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Letter from Roland
Parker, Wheelspin, August 1977
Your comments about
Formula One cars failing out of favour, to quote: 'I guess
they will follow the Grand Prix Midgets into retirement' -
wherever did you get that idea about the Midgets? You Sir,
are suffering from a very small field of view. You see, outside
the Spedeworth scene, there is a great big world consisting
of North, East, West, oh yes and the South as well, which
the Grand Prix Midgets have been covering; in fact 1 should
say the Midgets came out of retirement when they formed their
own Club and got the proper publicity, which you never did
give them. To keep you up to date, six of their top drivers
will be racing in Germany on May 30th for the European Championship,
and for further information 1 suggest Mr Southdowner, you
spend 18p on the Short Circuit mag for full coverage of the
Grand Prix Midgets' recent progress. By the way, they have
the most dedicated drivers, they will travel, not like all
other formulas, except the Hot Rods. Put the records straight,
the Midgets are still the fastest formula on the Oval circuit.
We will have a match race against the Hot Rods any time. We
have beaten them before, so that record still stands.
Excerpt from 'Scene in the South', Wheelspin,
October 1977
Are they still Grand Prix?
Was taken to task in last month's Wheelspin
by GP Midget driver Roland Parker over some remarks 1 made
about Formula One cars going the way of GP Midgets and accused
me of being out of touch with the Midgets through not taking
Short Circuit. 1 have read back through my copies of Short
Circuit (you must not jump to hasty conclusions Roland) and
also looked through dozens of back issues of Spedeworth programmes
and while 1 can find the half to one page report in SC blow
me if 1 can find any meetings including GP Midgets in Spedeweeks.
Wheelspin is for Spedeworth fans most of whom have no interest
in any of the other organisations no matter how good they
may be, and many are excellent, and for Spedeworth meetings
GP Midgets have gone into retirement. 1 enjoyed GP Midget
racing when it was with Spedeworth and was one of the few
who regretted its retirement from this group. My stop watch
has many times confirmed M 1 8's claim that they are faster
than Hot Rods though with the greater improvements in Hot
Rod technique this could now be challenged and his suggestion
of a match race between the top drivers of both sides would
make a good match and bring GP Midgets onto Spedeworth circuits
once again. And just a thought - Roland Parker, you are a
canny lad. A letter and a reply in two issues of the widely
read Wheelspin must have given GP Midgets a lot of publicity
and maybe introduced the formula to many folk who have never
even heard of it. Meanwhile I shall look forward to seeing
his name in lights as I read my copies of Short Circuit
Excerpt from letter by Jim Gregory (later
the Spedeworth commentator), Wheelspin, November 1977
Are you running Spedeworth for the benefit
of the drivers, or for the spectators? When you killed off
Midget racing (far too late in our opinion) it was obvious
that they were killed off because the public didn't like them,
although the drivers obviously did, and still do.
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