Wednesday, September 17, 2008

In my ongoing sociological investigations of this island's native inhabitants, I attended what is known in the local dialect as a banger race. See figure 1 for an example.


Figure 1: A video demonstrating the subgenre of banger races called caravan racing.

It was a pleasurable experience and my inner 10 year smiled with glee as transmission fluid and tire rubber flew into my face. Above the simple pleasure of crashing metal and speeding vehicles, I loved watching the woman counting the laps, waving the flags and directing the race. As the leading cars sped past her she would point and signal their position: first, second, third etc. She did it with flicks and twists of the wrist as eloquent as a belly dancer's. Every movement she made as she juggled the thousand tasks of her position was done with a grace that seemed out of place amongst the raw growling power of the cars zipping past.

2 comments:

  1. Hey my American friend, old cars are called bangers. When they are raced to destruction it is called, 'Stock Car Racing'. Them locals was having you on boy. Oh, and racing caravans to destruction is called madness.

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  2. I am afraid I must disagree. Stock car racing is another, and slightly more civilised race. They had those at this race track as well.

    As for madness, that is called Siamese Banger Racing (see figure 2)

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFhbIROGDg8

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