It is not often that I am compelled to put pen to paper and at the outset I want it understood that the reasons for writing are not because David got injured as I believe that it is a God send that nobody got killed.

On Friday night at documentation I voiced my concern about stage 1 and the fact that the starting gap was only 1 minute and I was assured that it had always been so.

I still felt that working out the distance two cars would meet at the top hairpin.

Richard Leeke felt the same but shrugged when we were told that there had never been a problem so why now.

I went to watch stage 1 but missed the first 12 cars.

In the time that I watched I was horrified to see at least 5 cases where cars had to stop or move onto the pavement to get out of the way of other cars.

Comments from the Traffic Department who were manning the speed trap was that something had gone wrong and they were calling for their superior to stop the stage.

I left, only to hear that finally there was an accident.

Stage 2 was Centurion and again I could not believe what I was observing. Cars were coming at each other from all angles.

Finally Jerry Paice turned into Robin’s path and only the experience of both drivers enabled them to stop and miss a head on accident.

Onto stage 3 – Watloo – and the first thing I noticed was that some cars were coming out of a short cut directly into the path of cars coming out of the long route.

The car which finally got behind lasted two corners while trying to pass and finally hit a tree, much to the delight of the spectators.

Onto stage 4 where again the cars were ‘dicing’ each other and this is what I believe finally caused the accident which has possibly ruined David’s future.

I don’t believe that rallying in the true sense is that dangerous, but when you get two cars racing each other on a ‘track’ which is not designed for that purpose one is asking for accidents to happen.

If the organisers want to use Watloo and Rosslyn then the stages should be shortened to ensure that cars are not crossing each other and not being put into a situation where both cars are going well and yet one has to try and pass the other.

This should be left to tracks like Kyalami, etc.

I would strongly suggest that the Commission looks at setting up a safety committee to look into these incidents and set up some standards quickly before someone gets killed. I know that we want to bring rallying to the public ….. but at what cost?

Scheckter Snr. happy to lose crown.

SA's only Formula One world champion, Jody Scheckter, told SA Motorsport Paddock in an exclusive interview that he was pleased, rather than unhappy, to lose his crown as Ferrari's last world champion when the team managed to break its 21-year losing streak on Sunday to win its first title since 1979.

"For the first 16 years after I had won the title, I didn't think of it because I was so far out of racing," he told us. "Then when I came back to Europe and started helping Tomas and Toby (his sons) in racing, it became more of a fuss. In the last two years it has been a particularly big thing, but it has been a fun thing for me. In one way I suppose I am a bit sad as the fun is now over, but Ferrari and Michael (Schumacher) deserve the title and I am really happy for them."

When asked why it had taken Ferrari so long to win the title again, he put it down to the team having had no leader for such a long time. "When I was there the old man (Enzo Ferrari) was getting old, and he died not long thereafter. The team then had a succession of managers, but no leader, until Luca di Montezemolo took over. He got the money together and brought in the right people and five years later he has delivered the goods."

Scheckter shied away from making a prediction as to how the team will perform over the next few years now that it has won the title. "You can't tell with these things," he said. "But, you have to say that this was the first year that the team had a competitive car with McLaren. So, I think that it must have learnt something in order to do that, which it won't just lose.."

"The other factor is that we don’t know how motivated Michael will be now that he has won the title for Ferrari or how long it will last, so you never can tell what will happen in the future."

 (Thanks to Ian Shrosbee for this article, and the jokes in this issue)

Subject: Chickens in F1...

Why did the chicken cross the road? We asked this traditional question of a whole load of Formula 1 personalities. As you'd expect from grand prix drivers and team managers, the answers were quite varied...

Mika Hakkinen "Why did the chicken cross the road?" (pause) "that's tough question" (pause) "maybe" (pause) "maybe it's a question you have to ask the chicken."

David Coulthard "I was really surprised when the chicken swerved right in front of me and crossed the road. I was expecting it to walk straight along the pavement, but it just cut right across in front of me. I think we'll need a ruling from the FIA if chickens are allowed to do this."

Michael Schumacher "The chicken is allowed to move over, that is clearly within the rules. The chicken can make one move to defend his line. But it can't zig-zag backwards and forwards across the road. What it did was quite fair and within the rules."

Luca di Montezemolo(Ferrari) "The chicken knew that it couldn't get to the other side of the road first, it had to wait for the rooster and let it through."

Ron Dennis (McLaren) "The objective of the poultry individual in this situation is to work towards the goal of a road crossing. We're comfortable that that can be achieved using only bi-ped motional forces. We would refuse to compromise until a safe chicken arrival scenario had been achieved."

Alain Prost "For sure the chicken crossed the road. But for me it was not as interesting as chickens crossing the road ten years ago."

Rubens Barrichello " I'd like to dedicate the chicken crossing the road to my great friend Ayrton Senna"

Max Mosley " We have to find ways of slowing chickens down and making them safer. For that reason the FIA are changing the rules so that chickens crossing roads will be equipped with special chicken bodywork and neck supports."

Jacques Villeneuve " So what the f*** if the chicken gets run over. The chicken wanted to cross the road."

James Allen (ITV pitlane reporter) "Hey guys, you're not going to believe this, but the chicken's on a different strategy to the bantams."

Murray and Martin:

Murray: "And as the lights go out, it's GO GO GO for the duck as it dives towards... "

Martin: "It's a chicken Murray."

Murray: "Yes, yes, it's a chicken, charging into the lead. I think it's got this race sewn up."

Martin: "The chicken's stopped, Murray."

Murray: "DISASTER for the chicken! This will throw the whole badger crossing championship wide open!"

> > > > > >

Racing pit-stops are used for tyres, fuel, strategy and, with Minardi, for ordering pizza. The different teams use pit stops for different reasons. Let's check in and see...

When it's time for Jos Verstappen to come in, the pit-board says "Ve're stoppin'!" When Pedro de la Rosa needs fuel, the pit-boards reads "Petrol de la Rosa!"

Jensen Button is young so he gets a two-stop strategy. One for fuel, one to call his mum. Ralf Schumacher is a four-years older and anyway has his big brother with him, so this year he doesn't have to call home... 'til after the race.