[Gordon Steadman]

Ronnie and I went round to someone's house in the village here who had a tennis racquet for me. As one does, we sat and had coffee and started talking about our life in France. The guy asked me how I spent my time now I am retired and the look on his face when I told him said it all.

He seemed shocked that I was unmanly enough not to watch sports - especially soccer of course - but play with toy cars. My attempts to generate interest by advertising my track on our local Google group was met with a deafening silence apart from offers of old Scalex sets mouldering in attics. Really, no interest at all.

I would prefer to be a club racer but they are few and far between out here. I only get to race two or three times a year. The rest of the time, I am a home racer but that is better than nothing.

The paucity of clubs and the distances between those few there are seems to have given rise to the proxy event. Not for me as it's the racing I enjoy, not the car building. At Bordeaux, there are one or two youngsters but the racers are mostly those that grew up with the hobby in the 60s and 70s. The only kids that keep it up are those who are competitive. The others get tired of losing and drift away.

There are too many competing interests to allow any expansion of the current status quo it seems to me. Sad.