Mayday mayday! The times are going down! I repeat the times are going down!
Yup, it’s us again. That noise you’re hearing as you drive into Vieux Fort? It’s the sound of grown up kids covering the distance of about 5 Boeing 747 jumbo jets in 16 seconds or less. We’re here again, and guess what, we’ll be here later in the year, and next year. You can’t get rid of us, just like a chronic disease. A good one.
Just like us racers, racing is also something of a disease. It’s something that you just can’t shake, even if you wanted to. Something that, once its got its hooks into you, there’s no letting you go. An addiction. A need. Our oxygen. Time and time again like a ritual we meet on this abandoned airfield that we call home to put our selves and our machines to the test, racing against the hardest thing to catch; time. Time won’t wait for you if you mess up your launch or slow down half way if you’re experiencing troubles. Time’s got no… time for your nonsense and the second those lights go green it starts running, and you had better try to keep up.
Usually we’re used to seeing the likes of purpose-built machinery stare down the 1320, with exhausts big enough to fit a breadfruit and tires which have a greater grip on reality than Donald Trump, but this time around was something different. One by one, the audience became the racers, staging up with whatever it is they drive whether it be a weekend leisure car or the daily commuter, they raced. Newer model Skylines, Crown Athletes, Legacies, BMWs and even an Infiniti Q50 hybrid all cut their teeth on the drag strip that day showing to the masses that you didn’t need a lightning quick dragster to put your mark on those time slips. But of course, we can’t forget, the true blue-collar racers, the inspiration to many, the war of all wars. The AE92 Corolla versus the EP81 Starlet, two cars with engines borrowed from their more sportier siblings and held together by determination, passion, and maybe some really strong duct tape.
At the end of the day with cars spanning from the little Starlet to the monstrous thing that is Godzilla the track saw one of it’s widest ranges of times for the day with machines such as the aforenoted R33 Skyline and a very, very inconspicuous and old looking motorbike – call it a sleeper if you will – churning out 10 second ¼ mile times like KFC churns out chicken. All the way to the 18 second little Starlet that could, a car and owner who were both just happy to set a time for themselves. Deep in the middle of it all though, somewhere between the 13 and 14 second brackets something of a civil war was brewing, with that bracket over saturated with all manner of vehicles and drivers who just kept coming back for more. Hopefully this isn’t the last we’ve seen of Infinity W- I mean, 14 Second Wars.
With the sun meandering away behind the horizon and crowd and drivers alike retreating from The Base to find their way home, or to a bar, another chapter had ended on yet another more than successful Time Line Events event. While racing might not be at it’s healthiest yet, so long as it continues to lean on the ever-reliable crutches of Time Line Events and receive a healthy dose of participation, soon it’ll be running again.
