....it's still possible to find some motor sport to enjoy. With extraordinary timing  the  Mallory Park Plum Pudding Boxing Day race meeting escaped Christmas Day's heavy rain and the 27th's  Snowmageddon . It might have been cold , but the low winter sun shone all day , if not strongly enough to dry the track fully before the shadows lengthened again as the meeting finished just after 3pm. There  was bike racing for a variety of machinery which even my untutored eyes and ears could tell covered several decades , possibly even back to the last  time I saw bikes here in 1973 . On that long ago day the late Jarno Saarinen had won the Race of the Year but today there were no superstars,  but there was a bloke sporting a full Batman outfit ....On more familiar four wheeled territory there was a catholic selection of Caterhams, Westfields ,  Elises and a solitary Radical and Tuscan in the sports race , in which nobody had more fun than the backmarker in the ancient MR2, who was sideways everywhere , especially out of Shaws Hairpin. The saloon race featured a lairy Delta Integrale in compulsory Martini livery , a turf cutting MG ZS , sundry Civics and a very well driven and indecently  quick Clio. Smiles all round, chats with old friends and back home by six.

It was 'white over' for the Croft Christmas Rally  , with a couple of inches of wet snow covering the tarmac - no loose stuff on this single venue event .  And tell me this - how come, despite trick differentials , four wheel drive and some heavy hitter dirvers including Le Mans winner Guy Smith , the World Rally Car Focuses and Fiestas looked ( and were) almost  pedestrian compared to a well driven Mark 2 Escort , Vauxhall Corsa or even  a self effacing little Peugeot 106 ? It was a different story when  the snow melted but, well , just saying ....