Life holds many mysteries for me. Does water really twirl down the plughole in the other direction in New Zealand? Who invented chips? What was Damon Hill thinking when he tried to go down the inside of Michael Schumacher at Adelaide in 1994? Is that relief in my girlfriend's eyes when she says goodbye as I head out of the front door?
But, right here and now, I'm trying to work out how I became a rally champion last season. Yes, you read that right, I, Jim Holder, am the Formula 1000 Novice driving champion of 2005. Behind those spectacles and that scruffy hair is a title winner. Next month I'll be getting the silverware with which to bore everyone for ever more.
Jim Holder (Nissan Micra) © LAT |
To be perfectly honest, I had no idea I was even in the title fight. I only did three events in the ten-round series and I ended one of them halfway around the first stage with my co-driver hanging above me from his seatbelts. He wasn't very happy because his foot hurt. I wasn't very happy because I'd trashed my second Micra in less than 12 months. My co-driver's foot recovered, my car didn't.
This wasn't the driving of a champion. But as things turned out, it seems very few people decided to enter my class in the championship, and those that did were almost as accident prone as me.