Mansell @ Coys = VFM?

[Truckosaurus]

I'll start by confessing to never being much of a Nigel Mansell fan, sure he could handle himself in the car, but once in the post-race press conference his attitude always annoyed me. No matter how big a winning margin he had he always chuntered on about there being something wrong with his car... Ungrateful B'stard.

Then last weekend at Silverstone, Old 'Nige' is top of the bill at the Coys Festival, this seemed to entail signing a few autographs (which I watched from the safety of the 'Scarf and Goggles' beertent), a handful of laps in a couple of JPS Lotus F1 cars, and then a fast lap in the Audi S4 Avant safety car for some local radio prize winner (disk jockey = Dave Lee Travis (The Hairy Cornflake)).

Yesterday lunchtime I bought my usual copy of Autosport and noticed in Marcus Pye's column allegations that Mansell was paid £75,000 to appear.

This seems to me to be total against the spirit of the event.

[Peter Mallett]

Well,

IMHO the event is usually rigged to allow the "right" people to win anyway so how does this go against the "spirit" of it all?

Surely it would be better to ask if the expenditure drew more people than normal? Anybody got that answer?

[Flagman]

Silverstone where quoting 90,000 for the three days - pretty impressive if its true, given the cold weather Saturday and Sunday.

Don't know if Mansell was VFM - but I was talking to one of the reporters who said that during his first run in the Lotus, Mansell had completly knackered the dog-rings in the gear box...

I bet the owner of the car he did the do-nuts in on SUnday was not too pleased either.

Don't know if the results are rigged - some of the on-track action looked pretty real to me - the sight of a Ferrari 330 LMB, Lightweight E-type and Daytona Cobra taking Bridge Bend three abreast in 4 wheel drifts was great.