Petrol Heads’ Corner by David O’Neill*
I wrote this while sitting at home, blowing bubbles in a bubble and restrained under the alert level 4 lockdown. Consequently, I hadn’t had a chance to drive anything.
Unfortunately, crashes are something that happen in racing. They say there are those drivers that have crashed and those drivers that are going to crash. There is no middle ground. Lockdown Driving
I never thought I would see the day when I would get excited about driving to the supermarket. We rotated the cars to make sure they could both start and I confess that pulling out of the drive gave me that little frisson of excitement. Tragic!
As a result of Covid-19 I decided to do some driving of my own in my secure location. I put my thinking cap on, got the juices running and decided to undertake a Le Mans style start to the race by sprinting across the lounge and leaping into my virtual car. A push of the button saw the car roar to life and I slapped it into first, spun the wheel to the left and roared out of the lounge down the hallway. The tyres weren’t warm so the first corner into the bedroom was taken a little bit wide with the back end starting to slide forwards the Armco on the bedside cabinet. Fortunately, the car straightened up and was able to tear round the bedroom, swiping the apex on the other end of the bed and then out the same door and back down the hallway.
Targa Bambina However, pre-lockdown, I was able to take part in the Targa Bambina which was run on the 6th, 7th and 8th of March. It was based in Hamilton, which was a bonus because I could go home to my own bed at night. It was a very small field. I’m not sure why (maybe some of them could foretell what was going to happen). Nonetheless, it didn’t make the driving any less fun. We were in class 4 of the competition. This is for all cars under 2 litres, irrespective of age. My only other competitor was a 2017 Toyota 86 GT. To say they are in different eras is understating it. This car can turn on a dime, out-accelerate me and has brakes bigger than my wheels. Added to that is the fact the driver is very good and very quick.
Taking the hallway corner into the dining room was always going to be tricky, as the apex was blocked somewhat by a schoolbag, which meant that I had to go wider than necessary. Racing across the carpet I encountered a new surface which was the cork flooring in the kitchen and family room.
He, unfortunately, decided that he couldn’t be bothered going left or right at the T junction, went straight ahead and punched his car into the bank on the other side of the road, thereby ending his Targa prematurely. He was several minutes ahead of me and could have put the car in reverse and got home quicker than I could have. As a consequence, I was first in class 4. I’m positive it’s the slowest class winning car ever in the history of Targa. I am sure I’m going fast but my times say otherwise. Be that as it may, I think I’m going fast which is the main thing and I didn’t crash, which he did.
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