis Hamilton's first year in F1, a dozen biographies were written. There were so many that some were pulped before they were released. In the 1950s there was a mere handful and three of those were ghost-written PR exercises commissioned by Mercedes-Benz as it rebuilt after the recent unpleasantness.

That was the world of motor racing in which I grew up. Things did improve over the years and coverage of all aspects became deeper. Some outstanding journalists, I think of Pete Lyons, Nigel Roebuck and Peter Windsor, appeared and even the journeymen raised their game.

What many do not appreciate is that, in the mass media, a stint covering F1 may be a stage on a career path so many newspaper correspondents have to learn on the job. Most do a decent job, but are not exceptional.

The Hunt/Lauda battle of 1976 grabbed the attention of everyone. There was a growth in the number of television channels with time to fill and there was Bernie and FOCA to oblige.

Formula One has become big business and there are PR wallahs everywhere. They are supposed to dispense information, but too often obscure it.

We have massive TV coverage which, depending on your channel, can include free practice as well as qualifying and the race itself. We are saturated with information and most of the commentators and pundits do a good job. I could watch the Japanese GP when, not so long ago, I would have had to set a VCR.

I chose not to but, instead, learned the story of the race from the written word, as I had to when I began my love affair with the sport. Websites gave me a fair idea, I do not have to see a race to know what the cars look like.

The day after the race, I received an account in my inbox by Mark Hughes, Motor Sport's F1 correspondent. I have never rated Mark as an historian but, by the beard of Great Zeus, he is a wonderfully insightful writer of contemporary racing. It was like reading Jenks in the 1950s, but without the time lag.

It reminded me that I do not have to see the pictures or to have instant responses and opinions. Time to reflect and assemble a story is also important. I have never felt that I missed out by coming to the sport in the primitive days of media coverage.

Mike Lawrence.

Learn more about Mike and check out his previous features, here

Picture credit: Many thanks to Brian Watson, whose superb pictures from the 1961 Monaco GP and 1963 British GP, and many others, can be found - and bought - here.

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READERS COMMENTS

 

1. Posted by Dreadnaught, 24/10/2016 13:27

"I think we are of similar vintage. I quote from memory since I am not an archivist but I think you are being a little harsh on the 50s.
There were a number of good film libraries notable Shell's. Much of their output was bought by Nick Mason's dad who, I believe, worked for Shell. Presumably Nick will now be their owner.
I was able to purchase most of the magazines of the time with my school pocket money of £5 per term and still afford the tuck shop. I do not remember the writing being especially amateur, probably typical of the time, and certainly no more childish than much of the current contributions in Autosport, that I find tiresome. I, personally, found Bill Boddy's writing in Motorsport a little boring.
Again the TV should be judged by the standards of the time and I can certainly remember club racing from Brands and Goodwood if not others.
Stirling Moss had a surprisingly readable biography from the time and there was certainly huge coverage of the Goodwood accident and his recovery along with much about for Peter Proctor.
We have all moved on enormously in almost everything, the modern generation find it hard to believe how most of us lived after the war and through to the 60s, even those who enjoyed a relatively privileged life. It definitely was not all Downton Abbey.
"

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2. Posted by RY, 21/10/2016 7:13

"Excellent piece Dr. lawrence. Very nostalgic too. But those were wonderful times."

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3. Posted by ClarkwasGod, 19/10/2016 16:14

"At my (grammar) school there were two factions - the "MN" and the "Autosporters". I was firmly in the former. He's right about TV coverage - I remember the '67 Dutch GP - BBC, and Raymond Baxter covered the first few laps, then off for horses, and maybe some cricket - of course when they returned for the finish there was Jim Clark and the wonderful 49 DFV taking the win - happy happy days. Is it my imagination, or were the races more atmospheric when covered in B&W TV?"

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4. Posted by PDA, 18/10/2016 18:33

"Motoring News was particularly important if one had an interest in Rallying. The Verglas reports of UK club and national championship rallies were outstanding. "

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5. Posted by stevep1855, 18/10/2016 13:26

"Wonderful article as ever, Mike, thank you. I do remember reading Jenks in Motor Sport as a teenager in the 60's and I whole heartedly agree with what you say about Nigel Roebuck and Mark Hughes. In different ways they both add a whole new dimension to the sport we love."

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6. Posted by Willie, 18/10/2016 10:35

"In the US, results could be found in a one-liner in Sports Illustrated about a week after it happened. Otherwise, Zilch, except for the Le Mans Massacre which, of course, got front-page billing all over the country!"

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