Just to throw my tuppence worth in the ring..
I can see it all seeming a little silly voting for someone purely because they died, but I see this as being more about the recognition people like Beef deserve. There are many unsung heros in sport who get no mention, they do it for the love of the sport & the thrill of competition.
Motorsport gets minimal coverage in the mainstream media in the UK, we have a world champion in the WTCC & there was no mention of it in any of the non specialist press, likewise Dan Wheldon or Gary Paffett's championship wins were widely ignored. Compared to the attention Katherine Legge got at the first day of her F1 test last week, they were all there to report her prang on the first day & promptly buggered off, the fact that she put some semi-respectable times in on her second day was ignored by most.
Richard Burns' death was a sharp contrast from the rolling news coverage from outside the hospital of George Best in his last week (partly down to a big difference between the way the 2 men handled their respective illnesses??) As sad as any death is, one was self inflicted, the other took a man in his prime, but Burnsie's passing was barely mentioned & in some cases misreported.
http://www.channel4.com/news/special-reports/special-reports-storypage.jsp?id=1219Michael Park was (from what I've heard) an outstanding bloke who was willing to give many young rally enthusiasts advice & help. Even if he & Markko Martin had have won the WRC championship together I wonder if they would have got much more than 2 minutes worth of attention on the BBC's end of year show. The shoddy excuses for footballers & our favourite national tennis player always get expansive coverage every year, for the effort people put in the rewards should match (or maybe I'm too idealistic!!) for those at the top of their arena.
Personally I hope both Michael Park & Richard Burns get a mention in the show, they both deserve no less.
