Sunday's hot again, and it passes in a blur. Starts with disaster - overnight condensation has smeared our lovingly applied stickers. New ones are affixed, ink stains are polished out. The living legend that is Murray Walker passes by, judging on creativity. We get seven out of 20. The other vintage racer in the line-up gets 17. You know, I've always thought that that Ted Kravitz was really good on the telly... Actually, I can't really complain: given that we'll be racing against an ice-cream van, a speed camera protruding from a bush, and a seven-foot-long whale, something that looks like a car, albeit a shiny one, is perhaps not the most inventive creation in the world.
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| Some 50,000 people watched Matt race |
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Races get underway at 1:00pm, so there's plenty of time for spectating before our turn. Pre-race interviews are by Sky Sports' Georgie Thompson, who's pretty adept at working the crowd, and ex-Big Breakfast bloke Mike McClean, generally considered almost as funny as getting shot. Post-race interviews are by Ted Kravitz, while Murray Walker does race commentary. I can't quite believe it: Murray Walker is going to commentate on a race that
I'm in. A former boss of mine watching the heats informs me that performance 'is all in the push.' Andy and Tom are equipped with broomsticks for the very purpose. By the time we're hoisted and lined-up ready to race, it's nearly four.
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| Thanks to a mighty push, 4Car heads the ice-cream van, the whale and the speed camera |
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Tension mounts in the 4Car camp. We're lined up on the right of the four racers. Handshakes and good wishes have been exchanged. Red light, orange light, green light: Go, Go, Go! The boys push well, and I'm off to a flyer. The speed camera threatens on the down-ramp, but a bearing breaks on their kart and slows them to fourth. Through my helmet I can hear Walker's commentary: I'm well in the lead. The man who welled-up in front of millions when Damon Hill won the 1996 F1 championship is saying
that I'm leading a race. Trust me, days do not get much better than this.
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| Matt steers 4Car racer between the straw bales |
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Glance over shoulder reveals clear track. I veer left for the kink, right round the roundabout, left through the gap, first past the post and slam into the bales at the bottom. Tell Ted I'm pleased, despite knowing we won't make the top 20. Who cares: Murray Walker's commentated on me winning a race in front of 50,000 people. The kart's lifted out, helmet and pads are returned, and that's it. Two weeks of building, and it's all over about as quickly as reading this paragraph, although we might make a brief appearance on ITV1's coverage of the race, at 2:15pm this Saturday.
