A NEW POINT OF CONTACT
Coming home from the Japan Cup the other day, squashed like a sardine on a train that ironically looked like a giant sardine can, I got talking to one of the other passengers who kindly gave me a travel tip that saved me about half an hour and a great deal of hassle.

Anyway, you can imagine what the conversation centred on, and if you guessed horses and horse racing, you're not far off the mark! The interesting observation made during the course of this chat, at least as far as I'm concerned, was that this gentleman (in his sixties) was a Keiba lover of huge proportions, but he only ever went to JRA meetings, despite his free time allowing him to go to NAR events. I told him he didn't know what he was missing, and while I love JRA races, the special atmosphere of NAR tracks and the characters involved makes it an almost unique sporting occasion in this day and age.

Gone are the days in motor racing when I'd get a knock on the door, and one of my heroes would be standing there on his way back home from the Jaguar factory, dropping in for a cup of tea to break up the journey south. Gone are the days when I could just wander into a racing shop around the corner from my home, and be pulled in by a championship-winning team as an 'official unofficial' photographer for the weekend. Even the 'Brit Club' has come to an end now that my mother has left the States, when she and Derek Bell would nick Johnny Herbert's biscuits when he wasn't looking! It was a tight-knit community, but anyone that obviously loved the sport was made to feel welcome in it. Nowadays, everything revolves around corporate boxes, and enthusiasm counts for nothing unless it's backed up by a thick wad of greenbacks.

This is where NAR racing has the edge. It reminds me of watching the greyhounds with Bill Maynard (aka Selwyn Froggitt) as a kid, the TV star happiest when mingling with the crowd close to the action, or the speedway, when the riders considered it part of their duty to speak with fans after a meeting - the likes of Ole Olsen often left hanging around in the car park for ages until the throng of followers had dispersed. He was a multiple World Champion, but I never once saw him walk away from an autograph hunter or well-wisher. I remember most of the guys loading up their bikes on trailers, with starry-eyed kids not washing their hands for a week because they'd touched a Jawa belonging to a god. Even a lot of the top footballers went to matches on the bus back then!

Now, can you honestly see today's F1 drivers (surrounded by a wall of staff from the pit lane to their air conditioned, tinted-window residence on wheels, a type of open prison with managers, physiotherapists and food advisors as guards) doing what the Funabashi jockeys did yesterday - running a shop for charity as volunteers, outside in the freezing cold, and with absolutely no advantage in terms of personal PR?

I count myself as extremely fortunate to have known some of the greatest racing drivers of our time. Not only were they amazing on the track, but amazing human beings, too - always accessible, and always down-to-earth. I'm happy to say I've found a new breed of racers that I can say the same thing about. That human element is what makes NAR racing something very special in an age of sterile commercialism. For those who only think of going to JRA events to watch the geegees, you really should give NAR a shot. It's a breath of fresh air...