divtext-align: center""Reveling in race
The first drag race of its kind drew huge crowds which the organisers had probably not anticipated
By Aziz Omar
Loud roaring sounds, clouds of smoke and dust, intense speeds and thumping music are all excellent elements for an exhilarating experience. For the past couple of years in Lahore, spurred on by films such as TheFast and the Furious franchise, phenomenon of street racing has been serving as an outlet for the rush associated with throttling an engine and unleashing its power through spinning tyres. However, all such instances of street racing had been deemed illegal and what had been lamentable was the lack of a proper venue where race car drivers could compete in an organised manner.
The first of its kind drag race was held on the 1st of February recently. It promised just such an opportunity. The event had been organised by the Tourism Development Corporation of Punjab (TDCP), with the venue initially being a strip of Gulberg Main Boulevard that was later changed to Walton Airport. Though this option turned out to be stellar when it came to the requirement for open spaces and that too for a good part of the day, the concrete laden surface of the airstrip wasn’t exactly suited to high speeds as much as the tarmac would have proven to be.
Nevertheless, as I made my way towards the now soon to be defunct Walton Aerodrome, the lines of cars also moving towards it started a good one or two kilometers in the narrow lanes leading up to its entrance. After moving at snail’s pace for a while, I decided to park my car in the first available parking spot amongst the rest of the vehicles lining the sides of the streets and set out on foot. Close to the venue, the number of pedestrians grew and as I advanced towards the airfield with the rest of the flow, I found out that a huge crowd of people had already been thronging the vicinity of the race track.
Even though TDCP had made some arrangements for the spectators by erecting tents and placing chairs, they neither could accommodate the thousands that had come to watch nor did they provide a decent view of the racetrack. An ideal solution in this venue’s case would have been ad hoc stadium style seating replicated by step-like seating structures. Nonetheless, this did not deter the teeming visitors from standing along the track on either side for hours. The otherwise jarring noises of revving engines were turning out to be music to the ears of the watchers as they enthusiastically cheered every successive car that passed by.
It was a great pity that the cars were not racing head to head but instead the drivers were attempting to get the shortest possible time for covering a 400-meter distance. Be it your Nissan’s Skyline GT-R, Fairlady or 350 Z, Mitsubishi’s Lancer Evolution, Toyota Supra or Corvette, all were gunning their engines to produce the maximum thrust for shooting out towards the speed sensors at the other end. "My ride was doing around 180-190 km/hr when I went past the finishing line," claimed Usman, the driver of a Subaru Impreza with a 2.5 litre turbo charged engine that churns out 300hp.
The cars of all the 57 participants had number IDs tacked onto their sides in order to keep track of their progress, especially for the official announcers/hosts of the event. These guys did fairly decent job of keeping the crowd informed of which driver was making his run, while constantly requesting the bystanders to come back to the seating areas away from the tracks, all in vain. One of the drivers, Zain, who is a student of LSE and was driving Mitsubishi Evolution 9, lamented the state of the onlookers. "The TDCP management should have anticipated the crowd numbers and their viewing preferences and made appropriate arrangements. They could have kept an entry ticket to regulate the spectators and provide better and safer seating."
There were also little offshoot car antics taking place simultaneously to the main event. One’s ears would perk up at the screeching of driver attempting to ‘drift’ (move sideways, looks very cool) or undergo a donut (move sideways in a circle, looks even cooler). Then there was the arrival of two megastars of the sports car world, a Ferrari 360 and an Aston Martin DB9 that though didn’t race, had the onlookers drooling to their hearts’ content.
As the light started fading, it seemed that everybody’s desire of witnessing a head-to-head car race would finally transpire. However, all those hopes were dashed as it became next to impossible to make the crowds move a safe distance back to make way for the two hurtling vehicles. Rana Mansur, another participant in the drag race claimed that he had invested around Rs. 2 Lac in his Mitsubishi Evo 8 just for this event and would have put in more had it allowed for two cars to race side by side. "I am one of the older racing enthusiasts and so am hopeful that such events shall improve with time".
Exactly two years ago, I had written an article that was published in this very place about a motley crew of speed fanatics racing their mean machines across the roads of Lahore. They were always in search of new venues, of deserted roads to hold their races but soon would be chased away by the police authorities. An official recognition of this "illegal" sport in the form of this Drag Race for the first time is a highly welcome sign.
Yet tragically, the venue of the Walton Airstrip itself is soon to give way to commercial high-rise buildings as the Punjab Government has cancelled the lease of this land. With the hope of a standardised race track also in doubt, that was going to be part of the sports city project started by the previous Punjab government, the amateur racers might have to revert back to their illegal activities. The current government of Mian Shahbaz Sharif has to take stock of the huge potential of generating revenue from this sport, the popularity of which has been well-established by the turnout. Similar to cricket, hockey and football stadiums, venues for staging car races, both in the street racing and Formula One style have to be constructed to foster this activity. The powers that be have to realise that even if they need to capitalise on a venture, a recreational rather than a commercial one would pay more dividends both from a monetary as well as a societal standpoint.
Courtesy
http://jang.com.pk/thenews/feb2009-weekly/nos-08-02-2009/she.htm#1