OK, it's Good Friday......hot-cross buns and other 'healthy' things to eat, so perhaps a discussion on personal health as it affects motoracing might be in order. I'm not sure when a medical becomes compulsory, if in fact it ever does, but at the moment, answers to certain questions on the application form trigger a red alert at MSNZ HQ and the interogation starts. The medical itself is a very comprehensive document and covers just about every malady known to man, and it's aim is to satisfy the MSNZ doctor that you are fit and able to conduct a race car at racing speeds. Your personal GP also has a say, but so long as you have a regular driving licence, he is unlikely to give you a bad report. If you have been going to the same GP for number of years, 40 in my case, he will have a pretty good idea of you general state of health, and this is where I start to have issues with MSNZ. Their official Doctor has never seen you, and knows nothing about you apart from the answers you and your GP have provided on the form, and this is the only criteria he uses to give you a tick or not. Frankly I dont think MSNZ should have any say in a medical, but I guess there could be some Doctors who would give you a favourable report with a little bit of persuasion, though it is difficult to fake an ECG. I have seen enough fat, sweaty bodies emerging from the Nomex to make me a little concerned as to the fitness of the driver. Unlike when travelling on the open road, where no medical is necessary, we on the track are all travelling in the same direction, concentrating very hard, and are strapped in like fighter pilots, and in the event of a medical incident, will, we hope, just drift into the Armco like Denny at Bathurst. Unfortunately medical incidents can rear their ugly head without warning and this inspite of examinations. I dont think I will be going for another one, after the dramas which you read about on Y & Y, after my last one......I think my blood pressure hit 200/100 during the interminable wait for the document that said I was OK to drive. Probably, sensibly, no one over 70 should be driving a race car; we should all retire gracefully and become flag marshals instead, and maybe get a spot of knitting in between races!!!!