Another Top Speed ONBOARD | Fausto BORMOLINI | Nova Proto NP01 Mugen | Pure Speed Sound
Thanks to Fausto Bormolini
#hillclimb #bormolini Apoio @nortecarautomoveis @myp0wer @climasolutions.pt @godrive.pt
Hello everyone. Given the warm reception you gave to my Saint Ursanne video, I thought of posting the one from the next race, which was in Ilirska Bistrica in Slovenia. This time, instead of telling you about the race, I want to share a story that marked a turning point in my racing career.
It was 2012, and until that point, I was a good performer in wet races with the F3000, where I had achieved a victory at Ecce Homo in 2006 and won two race heats in 2007 and 2008. I had won the trials and was confident I could do well. That day it was raining heavily, and Renzo, who started ahead of me, spun at the chicane braking and was sent back. I crossed paths with him while I was in the car, getting ready to start, and I asked him: "Renzo, how's the road?" Renzo, I remember it as if it were now, told me, "The road is just wet, no puddles, go all out!"
At that moment, Benes was leading, but he had slowed down by about 7 seconds per kilometer from the dry trials, and I knew my standard in very wet races was close to 6 seconds per kilometer, so I was very confident I could do better. Encouraged by Renzo's words, I started focused and determined to make the most of the first stretch of the race up to the chicane. First, second, third, fourth gear (back then we only had five gears), I take the right-hand bend, and then disaster strikes. I hit a massive puddle of water that lifts the car and causes it to hydroplane. In a split second, I find myself turned 180° and can distinctly see the start banner, hundreds of meters away, while the car is still moving at high speed, but backward.
At that moment, I realize that, right at that point, on the inside of the curve, there are two large trees on the sides of the road, and there are no guardrails. I brace myself for an impact that scares me because I’ve never had that kind of accident before. I don’t know when or how it will happen, or how severe the impact will be, but I can’t do anything—I’m just a passenger at the mercy of events. An interminable moment passes that I believe didn’t last more than a second, and then I feel myself lift off, see the two trees moving away from me, and find myself in an open farm field. I feel the bottom of the car scraping, sinking into the ground as the car slows down and finally stops after about seventy meters. Then there’s silence. I realize not only that I didn’t get hurt, but also that the damage to the car will be limited, so I get out of the car with the attitude of a show-off: “Nothing special happened, all under control…”
But the reckoning comes later, and it is very heavy. From that day on, every time I face a wet course, I drive as if I expect, at any moment, to do another 180° and find myself with the car shooting backward like a runaway missile, just like in Bistrica in 2012… But I do not give up; each time I think that the next time won’t be like this, that I will overcome this fear, that it’s just a matter of mind, but it has never happened… I believe that many of you will find this story strange, boring, or incomprehensible, or you might say, "Why do you even do it?" And I answer that, deep down, it is just the passion that my father passed on to me and that is now an integral part of my life. Maybe one day it won’t be anymore, but now is now… Good night, everyone, my friends.
