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The Billy Monger Story


JohnD

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A story only just begun.   If no one has heard of Billy Monger, be prepared.     He is a remarkable young man who has overcome what many would have found an overwhelming event.   I watched the programme hoping that it wouldn't be a sobfest, and it wasn't, mainly because of his personality, and his family.     

It's be on iPlayer.  https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p06qx4gt/driven-the-billy-monger-story   Watch and be impressed.  I dn't know if he will succeed in motorsport, but I'm sure he will succeed in life.

John

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What I found most disturbing was the attitude of the FIA!

Why?  A little background.  In 1958, Archie Scott Brown was killed at Spa, crashing his Lister Jaguar in a sports car GP.  ASB was born with deformed legs and right arm, but became a leading international driver.   His career was marked by attempts to take away his race licence because of his disability, frustrated by several more eminent and open minded members of the RAC hierarchy.  But on his death, that body blamed his death on his handicap and banned anyone not fully fit from motorsport.

This discrimination lasted thirty years, until David Butler, disabled as a schoolboy by a mortar bomb he found on a family picnic, forced the MSA to transfer his Speed licence (hillclimb etc) to a Race.      The UK, led by the British Motor Sports Association for the Disabled (the BMSAD -see what they did there?), and with the now willing cooperation of the MSA, leads the world in disabled motorsport.      David Butler, Founder and President of the BMSAD, who lost both legs and an arm, was until his recent retirement on the Medical Committee of the MSA.  His successor as head of BMSAD, Nathalie McGloin, races a Porsche despite paraplegia after a spinal injury, and is the inaugural President of the FIA Disability and Accessibility Commission.

Yet, the FIA would not even consider Billy Monger's request for his race licence to be renewed.    That they realised their mistake and have allowed him to race again must be due to the UK MSA, the BMSAD and possibly Ms.McGloin, although none of them were mentioned.

JOhn

Edited by JohnD
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2 hours ago, PaulAA said:

That's a very unfortunate auto-correct, Nick  ;)

Indeed.....:pinch: Badger = Bader, now corrected in the original post. Apple appear to believe that the i- is for "intelligent".  I take a different view.....

Thanks for the background on the licence situation John - very interesting.

Nick

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10 minutes ago, Nick Jones said:

Indeed.....:pinch: Badger = Bader, now corrected in the original post.

Ah, spoilsport!

A few years back, we had a client whose surname rhymed with 'Blunt', as in the Viz character 'Percy Blunt - His Parrot's a C...'  How we laughed at this in the office and started referring to him as 'Percy'... until I joyously introduced him at a local authority presentation as "This is Mr Percy Bl.... Nigel... This is Nigel... um..."

Paul

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Followed his career since i heard of the accident, his podium was a proper tear jerker, all the team were in bits.

There is another short film by the BBC of him meeting Zinardi, really good to see, Zinardi pushing him to do more whilst understanding the problems he was facing.

I thought it was a really good documentary (panned by the media), he comes across as such an inspirational guy, not only that but his family, i mean can you imagine being his sister and going to see her brother in the mangled wreck.

Twice his age and in no where near as bad a situation as his, i wasn't half the man he was during his treatment and recovery when i had my whoopsie.

Edited by mattius
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