“Prologue”

For the recent Autosport International Show at the NEC in Birmingham, I produced a sample version of World in Motorsport Magazine for a series of meetings held over the course of Thursday and Friday.

This post is an edited excerpt of the prologue that introduced the Autosport Show sample.

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Well, it’s been a while, but this has been a most epileptic few years. When World in Motorsport debuted with a WRC special too many handfuls of months ago, grand plans were considered, reconsidered, replaced, annulled and then considered again.

And then 2020 happened and COVID-19 hit, felling the world as governments floundered, exasperated that policy and decision had been snatched from gilded hands. Like a boxer smashed across the chin in the final round of a devastating bout, the world blinked into its own concussion and private little hells of isolation beckoned and bellowed, as time slowed dramatically.

Amidst the stasis, existence stuttered and life became a suspended knot, dithering as it phased and faded, before speeding up as the shock of the hard canvas floor approached fast. I have often heard it said that one’s senses perform strange little tricks on you when you are involved with a traumatic accident.

This is the same for society too. The impression of time slowing down, pirouetting, and then speeding up again as the elastic of awareness and consciousness stretched and danced upon the edge of physics before pulling back sharply.

This was something never fully appreciated until a road accident several years ago left me rather damaged. Ripped from the seat of a bicycle, I looked on in slow wonder, attempting to comprehend why my backpack was overtaking me in mid-air – and then the elastic pulled time back, life sped up and the sound of everything ramped to a brutal level before a sickening crunch broke all sense of noise, just as it broke several bones.

A lifetime onward and the world has moved, although occasionally there are some things still move in slow motion, but that may have more to do with stuttering economies than anything medical related.

With life moving, the next volume of World in Motorsport is in the latter stages of production – a few additional works are undergoing evaluation, editing, reevaluation, redrafting or completion.
Following that, the next step is to have upcoming volume of World in Motorsport signed off by a sub- editor, who will no doubt have a very busy red marker.
Much of this will become possible with the next round of funding, and so work is commencing to ensure that is in place.

Life has been tough for all over the past few years and one can only hope that 2023 will be better. Let’s just hope World in Motorsport can be a small part of what brings some joy back to all of our lives.