This is written in the hope of helping any other vintage racers who are
also somewhat vintage themselves and who therefore depend heavily on the
assistance given by glasses to stay on the track. In my case, this is a
pair of bifocals that allow me to see beyond the front of my helmet
while at the same time read the gauges (although I have been accused of
not doing the later during hard fought races).
With the old glasses looking decidedly ragged, I bought a pair of the
latest technological wonders make of some unbreakable metal that is very
"bendy" and light. I had purchased them several weeks before the race
meeting and found them the greatest glasses I ever had, especially since
they proved unbreakable - sit on them and they just bend, get up and
they spring right back into shape.
So now we get to the track and I begin my usual pre-race suiting up
etc. The ritual is strap into harness, then put on helmet without
glasses. All fine so far. Next step is to put on the glasses by
feeding the ear-things between my head and the helmet - and this is
where it all came unstuck! Those nice bendy things, rather than feeding
nicely in the necessarily tight fit, decided instead to simply curl up
and go nowhere. The alternative of trying to put the glasses on an then
the helmet only resulted in bending ears as well as the glasses. By
this stage of course everyone else was on the dummy grid and I'm
wrestling with whether to risk going out without glasses or suffer not
running for the silliest reason yet.
Luckily, after much hand waving and yelling, my prescription sun glasses
appeared (thank you under-paid pit crew once again), and the only loss
was, not being bifocals, I couldn't really make out the oil pressure and
temp gauges. But it was a short race, so what could possibly go
wrong?!?
Anyway, all's well that ends well, but just in case anyone else out
there is due for a new prescription, make sure you remember the old rule
- test everything!
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