A Lotus Cortina was launched into the air at 120mph, landed on its nose, rolled five or six times and there wasn't much left of any value in that car

An accident at Spa’s ultra-fast Blanchimont corner is something we should all take seriously. When it involves historic cars, which obviously offer less protection to the drivers than the modern stuff, it should make us think even harder. During the Six Hours meeting in late September, a Lotus Cortina was launched into the air at 120mph, landed on its nose, rolled five or six times and there wasn’t much left of any value in that car.

It should never have happened. The driver, John Young of the Alan Mann Racing team, is a recognised ace and the proverbial safe pair of hands. He was absolutely innocent. As he overtook a car on the way into Blanchimont, the other driver changed his line, hit the back of John’s car and sent him flying out of control.

Fortunately for John, Spa is a much safer place than it was. This is pretty much the spot at which Dick Seaman and Archie Scott Brown crashed, in 1939 and 1958 respectively. Without run-off areas and crash barriers, they went into the trees. Without seatbelts, both were badly injured. Their mangled cars caught fire and both of them died. Safety fuel tanks had not been invented then.

John walked away. He was knocked about alright, but he walked away. He says the incident has changed his tune about seats in historic saloon cars. Up to now he was always keen to keep cars original in every respect, including old-fashioned seats. This time, thanks to Alan Mann Racing, John’s car was fitted with a modern racing seat and he is convinced that it played a major role in preventing serious injury. The in-car video shows his arms and head being thrown violently around in a series of massive impacts but the seat did not come apart and you can see the built-in head protection doing its job.

It’s easy to think about these things in that way and just move on, perhaps muttering a word of thanks to Sir Jackie Stewart and his successful campaign to revolutionise safety in motor racing back in the 1960s. That’s quite right but there’s something else here: that accident should never have happened. The driver who was being overtaken changed his line, perhaps in a belated attempt to block John’s manoeuvre. Shouldn’t something be done about that?

The answer is not to put in yet another chicane in order to slow the cars down. Blanchimont is one of those great, challenging, high-speed corners in motor racing and long may it remain so.  No – what we need is better driver discipline and, dare I say it, an end to all blocking tactics in historic racing.

This is asking a lot, I know. More than 40 years ago, some competitors started weaving around to prevent others from getting past. It was widely regarded as blatant cheating then but race officials didn’t have the balls to stamp on it. Also, it seemed probable that only registered blind persons were ever accepted as official race observers.

Since then, the notion of ‘defending your position’ has become a recognised concept in modern motor racing and there are even rules laid down, saying what you can and cannot do. It’s high time we decided that any form of blocking has no place whatsoever in historic motor racing. When a driver is allowed to weave across the road to prevent a rival from getting past under braking, it takes much of the art out of the sport and it certainly spoils the spectacle.

Goodwood has taken steps in the right direction here. Driving standards at Revival meetings are monitored on closed circuit TV cameras by Win Percy, a highly experienced and intelligent driver who knows exactly what he’s looking at. He then advises the race officials of his interpretations of events. Action has been taken behind the scenes, with some drivers being warned, others being fined and one or two being informed that they will not be invited back.

Every historic race organiser should adopt a similar policy.  I would also like to see small committees of active drivers passing judgement in such cases, as they do at some American ‘vintage’ meetings, which is their phrase for historic racing.

But the big change I would really like to see is a total ban on any blocking moves in our sport. Do it just once and you’re out, end of story. The really quick drivers, I think, would prefer that and the spectators certainly would. It would be safer and there’d be more overtaking, a lot more overtaking.

TONY DRON

Having started his racing career in Formula Ford, Tony made a name for himself in 1970s Touring Cars and since then has raced an astonishing variety of sports and historic machinery. He is also a hugely respected journalist.