Politics mar UICR Olympics
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• There was no dope testing at the 15th UICR (Union International des Chauffeurs Routiers) world professional drivers championships in Luxembourg on 24-25 September — but the competition was Olympian in terms of protests and political bans.
Through it all, however, most teams took the advice of UICR president Dr Gunther Rossow and treated the event as a chance to demonstrate the unity of truck and coach drivers around the world.
The Scania-sponsored British Routiers team battled well in unfamiliar left-hand-drive vehicles to finish 10th in the rigid truck class, 9th in coach, 8th in artics and 6th in drawbars.
Top British performer was Peter Farley of British Airways motor transport, who came 5th in the artic competition with 2,663 points, only 150 points behind the Dutch winner. The Dutch went on to take the overall title, ahead of the Swiss and Germans.
Rossi said that the ban im posed on Boputhatswana, the South African black homeland, by the Luxembourg government was "extremely regrettable". At the closing ceremony (delayed for 90 minutes while the Swiss and Germans rowed over the points tally), he criticised the Luxembourg authorities for bringing politics into a non-political event.
"They want to regard ourselves and the South Africans as one team, which we refuse to do. South Africa's policies are so bad that we cannot stomach them. Boputhatswana does not segregate on any grounds," said its transport secretary Solomon Sepeng. The team has been banned by a number of host governments before and Sepeng may withdraw from the UICR in protest.
The UICR does not want to lose the Africans. Rossow ignored an attempt to interfere with the public address system during his speech, and asked the drivers to thank the Boputhatswanans for attending. Every team put scoring disputes to one side and gave them a standing ovation.
The British team members were: John Crookes, Peter Farley, Roy Foster, Reg Judge, Malcolm Stephenson, Gordon Pearce, Phil Havell, Ron Hayes, Phil Robinson, John Denning and Bob Wimsett.