I was going to post this on 'going even older' because of the age group it concerns, but 'Pallmall' would be directing me to Yards & Yarns so here it is. WARNING......this is not a bedtime story.....it is a nightmare....it is an old race-car drivers WORST nightmare!...read on.......At my time of life, and with my medical history, I am required when applying for my competition licence to satisfy Motorsport NZ that I am a safe and suitable person to drive on a race track. To this end I fill in a large questioneer.....'.have I ever been committed to a Mental Asylum'. etc, etc, .....and submit myself to a fairly rigorous medical examination with my Doctor. Blood pressure, kidney function, ECG, hearing loss, eyesight....all are put through their paces. As my licence was about to expire, I make an appointment and duly turn up at the surgery to get hooked up to machines with flashing lights that records everything that's happening in my body of 72 years. Well think of a 72 year old car....things are bound to be wrong. The computer printout is not promising. Oh dear, things have slipped since last time....too many hot-dogs and chips....and everything is in a state of decline...... marginal was how the Dr described it! Never mind, he knows me well, has been my GP for over 40 years, and in the box on the application that says...'do you, the Dr, consider that this person is fit and able to drive in competition'?, my good man puts in a big tick, and we sent the completed form off to Palmerston North for consideration. The wait is interminable, but eventually the distinctive envelope arrives. I tear it open with shaking hands....bloody Parkinsons! A decision has been made. I am apparently a danger to other competitors and am therefore required to surrender my licence forthwith. I am devastated. I break down in tears and reach for the whiskey bottle....cant remember whether the alcohol reacts with all the pills I'm taking......bloody Alzheimers!! With the stoke of a pen I have been 'hung, drawn, and quartered'. It's all over. BUT, consider this. I am allowed to drive on the Queens Highway without such a certificate, yet, and if I had a 'medical incident' while behind the wheel the result could be chaos. On the race track where we are all driving in the same direction, concentrating very very hard, in a machine at the peak of it's condition, and strapped in like fighter pilots,in the event of a 'medical incident' the car will, I hope, just glide to a stop adjacent to the armco as Denny Hulme did at Bathurst. So there it is. Like an old worn out 72 year old sofa I have been cast on to the scrap-heap. Funnily enough, I have been threatening to take up knitting a number of times on this forum.......'many a true word spoken in jest'. All true EXCEPT.......I passed. During the wait my BP was hovering around 200/100.....not good. Dont think I will go through this again. I am definately going to take up knitting, or maybe get up peoples noses by writing stuff on 'roaringseason', because I'll have so much more time on my hands. You have been warned....it could happen to you.